Anyone who has looked at the badges on the taps of their local will have noticed that the days of walking into a bar and asking for a pot of ‘heavy’ or ‘Gold’ are well and truly over. Such are the beer drinking options available today that many are starting to worry that beer is going down the path of wine and becoming a bit of a poser’s drink, something consumed by over styled metrosexuals in effete inner city bars.
Fosters tried to capitalise on this perception to restore the fortunes of its fast-flagging VB brand last year when it ran a series of ads to the tune of Neil Diamond’s song ‘Hello again’, poking fun at blokes who use hand cream, wear lycra and, presumably, drink craft beer.
It didn’t stop the sales slide for the once dominant national brand.
Perhaps the best gauge as to how broadly craft beer has spread is that one of South-East Queensland’s best beer bars can now be found at Yamanto, near Ipswich.
The Yamanto Tavern started testing the craft beer waters last year putting on a pale ale made by local brewer Wade Curtis’ 4 Hearts Brewing. So well did his 4 Degrees Pale Ale go down with the locals that Yamanto is now extending the bar and will soon offer 24 different craft beers on tap.
Yamanto’s manager Peter Coultas said that the response to his beer offering has been overwhelming.
“We gave Wade’s pale ale a try and it just took off,” he said.
“These days when our regulars come in and ask for ‘a pot of 4’ they mean 4 Hearts Pale Ale not Fourex.”
“It gave us confidence to fill our fridges with other beers and put them on tap, and our customers love it.
“We recently took all of the mainstream beers off tap and didn’t have a complaint.”
Peter said the biggest surprise was the wide range of people that they had attracted with their beer selection.
“We recently had a group of ladies in their 60s come in holding an ad we had run in the local paper advertising the beers,” he laughed.
“They wanted to try them and they spent an afternoon drinking Stone & Wood’s Pacific Ale.
“Craft beer doesn’t have a specific demographic, everyone seems to get excited about it.”
The Yamanto has gone from just offering beer to offering tasting paddles that feature three beer samples with three matching food samples.
And the best thing is there’s no need for you to sport a hipster moustache or use hand cream to get into the Yamanto …you just need to be game to try some new beers.