Are we Aussie RBer’s apathetic?

Reads 6988 • Replies 48 • Started Wednesday, February 2, 2011 3:21:00 AM CT

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Message Stew41 beers 2523 º places 298 º 13:44 Thu 2/3/2011 Originally posted by hawthorne00 Seeing as previous Melbourne Update thread is now frozen, a few notes: Prince Wine and Spirits Clarendon St and Cloudwine Cellars Brighton are now both Liquorlands. Anyone know about the fate of the other branches of these places? Also, according to The Crafty Pint, LambsGoBaa is shut and has moved to the nice old pub The Rainbow in Fitzroy. Hi, as owner of Cloudwine (and Slowbeer for that matter) happy to provide an update.... As some may know we did have 3 Cloudwine stores up until mid 2008. Work pressures elsewhere and a newborn conspired against us such that we took offers to sell the Brighton and Camberwell businesses over the past 18 months. Suits us as it takes some of the business pressures away and I suspect we’ll actually make more $$! The South Melbourne store isn’t going anywhere and will continue to be primarily focussed on small producer wine. That said, we will strive to have ~200 odd decent beers on the shelves at all times (will be similar in focus to Slowbeer). Ironically, selling the 2 wine stores allowed me to re-direct efforts into Slowbeer, something my wife is not particularly happy with from a work-life balance perspective. On another point Coles seem very keen on snapping up independant stores at the minute to ’consolidate’ competition in a number of suburns. Doesn’t bode well for consumer choice..............
Message jonno beers 2750 º places 211 º 17:08 Thu 2/3/2011 Hi, as owner of Cloudwine (and Slowbeer for that matter) happy to provide an update.... As some may know we did have 3 Cloudwine stores up until mid 2008. Work pressures elsewhere and a newborn conspired against us such that we took offers to sell the Brighton and Camberwell businesses over the past 18 months. Suits us as it takes some of the business pressures away and I suspect we’ll actually make more $$! The South Melbourne store isn’t going anywhere and will continue to be primarily focussed on small producer wine. That said, we will strive to have ~200 odd decent beers on the shelves at all times (will be similar in focus to Slowbeer). Ironically, selling the 2 wine stores allowed me to re-direct efforts into Slowbeer, something my wife is not particularly happy with from a work-life balance perspective. On another point Coles seem very keen on snapping up independant stores at the minute to ’consolidate’ competition in a number of suburns. Doesn’t bode well for consumer choice.............. Interesting.The Duopoly really do have a strangle hold over so many facets of our lives. Still great work with slowbeer - I know I do my part in keeping you ticking along!
Message hawthorne00 P beers 8444 º places 63 º 04:33 Fri 2/4/2011 Thanks Stew41. I guess they didn’t put a Vintage Cellars in there because there are others very close and it’s too small for a 1st Choice - but still, Liquorland is very downmarket for that location. I suppose it is just a case of snapping up the sites. How about Prince? - it sure looked like we had a couple of people with intimate knowledge of the business here.

Message Stew41 beers 2523 º places 298 º 13:03 Fri 2/4/2011 Originally posted by hawthorne00 Thanks Stew41. I guess they didn’t put a Vintage Cellars in there because there are others very close and it’s too small for a 1st Choice - but still, Liquorland is very downmarket for that location. I suppose it is just a case of snapping up the sites. How about Prince? - it sure looked like we had a couple of people with intimate knowledge of the business here. Same deal with Prince. Coles just looking to snap up well located stores. Don’t worry about Liquor Land in Brighton - a perfect match. I’ve never seen such a group of supposedly well heeled people so disinterested / naive about eating and drinking quality product.
Message mullet beers 849 º places 230 º 13:30 Fri 2/4/2011 I’m definitely apathetic. Don’t buy nearly as much beer as I used to (really need to get to Slowbeer), but I still check in here regularly. There’s plenty of banter on BA, but not a whole lot of information IMO. And the whole ’hooray for everything’ attitude gets to me a bit. Maybe we need to balance that with a decent amount of snark here? The Prince guys are taking over Essendon Cellars I think.
Message jonno beers 2750 º places 211 º 21:22 Fri 2/4/2011 Originally posted by mullet I’m definitely apathetic. Don’t buy nearly as much beer as I used to (really need to get to Slowbeer), but I still check in here regularly. There’s plenty of banter on BA, but not a whole lot of information IMO. And the whole ’hooray for everything’ attitude gets to me a bit. Maybe we need to balance that with a decent amount of snark here? The Prince guys are taking over Essendon Cellars I think. Lol I can be as snarky as the rest - but with the beer scene here so far behind (well relative to other countries), I’m trying to be positive - even if sometimes I am ampfying that praise more than the product/situation really warrants. But if we the ’beer geeks’ can’t be at least slightly positive, how we expect vale ale/coopers/mountain goat steam etc drinkers to be positive? The more Mountain Goat/ Little Creatures etc sell of the flagship beers the more we benefit with experiments,new products and wider distribution of Feral/Jamieson/Murrays etc..win/win I say!
Message mullet beers 849 º places 230 º 22:37 Fri 2/4/2011 I think the opposite - praising the merely OK creates the false impression that Australia has a top class beer scene (which it’s really not far off in Melbourne these days). Of course I say this as someone who hasn’t posted a bad review in years... In other news, it’s good to see eczematic’s rule for naming microbreweries is multiplicative (or is that additive?): http://craftypint.com/events/event/valentine-s-dinner-special-with-the-two-hills/

Message jonno beers 2750 º places 211 º 00:34 Sat 2/5/2011 I wouldn’t say it’s praising the average, but lifting the above average beers profiles. Our IPAs for example, are not world class, but Feral Hop Hog and Jamieson Beast are the best we have and the more you can do to lift their profile, the more we will start to see these beers in a more regular capacity. Therefore hop heads (read me) can rejoice! I will rate a beer as I see it. Unlike a certain rater who gives huge ratings for literally every beer they drink. For example, I thought the Red Poppy from 8 wired was not a good beer, certainly not as good as many people seem to think it is.
Message ALLOVATE P beers 3844 º places 111 º 03:04 Sat 2/5/2011 Apathetic on RateBeer I think we are, ooofff, hold that, can’t be bothered to reply to this!
Message jonno beers 2750 º places 211 º 03:50 Sat 2/5/2011 Originally posted by ALLOVATE Apathetic on RateBeer I think we are, ooofff, hold that, can’t be bothered to reply to this! Yep pretty much what I expected from some...oh well You might want to get back to rating beers past their prime and pale lagers to keep your ticks up...