A.G.M., page-8

Possibly not what you wanted but I thought it was interesting ..
If $3.75 is on the cards I am buying more .....
..Maybe even if it isn’t I will buy more



https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/brisbanes-beer-battles-20110923-1kojx.html
“Brisbane's beer battles

By Katherine Feeney
23 September 2011 — 1:21pm

While the imminent Foster's takeover might remind Queenslanders even their famous XXXX is controlled by overseas interests, at least they can draw comfort in the familiarity of Milton brewery and the beer it produces.

But a new documentary shows it could have been a very different story if a pair of Irish shopkeepers or a Perth tycoon had their way.



A History Channel documentary on the history of beer reveals how iconic Queensland beer XXXX almost became XXXXX in a bitter brewing war.

Your Shout: A History of Beer is a two-part miniseries airing on the History channel that sheds light on the pocked past of beer making in Australia, including the tradition of brewing in Queensland.

Producer Adam Franklin says he was surprised to discover that the two brewers who would eventually merge under the Castlemaine Perkins banner were Victorian, not to mention that the four Xs could may well have been five.



American G.I.s on the back of a Castlemaine Brewery truck in Charlotte Street, Brisbane, 1942.CREDIT:MARK MULLER

Franklin is referring to the big brewing families of the state, the Fitzgeralds and the Perkins, who shared beer interests in Victoria at the 1860s.

Though early investors in the Fitzgerald's Castlemaine town brewery, the Irish Perkins brothers, Patrick and Thomas, sold off their shares and went north to build Toowoomba's Downs Brewery in 1868.

They then took over Mary Street's Stanbridge and Harrison Brewery in 1872, a year after their former business partners had expanded their Castlemaine brand to Brisbane, establishing operations in Milton.

At the time, the Perkins were producing a XXX bitter ale, so labelled for the strength of the beer.



City Brewery owned by Perkins & Co., Brisbane, 1872-1882.

“Then the Fitzgeralds brought out a XXXX and they patented it,” Franklin says of a move that also saw the Milton site immortalised on the logo.

“And then the other mob [the Perkins] put out a XXXXX, but it was already too late, they couldn't handle the competition and strength of Castlemaine.

“[In 1928] they eventually merged, and XXXXX was gone for good.”

But that wasn't to be the only public stoush that threatened to disrupt the drinking habits of a market, which Franklin describes as fiercely loyal and parochial.


In 1985, Alan Bond decided to expand his Perth-based Swan Brewery east, spending $1.2 billion to buy the Castlemaine operation, recently merged with Toohey's, and dropped Perkins from its name.

“When Bond took over from Perth, he took the XXXX sign down from the Milton brewery in Brisbane and he put the Bond Company logo up there,” Franklin says.

“And from what I hear, it made the Queenslanders quite angry.”

Franklin's documentary also shows that Bond changed the logos and added a West Australian address – insults to state pride that prompted local publican Bernie Power to launch his own beer, Power's Bitter.

The beer only lasted a few years before caving to a takeover from Carlton United Breweries, Power managed to stake a 10 per cent claim in the local market heavily dominated by Castlemaine Toohey's, which was in turn snapped up by Lion Nation in 1992.


It was a period that heralded the massive changes that continue to rock the Australian beer industry and drinking culture, evidenced today by a shift in branding dominance of foreign owned brands in the market.

Franklin believes this shift has witnessed a new kind of parochialism emerge, with the line that used to divide drinkers by states now pushed to the very edges of the continent.

“I think it does mean now we consider local to be the Australian back yard, not the state, [because] we hate the fact we're losing our Australian icons,” he says.

“When we lose anything Australian, it's a part of us that's gone.”

This has part contributed to a counter-beer culture that Franklin says is lead by boutique brewers and modern drinkers whose passion for home-grown ales goes fuses localism with gourmet tastes.


“I don't think the little brands are even out there to take on the big boys, but the boutique brewers are there, and they have a real passion about the taste, and what goes into their beer,” he says.

“You've got companies like Coopers and Little Creatures expanding - Coopers has always been strong in South Australia, but it was only in the last decade you saw them go around the nation.

“And now, with Foster's being sold, they're the biggest Australian owned brand.”

Here's cheers to that.

Your Shout: A History of Australian Beer is a two-part series on the History Channel. Episode two screens September 28 at 7.30pm AEST.”