Official: beer sales overtaken by wine (UK)

Driven by the Bridget Jones generation's thirst for Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio, wine has officially overtaken beer to become Britain's favourite choice of tipple.

A new report to be published this week will reveal that for the first time British shoppers are spending more on wine than on beer. An estimated £1.97bn a year is now spent on wine, compared to £1.79bn on beer.

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"Beer" on Breakfast - TV One (29 July 2005)

Beer Gets Sophisticated

See an interview with Dave Logsdon and Colin Paige at the Mac's Shed 22 Wellington Brewing Company.

Click to see the video

DB offers free beer to celebrate birthday

DB is going further and treating the nation today, offering a free beer to all New Zealanders over 18.

To get their free beer, drinkers need to present a coupon clipped from any of 12 newspapers around the country to get one of five brands - Amstel Light, Tui, Export Gold, DB Draught and Monteith's.

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The Sun Saves the Day - Yet Again

A follow up to last week's post about a proposed EU ban...

Makes me proud to be a CAMRA member.

Lift your jugs to The Sun
By TIM SPANTON

LET’S have large ones all round to celebrate, folks — The Sun has saved Britain’s busty barmaids.

EU killjoys have backed down over plans to make our girls cover up by banning low-cut tops.

The Brussels bureaucrats surrendered in the face of The Sun’s double-barrelled attack.
We exposed their scheme in the best place possible — The Sun’s legendary Page 3.

We vowed to give big-boobed barmaids all the support they would need to beat the ban.
It was due to be rubber-stamped by the EU parliament next month under the Optical Radiation Directive.

This would have banned barmaids and waitresses from showing cleavage in case they were sunburnt when collecting glasses.

The plan caused outrage among real ale group Camra and in Munich, home of the Oktoberfest beer festival.

The city’s mayor Christian Ude even threatened to boycott the festival — unheard of in its 195 years.

But yesterday the EU backed down and agreed pub and restaurant workers would be exempt from the daft directive.

The EU’s representative in Munich, Paul-Joachim Kubosch, confirmed: “It will not include beer garden waitresses.”

Belgian monks run out of the world's best beer

Monks at a Belgian abbey have been forced to stop selling their famous beer after it was voted the best in the world and was promptly sold out.

The abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren in western Belgium is home to some 30 Cistercian and Trappist monks who lead a life of seclusion, prayer, manual labour -- and beer-brewing.

A survey of thousands of beer enthusiasts from 65 countries on the RateBeer Web site (www.ratebeer.com) in June rated the Westvleteren 12 beer as the world's best.

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Kiwi beer sales let Lion down

Full-year operating profits in New Zealand could be down 18 per cent on last year, the company warned, with traditional beer brand sales falling sharply.

Total beer consumption in New Zealand was down about 3 per cent last year. Premium brands, including Steinlager and Mac's, were up 11 per cent. Other brands, including Speight's, Lion Red and Waikato Draught, were down between 7 per cent and 8 per cent, Mr Tomlinson said.

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Beer festival barmaids face cleavage ban

BUXOM barmaids in Bavaria could be forced to cover up if a "loony" EU directive comes into force over levels of sun exposure, it emerged today.

The proposal, currently working its way through the European Parliament, would force bosses to monitor how much sunlight their employees receive in a working day.

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Mr Geoff Griggs hard at work judging one of 161 beers at the New Zealand Beer Awards 2005, held last week in Wellington

BrewNZ 2005 Awards Results

New Zealand Beer Awards 2005 Results

Only 9 Gold Medals were awarded for the 161 beers entered

Gold - Galbraith's Grafton Porter
Gold - Emerson's Oatmeal Stout
Gold - Cock & Bull Fuggles Best Bitter
Gold - Cock & Bull Monk's Habit
Gold - Galbraith's Resurrection
Gold - Emerson's Taieri George
Gold - Oud Reserve Limburg Brewing Company

Gold - Waikato Draught Lion Brewery (NZ style draught)
Gold - Biere Larue Export Foster's Vietnam (not available in NZ)

These results reinforce the reputation of the top brewers in the country - Cock & Bull, Emerson's, Galbraith's and Limburg.

Full results at BrewNZ