Beer Radar
By John Krüger
A nation of young sugar ants?
(First published by Wine Business Magazine in 2008)
With all the talk about alcopops, binge drinking and healthy living, it looks like there’s never been a better time to hit the 18-35yr old market with a new alternative. Something modern, something cool, something new, something with substance. Fusion Brewing is attempting a new angle with good old beer. Their Bluebottle beer is designed to match seafood, and the Firefly beer made for spicy food. We tried both beers and were impressed with the amount and quality of hop flavour and aroma. If Little Creatures have proved anything with their fabulous Pale Ale, it’s the fact that Aussie drinkers aren’t scared of bitterness, hop flavour, and aroma in their beers. Fusion Brewing have taken the next step by mentioning the fact that their beers have an “understated” sweetness. We admit that even Stella Artois is a little too sweet for our tastes, but we’d replace the word “understated” with “damn”. It’s too sweet for us to handle any more than one of the dinky 300ml bottles, but let’s face it, going by the pre-tax-hike sales of RTD’s, the younger portion of the Australian population seem to have a palate akin to insects. Huge 440ml cans of cheap perfumy Bourbon and sickly cola line most of the shelves of the bottlo’s now days which is surely an indication that although maybe not our preferred pint, Fusion could be onto a winner and take modern brewing to the next scary step. Has Beer Radar just coined the phrase “beerpops”?
