AUS: Foster's lines up craft wine beer for Australia

By Blair Speedy | 21 August 2007

The Foster's Group has launched a new craft beer in its home market.

The Australian company said today (21 August) that the beer is made with sugar derived from Shiraz, to create a "wine-influenced" brew.

Pepperjack Hand Crafted Ale uses grape juice drawn from the must left over during production at Foster's Pepperjack winery in South Australia's Barossa Valley.

Unlike a fruit-flavoured lambic beer, the juice is added to the kettle at the end of the boiling process to provide a further source of fermentable sugar and flavour to the mixture of wheat and barley malts.

The beer, which retails for A$17.99 (US$14.45) per six pack, carries 4.7% abv and is described as exhibiting "intense fruit-driven aromatics''.

It is produced by Foster's Matilda Bay subsidiary under the guidance of Nigel Dolan, winemaker at Pepperjack.

Sectors: Beer & cider, Wine

Companies: Foster’s