Victoria Bitter
Encyclopedia
Victoria Bitter is one of the many iconic beers manufactured in the Australian state of Victoria. VB (Victoria Bitter) currently maintains the highest market share of all beer
sold in Australia
, both on tap and packaged. VB is brewed by Carlton & United Beverages
, (a subsidiary of Foster's Group
, brewers of Fosters Lager) in Melbourne - Victoria.Victoria Bitter was first brewed by renowned Melbourne brewer Thomas C. Moore in the early 1900's.
VB is Australia's highest selling beer and has been for more than 20 years. It sells twice as much as any other full strength beer and is the only Australian beer brand that is in the top 3 sellers in every state. VB is Australia's only billion dollar retail beer brand and sells the equivalent of one slab every second.
Despite its name, it is technically a fairly standard commercial lager
rather than a bitter
. Originally available at a strength of 4.9% ABV
, VB is now sold at an ABV of 4.6% (which is equal to virtually every other major Australian lager) and the price stayed the same when most other beers increased. The VB sold commercially in New Zealand is also 4.6% and is available in 375mls quantities in either bottles or cans.
VB is also available in New Zealand
, Bali, Indonesia, the UK
, and, to a limited extent, other countries abroad.
The beer has acquired numerous nicknames over the years.
advertising campaign featuring a very similar recording of the theme from the film The Magnificent Seven
, images of working-class Australians at work and play, and a voice-over by notable Australian actor John Meillon
. The campaign was used until quite recently. Paul Hester
, late drummer of Crowded House
, once appeared in a VB advert.
Like most Australian Lagers, VB is made using a wortstream brewing process, and uses a portion of cane sugar to thin out the body of the beer.
Currently one third of the packaged beer sales in Australia are of VB. It is available in 375 mL cans ("tinnies"), short-necked 375 mL bottles ("stubbies"), 750 mL bottles ("Long Necks", "King Browns" or "Tallies") and "Twisties", "Throwies", "Throwdowns" or "Grenades" (250 ml bottles in the State of New South Wales). As of 2005 VB also comes in 500 ml tinnies ("Lunch Greens"), which are commonly drunk by trade workers on lunch, being just enough to quench their thirst. It used to be available in the Northern Territory in a 1 litre tinnie nicknamed a 'Killer can' (Kilo can). As with all packaged beer sold in Australia it was for many years only available in 750 mL or 26 2/3 fl oz (1/6 imperial gallon) bottles, until the introduction of "stubbies" and smaller cans.
On the 6th of July, 2011, VB released the product packaged in limited edition, 1958 heritage cans. The packaging has the original artwork of the 1958 VB product, but also includes a standard ring pull on each can, something which was lacking on the original can. The alcohol strength remains at the standard 4.6%, as with normal packaged VB cans.
Gold. VB Midstrength changed its name to VB Gold in 2009 and sells over 1m cases every year and is growing strongly following its launch in late 2007.
TV builder Scott Cam
, a self-confessed VB fan, is the appointed VB Mid Ambassador.
On 24 July 2007, The Australian reported that within three months of Fosters launching VB Midstrength, market share for the full strength VB and mid VB had increased. Foster's regional marketing director Anthony Heraghty hinted at further VB brand extensions, saying Foster's was "trying to see past the big green giant".
During the 2008 Rugby League World Cup
, VB Gold was advertised on TV by Australian Rugby League legends Wally Lewis
and Gorden Tallis
.
In 2005, VB had started a promotion where David Boon
became the face of Victoria Bitter (VB) beer for its 2005/06 summer advertising campaign, called Boonanza. Part of the promotion was the sale of a talking David Boon figurine with purchases of cartons of beer, which would make comments when prompted by Channel Nine
commentary.
In late 2006, the Boonanza promotion returned as Boonanza II for the 2006-07 Ashes series
. The promotion now included former England cricket captain Ian Botham
as a talking figure, who would interact alongside an updated David Boon figure.
For the 2007-08 Australian cricket series, Shane Warne
took over as VB spokesperson from David Boon. Warne will also have a talking figurine as part of a new Warnie promotion, taking over from the highly successful Talking Boony dolls from the two previous Boonanza promotions.
VB has invested heavily in sponsorships of Australian rugby league
. It is currently the official beer of the NRL
, the naming rights sponsor for NRL Friday Night Football and the main sponsor of the Australian national rugby league team, the Kangaroos.
Victoria Bitter was also the main sponsor of the Australian Tri-Series for five years between 2001-02 to 2005-06. During this time the series was renamed The VB Series.
Victoria Bitter currently sponsors the away Test, ODI and Twenty20 teams for the Australia national cricket team.
The previous advertising campaign was called the Stubby Symphony, where 100 members of the Melbourne and Victorian orchestras play the theme from The Magnificent Seven
only using VB beer bottles. The campaign was created by George Patterson Y&R
in Melbourne.
VB launched a new advertising campaign in Australia in July 2009 to coincide with the SBS
television broadcast of the 2009 The Ashes
cricket series. They will drop the famous tag "For a hard earned thirst.." for "VB – The Drinking Beer".
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
sold in 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...
, both on tap and packaged. VB is brewed 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...
, (a subsidiary of 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...
, brewers of Fosters Lager) in Melbourne - Victoria.Victoria Bitter was first brewed by renowned Melbourne brewer Thomas C. Moore in the early 1900's.
VB is Australia's highest selling beer and has been for more than 20 years. It sells twice as much as any other full strength beer and is the only Australian beer brand that is in the top 3 sellers in every state. VB is Australia's only billion dollar retail beer brand and sells the equivalent of one slab every second.
Despite its name, it is technically a fairly standard commercial lager
Lager
Lager is a type of beer made from malted barley that is brewed and stored at low temperatures. There are many types of lager; pale lager is the most widely-consumed and commercially available style of beer in the world; Pilsner, Bock, Dortmunder Export and Märzen are all styles of lager...
rather than a bitter
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:...
. Originally available at a strength of 4.9% ABV
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....
, VB is now sold at an ABV of 4.6% (which is equal to virtually every other major Australian lager) and the price stayed the same when most other beers increased. The VB sold commercially in New Zealand is also 4.6% and is available in 375mls quantities in either bottles or cans.
VB is also available in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Bali, Indonesia, the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and, to a limited extent, other countries abroad.
The beer has acquired numerous nicknames over the years.
History
The origins of Victoria Bitter date back to Victoria Brewery founder Thomas C. Moore, who developed the recipe in the early 1900s. The beer began to gain wide popularity in the mid 1960s with an innovative televisionTelevision
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
advertising campaign featuring a very similar recording of the theme from the film The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven is an American Western film directed by John Sturges, and released in 1960. It is a fictional tale of a group of seven American gunmen who are hired to protect a small agricultural village in Mexico from a group of marauding Mexican bandits...
, images of working-class Australians at work and play, and a voice-over by notable Australian actor John Meillon
John Meillon
John Meillon was an Australian actor, most widely known outside Australia for his role as Walter Reilly in the films "Crocodile" Dundee and "Crocodile" Dundee II. He also voiced Victoria Bitter beer commercials until his death.-Biography:Meillon was born in Mosman, Sydney...
. The campaign was used until quite recently. Paul Hester
Paul Hester
Paul Newell Hester was an Australian musician and television personality; he was the drummer for the related bands Split Enz and Crowded House.-The early years:...
, late drummer of Crowded House
Crowded House
Crowded House are a rock band, formed in Melbourne, Australia and led by New Zealand singer-songwriter Neil Finn. Finn is the primary songwriter and creative director of the band, having led it through several incarnations, drawing members from New Zealand , Australia and the United States...
, once appeared in a VB advert.
Like most Australian Lagers, VB is made using a wortstream brewing process, and uses a portion of cane sugar to thin out the body of the beer.
Currently one third of the packaged beer sales in Australia are of VB. It is available in 375 mL cans ("tinnies"), short-necked 375 mL bottles ("stubbies"), 750 mL bottles ("Long Necks", "King Browns" or "Tallies") and "Twisties", "Throwies", "Throwdowns" or "Grenades" (250 ml bottles in the State of New South Wales). As of 2005 VB also comes in 500 ml tinnies ("Lunch Greens"), which are commonly drunk by trade workers on lunch, being just enough to quench their thirst. It used to be available in the Northern Territory in a 1 litre tinnie nicknamed a 'Killer can' (Kilo can). As with all packaged beer sold in Australia it was for many years only available in 750 mL or 26 2/3 fl oz (1/6 imperial gallon) bottles, until the introduction of "stubbies" and smaller cans.
On the 6th of July, 2011, VB released the product packaged in limited edition, 1958 heritage cans. The packaging has the original artwork of the 1958 VB product, but also includes a standard ring pull on each can, something which was lacking on the original can. The alcohol strength remains at the standard 4.6%, as with normal packaged VB cans.
VB Gold
In 2007, Fosters launched a new, midstrength version of VB called VB Midstrength with an alcohol volume of 3.5%, in order to capitalise on the growing market for midstrength beers, currently dominated by XXXXXXXX
XXXX is a brand of Australian beer brewed in Milton, Brisbane by Queensland brewers, Castlemaine Perkins. It enjoys wide popularity in the state of Queensland, where it is commonly found on-tap in pubs and bars....
Gold. VB Midstrength changed its name to VB Gold in 2009 and sells over 1m cases every year and is growing strongly following its launch in late 2007.
TV builder Scott Cam
Scott Cam
Scott Cam is an Australian television personality appearing on several lifestyle programmes on the Nine Network.-Early career:Scott is a qualified carpenter who did a three-year apprenticeship with his brother’s business....
, a self-confessed VB fan, is the appointed VB Mid Ambassador.
On 24 July 2007, The Australian reported that within three months of Fosters launching VB Midstrength, market share for the full strength VB and mid VB had increased. Foster's regional marketing director Anthony Heraghty hinted at further VB brand extensions, saying Foster's was "trying to see past the big green giant".
During the 2008 Rugby League World Cup
2008 Rugby League World Cup
The 2008 Rugby League World Cup was the thirteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup since the inauguration of the tournament in 1954, and the first since the 2000 event...
, VB Gold was advertised on TV by Australian Rugby League legends Wally Lewis
Wally Lewis
Walter James "Wally" Lewis AM is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer and coach. Currently a commentator of the sport, he is widely regarded as the greatest rugby league player of all time...
and Gorden Tallis
Gorden Tallis
Gorden James Tallis is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played from 1992 to 2004. He captained Australia and Queensland as well as the Brisbane Broncos club, with whom he won three premierships and one Clive Churchill Medal...
.
VB RAW
In September 2009 VB released VB RAW to compete in the low carb market. The alcohol volume is 4.5%. VB Raw was discontinued in late 2010 due to poor sales.Marketing and promotion
The early slogan from the 60s "For a hard earned thirst, you need a big cold beer, and the best cold beer is Vic, Victoria Bitter" was replaced by "VB – The Drinking Beer" as part of a marketing strategy to reposition VB up-market.In 2005, VB had started a promotion where David Boon
David Boon
David Clarence Boon MBE , nicknamed Boony, is a former Australian cricketer whose international playing career spanned the years 1984–1995...
became the face of Victoria Bitter (VB) beer for its 2005/06 summer advertising campaign, called Boonanza. Part of the promotion was the sale of a talking David Boon figurine with purchases of cartons of beer, which would make comments when prompted by Channel Nine
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
commentary.
In late 2006, the Boonanza promotion returned as Boonanza II for the 2006-07 Ashes series
2006-07 Ashes series
The 2006–07 cricket series between Australia and England for the Ashes was played in Australia from 23 November 2006 to 5 January 2007. Australia won the series and regained the Ashes that had been lost to England in the 2005 Ashes series...
. The promotion now included former England cricket captain Ian Botham
Ian Botham
Sir Ian Terence Botham OBE is a former England Test cricketer and Test team captain, and current cricket commentator. He was a genuine all-rounder with 14 centuries and 383 wickets in Test cricket, and remains well-known by his nickname "Beefy"...
as a talking figure, who would interact alongside an updated David Boon figure.
For the 2007-08 Australian cricket series, Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
took over as VB spokesperson from David Boon. Warne will also have a talking figurine as part of a new Warnie promotion, taking over from the highly successful Talking Boony dolls from the two previous Boonanza promotions.
VB has invested heavily in sponsorships of Australian rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
. It is currently the official beer of the NRL
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...
, the naming rights sponsor for NRL Friday Night Football and the main sponsor of the Australian national rugby league team, the Kangaroos.
Victoria Bitter was also the main sponsor of the Australian Tri-Series for five years between 2001-02 to 2005-06. During this time the series was renamed The VB Series.
Victoria Bitter currently sponsors the away Test, ODI and Twenty20 teams for the Australia national cricket team.
The previous advertising campaign was called the Stubby Symphony, where 100 members of the Melbourne and Victorian orchestras play the theme from The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven is an American Western film directed by John Sturges, and released in 1960. It is a fictional tale of a group of seven American gunmen who are hired to protect a small agricultural village in Mexico from a group of marauding Mexican bandits...
only using VB beer bottles. The campaign was created by George Patterson Y&R
George Patterson Y&R
George Patterson Y&R is an Australasian advertising agency with offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Auckland. The agency was formed in 2005 when the international advertising holding conglomerate WPP Group acquired the Australian marketing communications company, The...
in Melbourne.
VB launched a new advertising campaign in Australia in July 2009 to coincide with the SBS
Special Broadcasting Service
The Special Broadcasting Service is a hybrid-funded Australian public broadcasting radio and television network. The stated purpose of SBS is "to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect...
television broadcast of the 2009 The Ashes
The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in international cricket and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues...
cricket series. They will drop the famous tag "For a hard earned thirst.." for "VB – The Drinking Beer".