Carlton Empire Lager

Formerly brewed at Carlton & United Breweries (CUB)
Style: Pale Lager
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

This is one of those execrable ’concept’ beers where a bunch of marketers sat around a table and asked, "How can we repackage the same old crap to tap into a younger, more fashionable market?" You don’t see this much any more, so whatever the answer to that question might be, this presumably wasn’t it. Thank Christ because this is dire. A high pour raised a modest head and a stale vegetal aroma. There’s a whiff of wet cardboard and adjuncts but nothing at all encouraging. As with all these piddling Carlton lagers, it’s overcarbonated and full of sugary sweetness to mask the vegetal mid-palate, soggy malts and absence of a finish. This is desperately thinly hopped. In fact, this is barely distinguishable from VB. (345ml bottle)

My son reckons this beer is supposed to appear to females. Looks wise, with a medium amber gold colour with small vanishing head - maybe. Aroma wise its a lightly skunked, metallic faint stale hops. From there it's rapidly down hill. Thin soda watery body. Short weak bitter and sugary malt start. Stale corn like sweet and chemical adjunct thereafter. Truly one of Oz's worst beers.

tastes identical to MB. or was that carlton draught? or VB? or carlton cold? ill have to have a blind tastetest of all the CUb lagers one of these days. i'll definitely be spitting them in a bucket.

Geez, why did I even bother? Talk about hard to down, this beer is possibly the biggest joke to hit the shelves of the local Liquor store since Carlton Cold!!! Warning bells were there just from the label and the clear glass bottle, I should have put it back. Poured into a Pilsner glass, medium soapy white head formed quickly atop a crystal clear straw body. Heavy metallic aroma, skunky, and something almost like Ouzo and coke wafted from the glass. Carlton Cold in the mouth, very soapy and Diacetyl slick, chemically derived carbonation and clamminess across the palate, yet oddly flavourless. Almost not beer at all. I don’t know what drugs the Bean counters at CUB are on because this is an insulting Drain poor of a ’drink’. ’Nuff said!!!

Has got to be serious contender to CUB’s worst beer, quite a note worthy achievement. Clear light gold just like a bunch of other macro largers. Adjunct malts on nose? CUB staleness lurking as well. Very dry, crisp palate with underlying stale notes and faint syrupy, manufactured malts.

Typical CUB aroma: slightly sweet, slightly hoppy. Poured without a head. Very, very slight bitterness and corn in the taste but oterwise flavourless. Dryness comes from heavy carbonation. A waste of money.

Smells nasty (pineapples, yeast) and whilst it tastes reasonably clean, it’s both watery and very sweet. Really quite bad, but I thought the little corrugated parts on the bottle were a nice touch.

Another dire beer from CUB. Though they managed to remove the foul chemical metal taste of VB they also took out any discernable flavour. I’ld prefer the chemical foulness of VB over this bland beer to nowhere. The labelling is also rediculous. I hope they take a bath on this dog of a beer.