Brewers look to dispel myths – some of Australia’s leading beers go natural
In response to a recent survey establishing a lack of awareness of beer ingredients, a group of brewers from Lion Nathan have teamed to ‘set the record straight’ and show consumers that their product is natural.
A PureProfile national survey of over 1,000 Australian adults, conducted earlier this month, discovered a staggering nine out of every ten consumers were unaware of the ingredients in beer. To counter this lack of knowledge some of Lion Nathan’s most popular beers will now carry a stamp, “Natural Beer Promise: Brewed in Compliance”, which will represent that the product has been naturally brewed using only five natural ingredients (water, malted grains, yeast, cane sugar and hops) and free from artificial additives and preservatives.
“Australians are more conscious of what they put into their bodies and we’ve found beer is no exception. We believe we have truly raised the bar when it comes to brewing beer naturally in Australia by creating a robust set of brewing criteria to ensure some of the most popular beers in the country meet The Natural Beer Promise,” said Bill Taylor, Chief Brewer at Lion Nathan. “The taste, quality and appearance of these beers haven’t changed. We’ve simply taken out some additives, improved the way we do things, and gone back to the basics of brewing with only five natural ingredients.”
The beers involved in the campaign include Tooheys New, Tooheys Old, XXXX GOLD, XXXX BITTER, West End Draught and Swan Draught.
“I think most people know that the key ingredient for wine is grapes but we found few people actually knew what went into beer or understood that the process for making it can be quite natural,” Mr Taylor advised. “Brewing beer is a centuries-old process. We may use more efficient, modern equipment but we still brew in much the same way.”
This is a good move.
I believe it should not be necessary however, as for some strange reason, beer is one of the few, if not the only, food or drink product that is not required by law to list ingredients.i.e. under the FSANZ Food Standards Code.
Why is this so?
Allergic responses to some local beers turned me to home brewing 20 years ago, & I am not alone in that regard.
I might add I have no regrets on that now, in hindsight.
Ian H
It’s bad enough that Australian brewing companies don’t have to disclose all the chemicals and whatever else they put in their beer. What’s really annoys me is the contemptuous Fosters ‘Made from Beer’ ad campaign for Carlton Draught which makes a lame joke of the non-disclosure. It just adds insult to the consumer’s injury.
Well done XXXX.