North East Beer Review

This beer is on a macro beer from Australian called Victoria Bitter which is brewed by Carlton & United Breweries. This is one of Australia’s best selling beers. I wanted to try Victoria Bitter for a while as I have an appreciation of Aussie culture and would love to visit sometime. I also try to sample as many lagers as possible from around the world and Australia was a brew that I couldn’t let Fosters be the only one. So what did I think? During the course of this review I will cover the history of this beer and brewery, the pour, the taste and aroma, and finally my verdict.

The history of Victoria Bitters (VB)

VB is brewed by Carlton & United Breweries so I will cover this. Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) has roots back to the 19th century although its founding was in 1907. This was performed as a merger of several Victorian breweries. The consolidation created one of Australia’s largest brewing businesses and laid the foundation for many of the country’s most famous beer brands.

Throughout the 20th century, CUB expanded and acquired breweries and beers such as Victoria Bitters, Fosters, Carlton Draught and Pure Blonde. This led to CUB becoming a dominant force in Aussie brewing and remains one the nations largest beer producers. In recent years, ownership has changed multiple times such as being owned by the likes of SABMiller and InBev. However, since 2020, CUB has been owned by Asahi Breweries. Despite international ownership, brewing operations continue in Australia, with breweries located across several states. 

Victoria Bitter is one of Australia’s most recognisable beers and was first brewed back in 1854 by Thomas Aitken at the Victoria Brewery in Melbourne. This makes it one of the oldest continuously recognised beer brands. Despite its name, Victoria Bitter is actually a full-strength lager with a pronounced hop bitterness rather than a traditional English bitter ale.

The recipe was developed to suit Australia’s warm climate, producing a refreshing, easy-drinking beer with enough bitterness to stand out from sweeter lagers. Over the decades, VB became closely associated with Australia’s working-class culture, earning a reputation as the beer of choice after a long day’s work. VB’s popularity exploded in the 1960’s thanks to its advertising campaign “For a Hard Earned Thirst”. The campaign showcased Australian workers, sportsman, and outdoor lifestyles with actor John Meillon providing the voice-over. The campaign became one of the most successful in Australian advertising history and helped cement VB as a national icon. Today, Victoria Bitter is brewed by CUB, which is owned by Japanese brewing giant Asahi Breweries. While ownership has changed over the years, the beer remains one of Australia’s most recognised lager brands and continues to be enjoyed both on tap and in bottles and cans across the country.

A bright and lively pour

Victoria Bitter pours a clear, bright golden colour which has great clarity. A bubbly white head forms which has a moderate retention, which leaves a light ring of lacing down the glass. The carbonation is lively and bubbles steadily rises up the glass. Overall, a clean pour which makes this quite inviting for a hot day.

An easy drinking taste and aroma

Aroma

Victoria Bitter opens with a clean, grain forward aroma. This included aromas of bread and perhaps biscuit due to the subtle sweetness. Gentle floral and grassy notes rise up too. The aroma is fresh and uncomplicated, with very little fruitiness, keeping the focus on balance and drinkability.

Taste

The flavour opens with the malt backbone being that of light bread to cracker notes. Despite its name the bitterness is observable but quite restrained which is possibly done to preserve the drinkability. A delicate herbal and earthy note follows which helps keep this relatively balanced. The finish is clean with a slightly bitter aftertaste. Overall, I can see what Victoria Bitter is trying to do such as providing an easy drinking and approachable lager for those who just want to relax with a lager after work. Not bad but overall not brilliant either.

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Time for my verdict

Overall, I didn’t particularly have high expectations for VB but I did want to try it and it was somewhat of a bucket list brew for myself. I love a good lager and I am not 100% against macro lager providing that it is not ruined by the edition of Glucose Syrup like many in the UK. I must say VB was very average, it did the job of providing an easy drinking, non-complex lager and it was quite refreshing. But there is nothing more to shout about apart from this. I understand why this is popular in Australia. Overall, I would rate this a 3 out of 5.

Where did I purchase this beer?

I bought this from the OZ bar in Edinburgh which basically an Australian bar. You can get draught IPAs and cans of Aussie lager.

Thanks for reading my review. If you enjoyed my review, you will love my review of my favourite lager which is Budweiser Budvar. Cheers