'Improvements' to Cascade Premium Lager weaken brew's alcohol content

Tasmanian brewer Cascade has changed the recipe of its flagship Premium Lager to make it more appealing to top-shelf drinkers, but the new recipe has resulted in a cut in alcohol content from 5 per cent to 4.5 per cent.

Craig MacLean, general manager of craft beer at parent company CUB, said the new recipe, which swaps imported Hersbrucker hops for Tasmanian-grown summer hops, reflected the fact that tastes had changed since the beer was first launched in 1985. Customers now preferred an easier-drinking style with a less bitter aftertaste.

The cut in alcohol content was not deliberate, he said, with brewers trying a number of different alcohol levels before deciding the 4.5 per cent brew tasted the best.

“In order for us to get a more balanced beer, it tasted best at 4.5 per cent,” he said.

Mr MacLean said the company was not concerned about repeating CUB's disastrous 2007 decision to cut the alcohol content of its best-selling Victoria Bitter from 4.9 per cent to 4.6 per cent in order to save on excise, only for drinkers to desert the watered-down brew in droves.

“VB was a financial decision, but this is about improving the beer itself,” he said.

CUB last year restored VB to full strength, resulting in a surge in sales that has restored its position as Australia's best-selling beer - a position it lost briefly to XXXX Gold, brewed by CUB's biggest rival, Lion.

Source: The Australian, 3 September 2013