Ballarat Bitter
Encyclopedia
Alcohol by volume
Alcohol by volume is a standard measure of how much alcohol is contained in an alcoholic beverage .The ABV standard is used worldwide....
) Australian beer
Australian beer
Beer arrived in Australia at the beginning of British colonisation. In 2004, Australia was ranked fourth internationally in per capita beer consumption, at around 110 litres per year, though considerably lower in terms of total per capita alcohol consumption...
, originally brewed in Ballarat
Ballarat, Victoria
Ballarat is a city in the state of Victoria, Australia, approximately west-north-west of the state capital Melbourne situated on the lower plains of the Great Dividing Range and the Yarrowee River catchment. It is the largest inland centre and third most populous city in the state and the fifth...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
by the Ballarat Brewing Company. The beer is of the bitter top fermented ale
Bitter (beer)
Bitter is an English term for pale ale. Bitters vary in colour from gold to dark amber and in strength from 3% to 7% alcohol by volume.-Brief history:...
variety, and was traditionally sold in 750ml longnecked bottles, with the label featuring the character "Ballarat Bertie", who was conceived in 1926 on a train journey between Melbourne and Sydney by a Ballarat Brewing Company director and an advertising agency.
The Ballarat Brewing Company beer division was bought out by Carlton & United Beverages
Carlton & United Beverages
Carlton & United Breweries is an Australian brewing company based in Abbotsford, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. In 1983 it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Elders IXL and CUB was delisted. In 1990, Elders IXL renamed to the Foster's Group, and in July 2004, CUB changed its name to Carlton and...
(or Carlton & United Breweries as it was known at the time, commonly abbreviated to 'CUB') in 1989, and the Ballarat bottling operations subsequently closed. The Ballarat Brewing Company itself, board of directors and ownership of 160 pubs across Victoria continued until taken over by Fosters Group in 1997 with its buyout of remaining shares.
In December 2006, following a request by the crew of the Anzac class frigate HMAS Ballarat
HMAS Ballarat (FFH 155)
HMAS Ballarat is an Anzac class frigate of the Royal Australian Navy . The frigate was laid down in 2000 and commissioned into the RAN in mid-2004...
(which uses the caricature of "Ballarat Bertie" from the label as a mascot) to Catherine King, the Member of Parliament
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
representing the Division of Ballarat
Division of Ballarat
The Division of Ballarat is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria. The division was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. It is named for the provincial city of Ballarat....
, Foster's Group
Foster's Group
Foster's Group is a beer group with interests in brewing and soft drinks. Foster's Group is the brewer of the Foster's Lager. Foster's Group Limited is a publicly-listed company on the Australian Securities Exchange and is based in Melbourne, Victoria...
(CUB's parent company) created a limited run of the beer. An initial release of 40 pallets (4,800 slabs, 115,200 individual cans) sold out within days of release, with $1 from every slab donated to the United Way charities. A second run of 50 pallets was released shortly after.
In November 2011 another limited edition release of the beer was brewed by CUB, with the 300 kegs being distributed between 26 licensed premises in Ballarat for the Ballarat Cup weekend. A limited supply of cans will be available the following month.