Victoria Bitter

Victoria Bitter

Manufacturer	Carlton & United Beverages, a subsidiary of Foster's Group
Introduced	1890s
Alcohol by volume	4.6%
Style	Full strength bitter lager
Website	www.victoriabitter.com.au

Victoria Bitter, or VB, is an Australian beer. It has the highest market share of all beer sold in Australia, both on tap and packaged. Victoria Bitter is brewed by Carlton & United Beverages, a subsidiary of Foster's Group, brewers of the Fosters brand beer.

VB is clearly 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 carton every second.

Despite its name, it is technically a fairly standard commercial lager rather than a bitter, although perhaps slightly more bitter than many. Originally available at a strength of 4.9% ABV, Victoria Bitter 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 4.8% and is available in 375mls quantities in either bottles or cans.

Victoria Bitter is also available in New Zealand, the UK and to a limited extent, other countries abroad.

History

The origins of Victoria Bitter date back to Victoria Brewery founder Thomas Aitken, who developed the recipe in the early 1900s. The beer began to gain wide popularity in the mid 1960s with an innovative television 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. Ads now consist of the slogan "For a hard earned thirst, you need a big cold beer, and the best cold beer is Vic, Victoria Bitter". The most recent advertising campaign features David Boon, although a number of other ads are occasionally screened, such as one which promotes Australia's love of barbecuing meat, including its national emblems, the kangaroo and emu. 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" or "Grenades" (250ml bottles in the State of New South Wales). As of 2005 VB also comes in 500ml 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 800mL bottles or 26 and 2/3 fl oz steel cans, until the introduction of "stubbies" and smaller cans.

In a testament to its long history and popularity, VB has acquired a number of nicknames, ranging from the abbreviated "Vic Bitter", polite "Very Best", "Vitamin B", "The Staple" and "Victory Beer", for after a win in the footy.

VB Gold

File:VBmidlogo.jpg

In 2007, Fosters launched a new, midstrength version of VB called VB Midstrength with an alcohol volume of 3.5%, in order to capitalize on the growing market for midstrength beers, currently dominated by XXXX Gold. VB Midstrength changed its name ot 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".

VB Midstrength has since been renamed 'VB Gold'. And during the 2008 Rugby League World Cup, VB Gold was advertised on TV by Australian Rugby League legends Wally Lewis and Gorden Tallis.

VB RAW

File:Raw-badge.png

In September 2009, VB released VB RAW. The alcohol volume is 4.5%.

Marketing and promotion

In New Zealand, VB has had little media exposure and is therefore mainly drunk by Australian expatriates and not by working class New Zealanders. VB is now available in the US at its sole distribution outlet run by Cellar360 in San Francisco.

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.

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".

See also

• List of breweries in Australia

External links

• Official VB Website
• Official product webpage
• VB Warnie - Summer of Spin
• Review of VB