Carlton Light

Brewed by Carlton & United Breweries (CUB)
Style: Low Alcohol
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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They have a lovely picture of barley on the label. Nice touch, if only there was some in the can. Why do people bother with light beer?

Very very watery and bland. Have it cold but preferably stick to Cascade Light. It dull but not offensive.

OK. Not a bad light beer, pale colour, no head. Grainy aroma, very water-like body, quite boring.

Well, this has got one up ona lot of the CUB products - it actually is drinkable. To some degree anyway, because it tastes remarkably like soda water with a hint of PoR. There actually is a bit of an aroma, although thankfully it disappears on tasting because it’s not great. I still find it amazing that companies can get away with putting things like "full flavoured" on beers like this - bring on the ACCC! zzzzzz...

Pale straw yellow, weak grainy aroma, same watery weak palate. You’ve reeeaaallly got to be low on choices to turn to this stuff.

Things that Carlton Light is light on: flavour, smell, body, head, alcohol, barley malt, flair, invention, ambition, passion, character, quality, pleasure. It’s drab-looking lager with a sparse standard-issue CUB head (no point in a brewer worrying about head when the beer will be drunk from a stubby, is there?) The aroma is piercingly uric and grassy. There are unexpected honey notes in the mid-palate before a classic metallic POR finish. To be fair, this has solid bitterness for a low-alcohol beer. Just a pity it’s bitterness of the sucking-pennies variety. Soda-water thin body. By no means the worst in the CUB range. (330ml bottle. Best before Jan 2007)

Almost golden body, short lasting head, lager taste with some bitterness. Still it was boring but inoffensive.

Pale golden colour, thick white head. Pale malt aroma, a bit cardboardy and stale. Faint honey sweetness. Very simple and boring.

UPDATED: JUL 14, 2005 Bottled. Pale golden, airy head. Light raspberry aroma. Sweet and rather thin with some flavours of cardboard and metallic vegetables. Luckily the awful flavours of Melbourne Bitter is here diluted, making this a much more drinkable liquid.

Very pale and very clear, no head retention. Yeasty, steamy aroma with onions and sesame seeds. Kinda watery, very much devoid of sweetness which is at least interesting. Dry and savoury, perhaps some salt and slight carbonic bite. Not terrible. This is the tenth rating - will this put it in the bottom 50?

Pale Gold in Colouring with a smallish but thick white short lasting head. A hint of a bitter hop aroma. Bitter, wheaty, chemical-urine flavour with an acidic type of tasting finish.