Beer Radar for TWTW Friday 6th of August 2010
By John Krüger
The Germans are coming!
This time not with oompa bands, rallies and fanfare, but sneakily. The Coles owned Liquorland chain has quietly stocked it’s shelves with two new German beers. There’s not a mention in any press we’ve seen and even their website is lacking in any information, but when we heard a tipoff about the beers we staked out our local Liquorland and did some beer reconnaissance.
The first beer we spotted was Henninger Lager. It’s 4.8%abv in little 330ml green hand-grenade bottles and bloody easy to drink, maybe too easy. The Henninger brewery in Frankfurt has a history going back to 1655 so they know what they’re doing. Our local store has them at $32.99 per case or two for $62. Quality German beer at prices that make the local beers look like a rip-off.
Next we found the Radeberger Pilsner. Again at 4.8%abv but in brown 330ml boutique style bottles. This beer makes us very very happy. If only Coopers 62 had 33 IBU’s (International Bitterness Units) to wake up the mouth and inform the brain that we’ve purchased a decent pilsner with real flavour. This is in the top 10 consumed pilsners in Germany but those buggers are spoiled for beer choice. Our local Liquorland is selling them for $42.99 a case, while Coopers 62 retails elsewhere for around $49.99. Those Germans are cunning!
