[Sigia-l] What's wrong down under?

[Andrew Boyd]

On 11/27/06, Ziya Oz <listera at earthlink.net> wrote:

> Since this is on-topic by way of taxonomy, what category of beer are we
> talking about here?

Ziya,

most Australian beers are, by world standards, light lagers - they fit
within a very narrow band in terms of malts/hops/base water/yeast
style and so on. Alex mentioned Coopers' beers  as being different - I
believe that the main difference with most of their ales' and the
popular VB/New brews is the hops. In recent years we've seen an
explosion of alternatives - again, most staying firmly within the
light lager category, but dark ales are becoming popular. The average
run of commercial dark ales are not the same as their European
counterparts, but they are getting better.

The real beer is out there if you know where to look for it - there
are some really quite good boutique breweries about, and an extensive
range of imported beers are available even in my local supermarket
(mind you, they also sell about 40 different types/brands of cheese,
tinned snails, and a large range of wines).

As an aside, there is talk of a beer card sorting exercise at the
upcoming Canberra web-blast - if anyone is interested in attending,
please see http://webblast.org/canberra

Cheers, Andrew