Talking of Aussie beers, along time ago I was in Brisbane and during our lunch hour, it was as it used to be 'beer o'clock' , the pub was a ' working mans pub' all the 'furniture' steel chairs and tables were bolted to ths floor which was concrete, the bar with a stainless steel top resembled a communal urinal found in a large gents toilet, the beers were served in 'middie' glasses with a beer gun so you could litterally 'hose' the glasses down and not waste valuable drinking time pooring it from a beer tap - "bluddy right mate". Now the barmaids in this establishment that resembled a prison block house were in a class of their own, during a lunchtime session a burly docker was at one end of the bar , the barmaid at the other, said he to the barmaid " Hey gimme a beer' she replied " why don't you come up here and get it yer f**king self". Now thats what I call service ! Good days and fond memories.
I mentioned the need for a comparison of these two a couple of months back - glad you've managed to do it. As I implied at that time, the reason for the difference is (these days) the alcohol law which, by reducing the amount of alcohol in a beer, it makes it much cheaper for the brewer to produce, and (since much earlier times) the chance to use cheaper ingredients. Whichever way you look at it, British brewers (and I use the word guardedly) are taking us Brits for a ride - it's time the practice of 'brewing in the UK under licence' was stopped. Thanks for your video!
I completely agree with you that all this brewed under license nonsense should stop, or at the very least brewers should be compelled to write “brewed in the UK” in big letters on all the packaging and brew the product to the same ABV as in its homeland. British beer drinkers are either mugs or you have to conclude that most of us don’t know what a decent beer is. But it is not entirely fair to blame “alcohol laws” as the duty was always dependent on the alcohol content. As I am old in the tooth I remember a time when duty on beer and fags went up every year, did all the brewers reduce their ABV accordingly? If they had of done we’d all be drinking 0.0 % by now ! The previous Government introduced a banding system but you have to go down to 3.4 % to get into the lower band. Yes the duty went up by around 10 % on most beers (3.5 to 8.4 %) from £19.08 per % of alcohol per hectolitre to £21.01 (so for a 5 % ABV 500ml bottle that’s an extra 5p) but for draught beer the duty was unchanged and remains at the old £19.08 rate.
Fosters was never massively popular in Australia even in the 80's, but had a great marketing campaign overseas courtesy of Paul Hogan that made everyone think it was 'Australia's favourite beer'. Now if you want a decent longstanding mass market popular Australian beer, Victoria Bitter, VB, is a better bet. Never seen a 'UK brewed' version mind.
Thanks for this great comparison review of Foster's. My dad used to drink 750 ml steel cans of this in front of the rugby (union, of course) on Saturday afternoons here in Australia. Please keep up the great work and a little friendly correction for you...here in Oz we say 'Melben' if you'd like to take that on board.
@@Djwatzyjust multiply 3p by however many cans they produce in a day. Saves you a lot of money actually. And big companies like Heineken are all about saving as much money as they can.
Back in the day id occasionally drink it. Even enjoyed fosters ice when that was around. Now with the constant watering down I won't go near it. Beers under 4% are effectively soft drinks
I’m a Brit living in Sydney. Fosters is hard to find here and has a poor reputation among the locals. I stumbled across the gold topped cans, 4.9% Fosters in Red Bottle, Central Park shopping mall, Sydney, about $28 for a six pack, this July, 2024. I had seen it previously in the larger of the two Burwood RSLs in 4.9% stubby bottles about seven years ago. But it’s a rare animal here, so I remember it because it’s way better than its reputation and availability would suggest. The 4.9% version is very good as described in the review here. To my taste buds, It’s a better beer than the standard Tooheys New, Carlton and VB on tap at most pubs, which are also 4.9% I believe, I think another tax or duty bracket kicks in at 5.0%. Fosters also seems to be available at Dan Murphy’s and BWS here in blue topped cans at 4.0%, a different beer again, but I haven’t tried. I left the UK in 2007, I think tap Fosters was 3.5% then and was quite bland, lacking in potency. We used to drink Stella on tap, 5.2%, a powerful brew.
@@William-Anderson It is an expensive place. A lot of craft beers sold in four can packs around $23 -$29. Puzzling what is going on with the Fosters gold tops, it’s good but there doesn’t seem to be a noticeable marketing push behind it. It is premium, but not craft. They are not slashing the price to go after the big selling brands either.
I used to drink Fosters as a 17 yr old, over 50 years ago. Bought at our local offy. It came in a wider diameter can than others, more like a big bean tin. I'm pretty sure it was imported from Oz. Absolutely beautiful stuff.
Yet again on the topic of Aussie beers, not quite so long ago there was and as far as I know still is a pub in London called 'The Prince of Teck' in Earls Court Road. This was a great pub that harked back to the days of 'Barry Mackenzie' of 'Kangaroo Valley' fame. It was known to cater to the Antipodean trade, it was a nice scruffy kind of place that sold genuine Aussie beers from dustbins full of ice behind the bar. Swan, Castelmaine XXXX and VB. In fact I belive this pub was world famous among travellers, it was 'THE' place to meet and find yer mates. I met an overland driver in Botswana who knew it well. You could go in there any night of the week - a rainy Wednesday night in Febuary for example and it would be packed, plasterers rubbing shoulders with stockbrokers, forget the weekends you could not even get in the door. Well the pub was taken over by new management, I am sure you can guess what happened next, the sign said 'The Prince of Teck is comming down' and they were not joking, a real veritable institution was laid low, sadly, very sadly gone for ever. Now you can get to the bar with ease because there is nobody in there, ten people is a crowd. So as you know it's not only beers that suffer it's pubs as well. I expect we all know a pub like the Prince of Teck who unfortunately met a sad end in the hands of people who wanted 'to make it better'.
@@anthonycrumb5753 loved both the Bazza films , got the books of the original Private Eye cartoons by Humphries . Films based on them as you no doubt know . Timeless non pc stuff. In the second film , Clive zjanes used a cross made from Fosters tubes to fight off vampire .
Yep that seems to be the fashionable strength these days, dunno why as beer at that ABV just tastes so watery. Only exception I've found is Sup from Northern Monk
I remember trying Australian Fosters 50 tears ago , it was in thick welded seam cans and was smooth , creamy and much thicker than more recent . It really was premier lager then , not as good as original Stella but don’t get me started on that , even on continent I’ve not tasted a good Stella for 20 + years .
i thought that fosters was no longer made in Australia? well i must be wrong. i used to drink it with a pal in the seventies who bought it in a local offie in Hyde, those days it was available in huge tins, almost a pint and a half, looking back it was probably one of the first cans i ever had as most beer in shops was only available in bottles. i remember it being quite a nice drink along with other tins he bought, notably tooheys, swan and four xxxx. im not fussed about uk fosters, gnats pee. nice video as always.
As a regular visitor to Western Australia you never see Fosters beer in the bars or at the booze shops there are good beers there from all over Australia but Fosters is not popular there if i had to pick the most popular and cheaper beer there it would be Emu Export which i i dont enjoy the IPA in OZ are very good and a good selection, i read a book there called Grog about the history of beer in Australia which of course started with the convicts brewing there own if they could get hops brought in from the UK on ships, one of the convicts from England was James Squire who cultivated hops growing in oz and and his business is still going strong today his IPA is called Fifty Lashes which i like when i go in December i will see if i can find a copy of the book and send you i will let you know when i get back Keep up the good work ,
CUB or Carlton United Breweries is owned by Asahi Brewing. Fosters is very hard to find here in Australia. It was last popular around the time of the Sydney Olympics. I use o drink it all the time. Around 2019 the introduced a budget 4% version in 30 can blocks It only lasted 2 brewing runs, one in September and another in October. After that gone, never to be seen again. On the tasting note the reason you are getting a yeast flavour that everyone notices when they drink Fosters is because its brewed at 19c with a lager strain. The same applies to VB, MB, and Crown Lager. The best serving temp is around 2c to eliminate the yeast taste..Cheers
I was in Australia during and after the Olympics and my understanding was that the stadium served foster just during the Olympics for the tourists, then it switched to VB. I lived in Australia (Sydney) for 13 years, don't remember seeing it anywhere.
Yeah, when I was there, 2012-2014 I could count on my fingers the amount of bottle shops I saw it in and the only pub that had it was the one I worked in in Perth. Only ever sold one pint of it and that was to an aussie.
I've tried the Aussie Fosters and agree it's totally different fuller bodied, sweeter far superior to the UK version. Two more that have disappeared from the Uk market Miller and Brahma.
From Wiki: "XXXX was brewed under licence in the UK by InBev Ltd until 2009. It was commonly available in cans in British off licences and sometimes on tap in British pubs. At 3.7% ABV, the British brewed XXXX was somewhat weaker than most of the Australian variants. Castlemaine XXXX was withdrawn from the UK at the end of June 2009 when InBev's licensing agreement expired" No XXXX comparison then.
Cooper’s was my favourite Australian beer. Either the red or green label. Used to love it in Australia and then saw it in a good off license in Sheffield 10+ years ago and snapped up loads. Haven’t seen it since.
Have you done a video comparing 3 versions of San Miguel? British, Spanish and the Filipino version. Originated in the Philippines 1890, then Spain in the 50s.
11:14 ironically I went into my local coop to buy some food and some beers and me and this guy bought some fosters. He even bought 2 four packs. I know it's not the best beer out their but it's also far from the worst.
I live in a small coastal country town in SE South Australia - I'm going to hit up the owner of our local pub to see (for a laugh) if he'll buy in a carton of Fosters to put in the fridge behind the bar. I'm 56 - if I've ever drank Fosters, it would have been in the 1980s - so now I'm keen to try it again because the average commercial Australian beer is quite light and watery these days. 3.5% abv is the biggest market over here. It has killed off the 'light beer' market which has been replaced with 0% beers.
I used to drink Fosters when it first came to the UK in the late 70s. Imported only, 5% abv and in large cans. It was OK never great but drinkable. The British brewed "Fake Fosters" is terrible and Im a bit surprised you like it - must be the hot day and need for urgent refreshment! I only rate Carling as worse among the UK macro lagers. I don't rate any of the Carlton brewed lagers of which VB is the largest seller. Best Australian lagers are from Tasmania - Boags and Cascade. Hahn is also good.
From my experience (and I have drank in the US) the two markets are similar. There's the mass market mostly crap beer sold in your average cheap bar (bud light, regular bud, corona, heineken, modelo, coors). But if you're a discerning customer you can find, at a higher price point, better and higher ABV beers, craft beers, etc in more upmarket bars or in supermarkets. The UK situation is pretty much exactly the same. You have the mass market cheap beers sold in cheaper pubs (carling, fosters, san miguel, plus the likes of heineken, coors, corona, bud, bud light which the UK has too), mostly crap. Then in better pubs or in supermarkets you can find a higher quality but more expensive range of lagers (staropramen, budvar, moretti, peroni, etc), including a whole range of imported or craft beers. Bear in mind that this review is of a cheap UK beer; a review of an equally cheap US beer, eg bud light (and I mean the US version), wouldn't go much better. I've tried the likes of coors light in the US and UK and can confirm they are rubbish everywhere. In both cases it's up to you as the consumer. You don't have to drink crap like coors light or heineken, but they are cheaper. I don't see any particular advantage to living in the US. Also worth bearing in mind that the two lagers in the video are both called Fosters but really they are different products for different markets. UK fosters you can find for as cheap as $0.83 (USD) per pint. I saw a pack of 18 440ml cans yesterday for £11. The Aus fosters you find for as cheap as $1.43 (USD) per pint. A pack of 30 375ml cans is around $53 (Aus). Clearly you can't expect two products of very different price points to be of equal quality.
I can remember when Heineken was 3.8% here in the UK up until around 2007 when they then decided to give us the proper 5% stuff. I can honestly see it being reduced at some point in the future to a 4 point something abv beer.
My old man used to drink Fosters in the 90’s. Around the same time Castlemaine 4X was popular. I used to drink it late 90’s when I believe it was more like a 4.5? I dropped it when it dropped its abv.
Breaker was an American Malt Liquor as I remember it - I drank a lot of it when I was at university (a corner shop near my digs sold it when it was near sell by date!). Wonder whatever happened to it? I quite liked it. This was a really interesting video - anywhere in the UK we can get genuine Fosters? BTW according to Wikipedia, Castlemaine 4X is owned by Lion of Japan. 4x bitter is 4.4%, 4x Gold is 3.5%, 4xSummer Bright is 4% and 4x Dry is 4.2%. Can't remember the last time I saw it in the UK.
So few people drink Fosters here in Aus. that it's actually hard to find in stores. A few years ago some mates and I decided to compare lagers so wanted to included Fosters. Upon asking the lass at the counter she was looking it up on the system under 'Imported' beers... had to laugh. Yes that was here in Melbourne
I have in front of me a 750 ml can of Fosters from 1982, Australian brewed by CUB, the logo and typeface are identical to those on your Australian can, hard to believe that it has not been tampered with in 40 plus years, the ABV is not stated, as in those days they declared the original gravity instead, in this case it was OG 1044-1050 which would be roughly the same as your can at 4.9. I used to drink a lot of this, my local off licence in Bristol bought in bankrupt stock, and sold it off at some very reasonable prices, I was very disappointed when told that all that remained of the last pallet load was a few cans and that there was unlikely to be anymore.
I was in Melbourne 7 and a half years ago... I couldn't find it anywhere... I was told by my cousin's husband that it was only brewed for export ! Wish I had come across it 🥺.. I was nearer Ballarat but I don't think that should have mattered... keep up the good content though 👍
I didn't even realise they sold Fosters in Aus. I used to live in Melbourne and never saw it, it was all Carlton and VB, I was a Carlton man. Such a good variety of lagers over there too, you could walk into any shop and pick up a 6 pack you'd never heard of and I never had a bad one. One of my main memories of Aus was the availability of decent beer
Growing up in Oz Dad drank Fosters so that is pretty much all we had a home (Victoria). The pubs basically only had Carlton on tap, so you didn't ask for a style of beer, it was just a beer. I can't drink Carlton now, that is all I had in the pub as a young fella.
When I was in Australia we used to drink absolutely anything, however I do remember Swan, Castlemaine XXXX and Victoria (VB) Bitter, a killer was Emu Lager - looney juice. From my memories of Aussie beer nice and cold, in fact I don't think there was much wrong with it. I also heard that it was specifically brewed to be canned so consequently it tatsed OK in 'tinnies'. Another beer in a similar vein was 'South Pacific Lager' available in PNG and the islands. All quite palatable in the circumstances to say the least esp given the heat and lack of air con. The difference between the Aussie version of Fosters and the UK one is what we would sadly expect, as it seems standard for all foriegn beers brewed under licence here.
Yeah, from going on the piss loads of times in Oz, I remember Tooheys, as I say I quite likes Aussie beer, cold and wet, it did it's job and back ib those days no job cohld be done without beer.
That was fun to watch the only reason I though in the fosters can was for this exact video and I was interested to see the results. Very rare to find fosters lager in Australia only certain bottle shops sell it. A major bottle shop Dan Murphy’s has been pushing a fosters classic lager at 4% but not much success in the market.
I think there has been this shift where people who want authentic lagers are finding them in Home bargains or supermarkets like Aldi. I am sure the likes of your fosters, carling and what not still at large volumes but even if you don't realise "Brewed in the UK" the ABV cuts alone turn them into basically beer flavoured sparkling water. Madri was a successful marketing trick and does seem like the way forward for these big companies as more are following. It's still basically UK brewed rubbish though.
I seen a sign outside an Italian restaurant in Peebles saying "we prefer madri to carling". I was gonna go in for dinner, instead I had a giggle and went to the chip shop instead
For a short period in the early 90's you could get VB Victoria Beer here (Peter Dominic's Off Licence) it was exceptional. My guess is that with our duty & vat etc. We get lesser versions of the original brand as it's the only way for the big brands to make a profit.
This is my interpretation. Top brand beers are usually top brand because of the way they are marketed and not their quality. You have made many videos of how the UK brewed beers compare with the originals. I believe this is going to the next level. This is a ‘has been’ top brand. The emphasis is now on the Madri, Peroni and San. Miguel’s of the world. There is still money to be made from top brands of the past. It is made as a budget version in the formally well marketed can design! You can still find beers famous years ago sitting on the shelves of corner shops. In the 1980s Skol competed with Carling in the West Midlands. It ended with brewery mergers. You can still buy Skol in cans of well under 3%.
7/10 for 3.7% UK brewed Fosters wow!! I've said it before and I'll say it again Simon, Since you've had your hair cut, Your reviews are all over the place mate. You need to regrow that hair. 😂
Big abv difference same thing in America. My uncle emigrated and he used to drink boddingtons in a pub over here with my grandad and its 3.4abv now (was 3.6 before he left) but in the states it is 4.7abv 😮
Always found Fosters very acidic. Heineken sold Kronenbourg to Carlsberg/Marstons and they rebranded it Kronenbourg 'Biere' and reduced the alcohol content from 5% to 4.6% (well done /sarc). I have some proper French Kronenbourg - 5.5% which is lovely.
Brewers think its OK cos they make more money... Punters are generally not interested enough to know the ABV or where its brewed or who brewed it (especially in pubs). UK consumers readily accept substandard products and services and producers/providers are happy to exploit it.
@@StraitKnopfler Purely a personal opinion. Alcohol is part of taste. Wine tastes different to beer, spirits taste different to wine. I've stopped drinking Kronenbourg 1664 since they reduced the ABV from 5 to 4.6
Ridiculous. There’s hundreds of great beers between 4 and 5%. Pilsner Urquell is 4.4%. There’s hundreds of German beers around 4.6/4.9%. Beamish is 4.2%. And they’re just big beers. Loads of great craft stuff below 5%
Glad you put me onto Aldi/Asda German Lagers, the Steinhausers and Rheinbachers, won’t touch our ‘world lagers’ again, bloody dreadful stuff. Cheers Simon👍🍺
7/10 for British Fosters was a bit too generous, still, the quality of beer we are asked to drink and pay for is appalling in the UK compared to the originals.
When I heared you read "Brewed by Heineken", and we all know what you think of "Heineken" in general, we all knew the outcome of this video. Hypothetically it is like telling a blindfolded child, who hates sprouts, that it is going to taste a spoon full of sprouts, is it not? Despite the taste it WILL and it SHALL hate the taste of sprouts, always. Because the child knew it were sprouts. Maybe next time better not to, or make us believe, not to read the cans beforehand. Especially after 15 years of reviewing beers. The U.K. version looks much darker gold tough? Maybe it 's the glass. From The Netherlands, a fan, always was, always will be. Cheers mate.🍻🍺🍻
A pity that your friend didn't send you a can of Fosters Classic from Aus which is 4% ABV to round out the comparison. Just a bit of background, the Fosters brand was huge in the 80's and early 90's with many high profile sponsorships of sporting events, teams and TV commercials.
I enjoy a cider and it’s the same as Strongbow which is 5% minimum all over the world including the USA yet we are left with the 4.5% watered down product here in the U.K. 🤷🏼
Seem the proper Aussie version of Fosters is a night + day difference between it and the pi** weak UK version. As for Castlemaine XXXX, unfortunately that was discontinued when it's UK licence expired around 2009.
People often fail to realize that this style of macro lager was originally brewed for the 6 O'clock swill in Australia. Workers would get to the pub and Wang down as many schooners as humanly possible in 1 hour before the pub shut. They oxidize and skunk within minutes. No question that macro lagers from everywhere have gone down hill with more and more corn syrup and even rice added. This is made worse when asked beer is made under licence in another country. In this case no attempt what so ever is made to replicate the original. Anyway Fosters is hard to get in Australia Now other than maybe Victoria. Can get it online though. I think old Barry McKenzie killed it off as it became associated with bogans and lager louts. There's a whole new generation of young Aussies Now who have seen a Fosters let alone drink it yet they slag it off with venom. It's nowhere near the best lager brewed in Australia, but it's not the worst either.
Astounded that UK Fosters got as much as a 7/10. I would have given it 3/10 at most 25 years ago when I had my first and only ever pint of the stuff as a 17yo. Never gone back. Would rather order a lime n soda tbh.
I think taxes and costs are the issue. It's difficult to sell a higher abv as the then it goes into a different price bracket. Belgians tax their beer differently so it's more commercially viable to sell a 10.5% beer. That said, tastes and attitudes towards beer need to change here. People still like to neck 10 pints over here and still feel like they are able to drive.
I liked everything you said about the Aussie Fosters, but thought you were far too generous about the British version. I used to adore Fosters and Castlemaine, they were my introduction to drinking beer as a young man. I could swear Fosters was around 4.0% in the 90s. And I knew one corner shop that sold Fosters Export. That stuff was very nice. These days anything brewed under licence in Birmingham, Manchester or Edinburgh tastes like slop to me. Supermarket slop. I hate it. I won't buy it. You mentioned Castlemaine. I haven't seen that in years, if it wasn't for the branded towel I still have I would have forgotten all about it. So I would like to see you review it if you can find any. And any Ice beers if you can find any of those.
Talking of Aussie beers, along time ago I was in Brisbane and during our lunch hour, it was as it used to be 'beer o'clock' , the pub was a ' working mans pub' all the 'furniture' steel chairs and tables were bolted to ths floor which was concrete, the bar with a stainless steel top resembled a communal urinal found in a large gents toilet, the beers were served in 'middie' glasses with a beer gun so you could litterally 'hose' the glasses down and not waste valuable drinking time pooring it from a beer tap - "bluddy right mate".
Now the barmaids in this establishment that resembled a prison block house were in a class of their own, during a lunchtime session a burly docker was at one end of the bar , the barmaid at the other, said he to the barmaid " Hey gimme a beer' she replied " why don't you come up here and get it yer f**king self". Now thats what I call service ! Good days and fond memories.
We used to get Fosters Export 5% here. Loved the stuff. Wouldn't brush my teeth with the 3.7% swill.
I mentioned the need for a comparison of these two a couple of months back - glad you've managed to do it. As I implied at that time, the reason for the difference is (these days) the alcohol law which, by reducing the amount of alcohol in a beer, it makes it much cheaper for the brewer to produce, and (since much earlier times) the chance to use cheaper ingredients. Whichever way you look at it, British brewers (and I use the word guardedly) are taking us Brits for a ride - it's time the practice of 'brewing in the UK under licence' was stopped. Thanks for your video!
I completely agree with you that all this brewed under license nonsense should stop, or at the very least brewers should be compelled to write “brewed in the UK” in big letters on all the packaging and brew the product to the same ABV as in its homeland. British beer drinkers are either mugs or you have to conclude that most of us don’t know what a decent beer is.
But it is not entirely fair to blame “alcohol laws” as the duty was always dependent on the alcohol content. As I am old in the tooth I remember a time when duty on beer and fags went up every year, did all the brewers reduce their ABV accordingly? If they had of done we’d all be drinking 0.0 % by now ! The previous Government introduced a banding system but you have to go down to 3.4 % to get into the lower band. Yes the duty went up by around 10 % on most beers (3.5 to 8.4 %) from £19.08 per % of alcohol per hectolitre to £21.01 (so for a 5 % ABV 500ml bottle that’s an extra 5p) but for draught beer the duty was unchanged and remains at the old £19.08 rate.
From this side of the camera the Australian looked lighter and clearer than the U.K. version.
My thought too.
@@DC-Aust I put it down to condensation which had had time to form on the glass.
@@billybungle1757 I don't think condensation would change the colour.Agree or disagree, cheers!
Totally agree - they weren't remotely alike from where I was sitting.
Fosters was 4.2% (late 90s, early 00s). It used to be 8 cans for £5 at my local Tesco.
Those were the days 😢
I think that 4.5% is the minimum ABV I'd want to drink in a lager .
I think anything below 4.5% shouldn't legally be called premium..
Yes, between 5 and 7% Is perfect 👌 😆😁
Pilsner Urquell is 4.4 and is lush...
Yeah pilsner urquell smashes that arguement
I'd say that's about right isn't it
Fosters tasted pretty good back in 80's before it was destroyed.
Fosters was never massively popular in Australia even in the 80's, but had a great marketing campaign overseas courtesy of Paul Hogan that made everyone think it was 'Australia's favourite beer'.
Now if you want a decent longstanding mass market popular Australian beer, Victoria Bitter, VB, is a better bet.
Never seen a 'UK brewed' version mind.
Are you Australian or uk based
What mugs we are.
Thanks for this great comparison review of Foster's. My dad used to drink 750 ml steel cans of this in front of the rugby (union, of course) on Saturday afternoons here in Australia. Please keep up the great work and a little friendly correction for you...here in Oz we say 'Melben' if you'd like to take that on board.
I wonder if its closer to the old Fosters Export, which was a premium strength beer rather than the watery standard fosters stuff.
Well said
I didn't mind that one. 👍
Didn't they do a fosters gold and fosters ice ?
@@chriswilliams209 fosters ice chris I don’t ever remember a gold being on sale in london mate
Fosters export was lovely
It'll be the way the duty system works in the UK. Massive saving to be made by reducing the ABV.
Let's see how much they end up saving when their sales fall to zero.
@@mrchico2621 it’s been the same ABV ever since it’s been for sale in the UK.
Yep, dropped from 4% to 3.7% in 2023 savings Heineken 3p per can in tax.
@@Djwatzyjust multiply 3p by however many cans they produce in a day. Saves you a lot of money actually. And big companies like Heineken are all about saving as much money as they can.
ABV being reduced on other beers as well, not reducing the price though.
Back in the day id occasionally drink it. Even enjoyed fosters ice when that was around. Now with the constant watering down I won't go near it. Beers under 4% are effectively soft drinks
I’m a Brit living in Sydney. Fosters is hard to find here and has a poor reputation among the locals. I stumbled across the gold topped cans, 4.9% Fosters in Red Bottle, Central Park shopping mall, Sydney, about $28 for a six pack, this July, 2024. I had seen it previously in the larger of the two Burwood RSLs in 4.9% stubby bottles about seven years ago. But it’s a rare animal here, so I remember it because it’s way better than its reputation and availability would suggest. The 4.9% version is very good as described in the review here. To my taste buds, It’s a better beer than the standard Tooheys New, Carlton and VB on tap at most pubs, which are also 4.9% I believe, I think another tax or duty bracket kicks in at 5.0%. Fosters also seems to be available at Dan Murphy’s and BWS here in blue topped cans at 4.0%, a different beer again, but I haven’t tried. I left the UK in 2007, I think tap Fosters was 3.5% then and was quite bland, lacking in potency. We used to drink Stella on tap, 5.2%, a powerful brew.
wow thats very expensive. about £2.40 for a 375ml can.
@@William-Anderson It is an expensive place. A lot of craft beers sold in four can packs around $23 -$29. Puzzling what is going on with the Fosters gold tops, it’s good but there doesn’t seem to be a noticeable marketing push behind it. It is premium, but not craft. They are not slashing the price to go after the big selling brands either.
Stella has now been phuqed down to 4.6%. UK beer has been ruined by greed.
Another good video Simon 👍
Great video. That's exactly what cans were like here at one time
I used to drink Fosters as a 17 yr old, over 50 years ago. Bought at our local offy. It came in a wider diameter can than others, more like a big bean tin. I'm pretty sure it was imported from Oz. Absolutely beautiful stuff.
Another excellent review. My brother-in-law only drinks UK Fosters. I now have a garage full of Feldschlößchen that I'm trying to get him into.
Yet again on the topic of Aussie beers, not quite so long ago there was and as far as I know still is a pub in London called 'The Prince of Teck' in Earls Court Road. This was a great pub that harked back to the days of 'Barry Mackenzie' of 'Kangaroo Valley' fame. It was known to cater to the Antipodean trade, it was a nice scruffy kind of place that sold genuine Aussie beers from dustbins full of ice behind the bar. Swan, Castelmaine XXXX and VB. In fact I belive this pub was world famous among travellers, it was 'THE' place to meet and find yer mates. I met an overland driver in Botswana who knew it well.
You could go in there any night of the week - a rainy Wednesday night in Febuary for example and it would be packed, plasterers rubbing shoulders with stockbrokers, forget the weekends you could not even get in the door. Well the pub was taken over by new management, I am sure you can guess what happened next, the sign said 'The Prince of Teck is comming down' and they were not joking, a real veritable institution was laid low, sadly, very sadly gone for ever. Now you can get to the bar with ease because there is nobody in there, ten people is a crowd.
So as you know it's not only beers that suffer it's pubs as well. I expect we all know a pub like the Prince of Teck who unfortunately met a sad end in the hands of people who wanted 'to make it better'.
@@anthonycrumb5753 loved both the Bazza films , got the books of the original Private Eye cartoons by Humphries . Films based on them as you no doubt know . Timeless non pc stuff. In the second film , Clive zjanes used a cross made from Fosters tubes to fight off vampire .
Wouldnt be surprised if UK version got reduced to 3.4% abv at some point!
It will
Yep that seems to be the fashionable strength these days, dunno why as beer at that ABV just tastes so watery. Only exception I've found is Sup from Northern Monk
Taxation is (now) lower at 3.4% & below
Tooheys New, Tooheys Old, and Victoria Bitter are the three big ones in Sydney. I don't think I ever even saw Fosters there!
What happened to Swan?
Thank you for this. I used to drink Fosters in my twenties and I have always wanted to know how the Australian version is.
Castlemaine xxxx. I'd forgotten that one. The advert had a truckload of cans and then one bottle of sherry
In case there's any Sheila's there!!
I remember trying Australian Fosters 50 tears ago , it was in thick welded seam cans and was smooth , creamy and much thicker than more recent . It really was premier lager then , not as good as original Stella but don’t get me started on that , even on continent I’ve not tasted a good Stella for 20 + years .
I’ve given up on the UK brewed macro lagers. Even had a fruit cider in a pub the other day the choice was so poor, it was like drinking pop.
Why not try proper English beer instead?
I like the battle vid’s , very good ❤
i thought that fosters was no longer made in Australia? well i must be wrong. i used to drink it with a pal in the seventies who bought it in a local offie in Hyde, those days it was available in huge tins, almost a pint and a half, looking back it was probably one of the first cans i ever had as most beer in shops was only available in bottles. i remember it being quite a nice drink along with other tins he bought, notably tooheys, swan and four xxxx. im not fussed about uk fosters, gnats pee.
nice video as always.
Those tins were 750 ml mate, I have one in front of me, I keep me hacksaw blades in it ....
As a regular visitor to Western Australia you never see Fosters beer in the bars or at the booze shops there are good beers there from all over Australia but Fosters is not popular there if i had to pick the most popular and cheaper beer there it would be Emu Export which i i dont enjoy the IPA in OZ are very good and a good selection, i read a book there called Grog about the history of beer in Australia which of course started with the convicts brewing there own if they could get hops brought in from the UK on ships, one of the convicts from England was James Squire who cultivated hops growing in oz and and his business is still going strong today his IPA is called Fifty Lashes which i like when i go in December i will see if i can find a copy of the book and send you i will let you know when i get back Keep up the good work ,
CUB or Carlton United Breweries is owned by Asahi Brewing. Fosters is very hard to find here in Australia. It was last popular around the time of the Sydney Olympics. I use o drink it all the time. Around 2019 the introduced a budget 4% version in 30 can blocks It only lasted 2 brewing runs, one in September and another in October. After that gone, never to be seen again. On the tasting note the reason you are getting a yeast flavour that everyone notices when they drink Fosters is because its brewed at 19c with a lager strain. The same applies to VB, MB, and Crown Lager. The best serving temp is around 2c to eliminate the yeast taste..Cheers
I was in Australia during and after the Olympics and my understanding was that the stadium served foster just during the Olympics for the tourists, then it switched to VB. I lived in Australia (Sydney) for 13 years, don't remember seeing it anywhere.
Yeah, when I was there, 2012-2014 I could count on my fingers the amount of bottle shops I saw it in and the only pub that had it was the one I worked in in Perth. Only ever sold one pint of it and that was to an aussie.
Hi, yeah that was the Fosters Classic that Dan Murphy's was selling. Lower abv too, it was terrible
I've tried the Aussie Fosters and agree it's totally different fuller bodied, sweeter far superior to the UK version. Two more that have disappeared from the Uk market Miller and Brahma.
We used to get Fosters Export in the Uk, which was 5%. It had much more flavour and very light on the carbonation. It was readily available.
Surely 7/10 for the British Foster's was a bit too kind lol
From Wiki:
"XXXX was brewed under licence in the UK by InBev Ltd until 2009. It was commonly available in cans in British off licences and sometimes on tap in British pubs. At 3.7% ABV, the British brewed XXXX was somewhat weaker than most of the Australian variants. Castlemaine XXXX was withdrawn from the UK at the end of June 2009 when InBev's licensing agreement expired"
No XXXX comparison then.
Good luck finding XXXX in the UK .I drank loads of the stuff in the 90's .you don't see it no more in the shops .good review cheers sport 😊
Cooper’s was my favourite Australian beer. Either the red or green label. Used to love it in Australia and then saw it in a good off license in Sheffield 10+ years ago and snapped up loads. Haven’t seen it since.
Have you done a video comparing 3 versions of San Miguel? British, Spanish and the Filipino version.
Originated in the Philippines 1890, then Spain in the 50s.
Am in Oz on holiday so will give the real Fosters a go, haven’t tried it yet as thought it would be the same as the UK wheel wash version!
11:14 ironically I went into my local coop to buy some food and some beers and me and this guy bought some fosters. He even bought 2 four packs. I know it's not the best beer out their but it's also far from the worst.
Over in Australia they have xxxx gold it's absolutely delicious I went over 7 years ago to Brisbane if you can get hold of some you will love it ...
I loved fosters ice in the 90s.. I wish they would bring that bk
I live in a small coastal country town in SE South Australia - I'm going to hit up the owner of our local pub to see (for a laugh) if he'll buy in a carton of Fosters to put in the fridge behind the bar. I'm 56 - if I've ever drank Fosters, it would have been in the 1980s - so now I'm keen to try it again because the average commercial Australian beer is quite light and watery these days. 3.5% abv is the biggest market over here. It has killed off the 'light beer' market which has been replaced with 0% beers.
I used to drink Fosters when it first came to the UK in the late 70s. Imported only, 5% abv and in large cans. It was OK never great but drinkable. The British brewed "Fake Fosters" is terrible and Im a bit surprised you like it - must be the hot day and need for urgent refreshment! I only rate Carling as worse among the UK macro lagers. I don't rate any of the Carlton brewed lagers of which VB is the largest seller. Best Australian lagers are from Tasmania - Boags and Cascade. Hahn is also good.
Fosters export, then Fosters gold used to be widely available in the UK. It was a nice drink at 5%.
I‘ve flipped my screen upside down to make this a proper review.
I see what you did there
Loved fosters ice and export in the 90s!
Uk Brewed Heineken vs Dutch Heineken next? Can get both from Morrisons.
I bought 6x330ml cans at Sainsburys at £4.20 and they are Dutch brewed.
@@everyone06 So much nicer I bet?
Used to like those great big Foster's cans that came out in the 80's ( in UK)
I don't know how they can even call it the same thing. Once again I'm grateful to be living in the U.S.
From my experience (and I have drank in the US) the two markets are similar. There's the mass market mostly crap beer sold in your average cheap bar (bud light, regular bud, corona, heineken, modelo, coors). But if you're a discerning customer you can find, at a higher price point, better and higher ABV beers, craft beers, etc in more upmarket bars or in supermarkets.
The UK situation is pretty much exactly the same. You have the mass market cheap beers sold in cheaper pubs (carling, fosters, san miguel, plus the likes of heineken, coors, corona, bud, bud light which the UK has too), mostly crap. Then in better pubs or in supermarkets you can find a higher quality but more expensive range of lagers (staropramen, budvar, moretti, peroni, etc), including a whole range of imported or craft beers. Bear in mind that this review is of a cheap UK beer; a review of an equally cheap US beer, eg bud light (and I mean the US version), wouldn't go much better.
I've tried the likes of coors light in the US and UK and can confirm they are rubbish everywhere. In both cases it's up to you as the consumer. You don't have to drink crap like coors light or heineken, but they are cheaper. I don't see any particular advantage to living in the US.
Also worth bearing in mind that the two lagers in the video are both called Fosters but really they are different products for different markets. UK fosters you can find for as cheap as $0.83 (USD) per pint. I saw a pack of 18 440ml cans yesterday for £11. The Aus fosters you find for as cheap as $1.43 (USD) per pint. A pack of 30 375ml cans is around $53 (Aus). Clearly you can't expect two products of very different price points to be of equal quality.
Fosters was imported into the UK in the 1970s. My local offie sold cans. Really liked it then, now I wouldn't give it house room.
I can remember when Heineken was 3.8% here in the UK up until around 2007 when they then decided to give us the proper 5% stuff. I can honestly see it being reduced at some point in the future to a 4 point something abv beer.
Heineken Cold Filtered, I recall it from getting served in an offy aged 14!
I was hired by Carling O'Keefe brewery here in Toronto in 1985 to help bring out Fosters in Ontario. Drank a lot of free beer while working there. 🍻
Can u get the Australian fosters anywhere ?
It's 5% here in the USA.
My old man used to drink Fosters in the 90’s. Around the same time Castlemaine 4X was popular. I used to drink it late 90’s when I believe it was more like a 4.5? I dropped it when it dropped its abv.
Breaker was an American Malt Liquor as I remember it - I drank a lot of it when I was at university (a corner shop near my digs sold it when it was near sell by date!). Wonder whatever happened to it? I quite liked it. This was a really interesting video - anywhere in the UK we can get genuine Fosters? BTW according to Wikipedia, Castlemaine 4X is owned by Lion of Japan. 4x bitter is 4.4%, 4x Gold is 3.5%, 4xSummer Bright is 4% and 4x Dry is 4.2%. Can't remember the last time I saw it in the UK.
So few people drink Fosters here in Aus. that it's actually hard to find in stores. A few years ago some mates and I decided to compare lagers so wanted to included Fosters. Upon asking the lass at the counter she was looking it up on the system under 'Imported' beers... had to laugh. Yes that was here in Melbourne
They should bring back Fosters export. That stuff was lovely back in the day
I have in front of me a 750 ml can of Fosters from 1982, Australian brewed by CUB, the logo and typeface are identical to those on your Australian can, hard to believe that it has not been tampered with in 40 plus years, the ABV is not stated, as in those days they declared the original gravity instead, in this case it was OG 1044-1050 which would be roughly the same as your can at 4.9. I used to drink a lot of this, my local off licence in Bristol bought in bankrupt stock, and sold it off at some very reasonable prices, I was very disappointed when told that all that remained of the last pallet load was a few cans and that there was unlikely to be anymore.
I was in Melbourne 7 and a half years ago... I couldn't find it anywhere... I was told by my cousin's husband that it was only brewed for export !
Wish I had come across it 🥺.. I was nearer Ballarat but I don't think that should have mattered... keep up the good content though 👍
I didn't even realise they sold Fosters in Aus. I used to live in Melbourne and never saw it, it was all Carlton and VB, I was a Carlton man. Such a good variety of lagers over there too, you could walk into any shop and pick up a 6 pack you'd never heard of and I never had a bad one. One of my main memories of Aus was the availability of decent beer
Growing up in Oz Dad drank Fosters so that is pretty much all we had a home (Victoria). The pubs basically only had Carlton on tap, so you didn't ask for a style of beer, it was just a beer. I can't drink Carlton now, that is all I had in the pub as a young fella.
When I was in Australia we used to drink absolutely anything, however I do remember Swan, Castlemaine XXXX and Victoria (VB) Bitter, a killer was Emu Lager - looney juice. From my memories of Aussie beer nice and cold, in fact I don't think there was much wrong with it. I also heard that it was specifically brewed to be canned so consequently it tatsed OK in 'tinnies'. Another beer in a similar vein was 'South Pacific Lager' available in PNG and the islands.
All quite palatable in the circumstances to say the least esp given the heat and lack of air con. The difference between the Aussie version of Fosters and the UK one is what we would sadly expect, as it seems standard for all foriegn beers brewed under licence here.
Tooheys New was a great beer too! I visited the xxxx factory and did a tour while I was in Australia, a cracking place to visit!
VB used to be available in the UK
Loved it
@@Gez-C Even Tooheys extra dry was excellent but this is going back near 10 years ago.
Yeah, from going on the piss loads of times in Oz, I remember Tooheys, as I say I quite likes Aussie beer, cold and wet, it did it's job and back ib those days no job cohld be done without beer.
That was fun to watch the only reason I though in the fosters can was for this exact video and I was interested to see the results.
Very rare to find fosters lager in Australia only certain bottle shops sell it.
A major bottle shop Dan Murphy’s has been pushing a fosters classic lager at 4% but not much success in the market.
Thanks for sending Trav 👍👍👍🍺🍺🍺
I remember a friend telling no one drinks forsters in aus as it really bad. With all the marketing we see we think everyone drinks it over there..
I really injoyed watching this video makes me want to try these 2 beers myself , might have to get the boss to send a few cans over from the UK
@@bryanmorrow4737glad you enjoyed the whole idea was just to have a bit of fun.
Hope you enjoy the other up and coming reviews.
I think there has been this shift where people who want authentic lagers are finding them in Home bargains or supermarkets like Aldi. I am sure the likes of your fosters, carling and what not still at large volumes but even if you don't realise "Brewed in the UK" the ABV cuts alone turn them into basically beer flavoured sparkling water. Madri was a successful marketing trick and does seem like the way forward for these big companies as more are following. It's still basically UK brewed rubbish though.
I seen a sign outside an Italian restaurant in Peebles saying "we prefer madri to carling". I was gonna go in for dinner, instead I had a giggle and went to the chip shop instead
alcohol strength tax is the answer why
I’m sure my local 24hr garage used to sell Fosters that was 5%. Is there a mainland Europe version maybe? This was only 3-4 years ago or so.
If in the UK they could replicate the Aussie Fosters more I’d be more inclined to buy it.
There is also the North American version brewed by MolsonCoors in Canada. That's 5%.
I remember it being 4% and Fosters Gold 4.8%. In the 00s/10s. Good times.
For a short period in the early 90's you could get VB Victoria Beer here (Peter Dominic's Off Licence) it was exceptional. My guess is that with our duty & vat etc. We get lesser versions of the original brand as it's the only way for the big brands to make a profit.
This is my interpretation. Top brand beers are usually top brand because of the way they are marketed and not their quality. You have made many videos of how the UK brewed beers compare with the originals. I believe this is going to the next level. This is a ‘has been’ top brand. The emphasis is now on the Madri, Peroni and San. Miguel’s of the world. There is still money to be made from top brands of the past. It is made as a budget version in the formally well marketed can design! You can still find beers famous years ago sitting on the shelves of corner shops.
In the 1980s Skol competed with Carling in the West Midlands. It ended with brewery mergers. You can still buy Skol in cans of well under 3%.
I remember buying genuine Foster's from Harrods donkeys years ago. Came in a huge can that seemed to be made from solid steel.
The frothy head seemed to last longer on the uk version
7/10 for 3.7% UK brewed Fosters wow!! I've said it before and I'll say it again Simon, Since you've had your hair cut, Your reviews are all over the place mate. You need to regrow that hair. 😂
Cruzcampo was put in to fill the gap after the percentage lowered?
Big abv difference same thing in America. My uncle emigrated and he used to drink boddingtons in a pub over here with my grandad and its 3.4abv now (was 3.6 before he left) but in the states it is 4.7abv 😮
I had a Tin of Australian Fosters many decades ago, it was nicer, but, the Tin its self was a Stronger metal.
Always found Fosters very acidic. Heineken sold Kronenbourg to Carlsberg/Marstons and they rebranded it Kronenbourg 'Biere' and reduced the alcohol content from 5% to 4.6% (well done /sarc). I have some proper French Kronenbourg - 5.5% which is lovely.
The top three beers in Australia are Great Northern Super Crisp (3.5%, CUB/Asahi), Carlton Dry (4.5%, CUB/Asahi) and XXXX Gold (3.5%, Lion/Kirin).
Coopers not popular?
Love Cooper’s!!!
British beer is like shandy now
Yeah with less flavour
Mate I live in australia, I have not seen fosters for 30 years,where in australia do they sell it
Brewers think its OK cos they make more money... Punters are generally not interested enough to know the ABV or where its brewed or who brewed it (especially in pubs). UK consumers readily accept substandard products and services and producers/providers are happy to exploit it.
Who remembers castlemaine xxxx used to get that in uk supermarkets
3.7 abv is an insult. I avoid anything under 5 percent
Depends on the situation in which you're drinking, as well as how much and how often. Sometimes a lower ABV beer is more appropriate.
@@StraitKnopfler Purely a personal opinion. Alcohol is part of taste. Wine tastes different to beer, spirits taste different to wine. I've stopped drinking Kronenbourg 1664 since they reduced the ABV from 5 to 4.6
Ridiculous. There’s hundreds of great beers between 4 and 5%. Pilsner Urquell is 4.4%. There’s hundreds of German beers around 4.6/4.9%. Beamish is 4.2%. And they’re just big beers. Loads of great craft stuff below 5%
@@ultravassal913 No one's personal opinion is ridiculous - not even yours. I hope you continue to enjoy your lower strength beers.
Glad you put me onto Aldi/Asda German Lagers, the Steinhausers and Rheinbachers, won’t touch our ‘world lagers’ again, bloody dreadful stuff. Cheers Simon👍🍺
Used to be fosters export.what happened to castlemaine xxxx?
7/10 for British Fosters was a bit too generous, still, the quality of beer we are asked to drink and pay for is appalling in the UK compared to the originals.
The American version is 5% and comes in 750ml cans.
And sucks.
Also you used to get the smaller Foster cans in six packs that was the first time a hill Billy like me had ever seen six packs
When I heared you read "Brewed by Heineken", and we all know what you think of "Heineken" in general, we all knew the outcome of this video. Hypothetically it is like telling a blindfolded child, who hates sprouts, that it is going to taste a spoon full of sprouts, is it not? Despite the taste it WILL and it SHALL hate the taste of sprouts, always. Because the child knew it were sprouts. Maybe next time better not to, or make us believe, not to read the cans beforehand. Especially after 15 years of reviewing beers. The U.K. version looks much darker gold tough? Maybe it 's the glass. From The Netherlands, a fan, always was, always will be. Cheers mate.🍻🍺🍻
A pity that your friend didn't send you a can of Fosters Classic from Aus which is 4% ABV to round out the comparison. Just a bit of background, the Fosters brand was huge in the 80's and early 90's with many high profile sponsorships of sporting events, teams and TV commercials.
I enjoy a cider and it’s the same as Strongbow which is 5% minimum all over the world including the USA yet we are left with the 4.5% watered down product here in the U.K. 🤷🏼
Heineken don't have a brewery in Edinburgh it's an Office address
Agreed. It's brewed in Manchester. The address on the can is not necessarily the brewery address.
MOST BEERS ARE PISS WATER NOW THERE WATERED DOWN MUGS GAME SHAME
Seem the proper Aussie version of Fosters is a night + day difference between it and the pi** weak UK version.
As for Castlemaine XXXX, unfortunately that was discontinued when it's UK licence expired around 2009.
People often fail to realize that this style of macro lager was originally brewed for the 6 O'clock swill in Australia. Workers would get to the pub and Wang down as many schooners as humanly possible in 1 hour before the pub shut. They oxidize and skunk within minutes. No question that macro lagers from everywhere have gone down hill with more and more corn syrup and even rice added. This is made worse when asked beer is made under licence in another country. In this case no attempt what so ever is made to replicate the original. Anyway Fosters is hard to get in Australia Now other than maybe Victoria. Can get it online though. I think old Barry McKenzie killed it off as it became associated with bogans and lager louts. There's a whole new generation of young Aussies Now who have seen a Fosters let alone drink it yet they slag it off with venom. It's nowhere near the best lager brewed in Australia, but it's not the worst either.
I think Cruzcampo is Heineken's answer to Madri.
Plzen brewed Staropramen available at Home Bargains if that's a convenient shop for you
Astounded that UK Fosters got as much as a 7/10.
I would have given it 3/10 at most 25 years ago when I had my first and only ever pint of the stuff as a 17yo. Never gone back. Would rather order a lime n soda tbh.
OZ fosters is very nice very very nice 🏴🌈❤️👌 you nailed it 🏴
I think taxes and costs are the issue. It's difficult to sell a higher abv as the then it goes into a different price bracket. Belgians tax their beer differently so it's more commercially viable to sell a 10.5% beer. That said, tastes and attitudes towards beer need to change here. People still like to neck 10 pints over here and still feel like they are able to drive.
I liked everything you said about the Aussie Fosters, but thought you were far too generous about the British version.
I used to adore Fosters and Castlemaine, they were my introduction to drinking beer as a young man. I could swear Fosters was around 4.0% in the 90s.
And I knew one corner shop that sold Fosters Export. That stuff was very nice.
These days anything brewed under licence in Birmingham, Manchester or Edinburgh tastes like slop to me. Supermarket slop. I hate it.
I won't buy it.
You mentioned Castlemaine. I haven't seen that in years, if it wasn't for the branded towel I still have I would have forgotten all about it. So I would like to see you review it if you can find any.
And any Ice beers if you can find any of those.