CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | Contact
A recent report from just about anyone who’s been to the Australian Capital Territory in the last couple years has found that Canberra are very serious about drinking local.
This is interesting, for a town that’s main source of income revolved around hosting public servants and diplomats who are not from there.
However, it seems Canberrans do not feel the pressure to provide visitors with familiarity when it comes to beer. Anyone who visits Canberra has no option but to drink beers from Canberra – with very little options outside of that.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, considering the standard of local beer is a cut above most. But the fact remains that the ACT brewery scene is a little bit more than simply an industry. It’s more of an expression of extreme localism.
In pubs and bottle shops around the Capital City, it seems that the most popular beers are the ones that have words like ‘Capital’ written on them, or the names of random Canberra suburbs.
Their patriotism towards beer is now officially on par with Queenslanders, who will literally drink anything that has an exotic fish on the label – even if it doesn’t do the same job as normal beer.
Canberra’s extreme loyalty to local beer is not that out of place when you think about it, given they’ve already made it very clear that they feel the same way about their preferred dairy brands (CANBERRA MILK).
In fact, Canberra Milk is so entwined with the Canberran identity that the team’s NRL side the Canberra Raiders are often referred to as ‘THE MILK’ because of the many years that Canberra Milk was the team’s lead sponsor.
The rise of microbrewing and craft brewing has meant that Canberra residents now mixed their extreme localism with beer.
As the Australian beer market continues to fragment away from the traditional major brewing duopoly, it is not yet known how many independent brewers Canberra can sustain, or if they will end up creating their own micro-duopoly, either way, there’s plenty of taps available for local beer because no other brewers from outside of the ACT are even getting a look in.
Canberra residents also say that their favourite band is Peking Duk, who are from Canberra.
Their favourite footballer is Mal Meninga, who isn’t from Canberra, but is from that era when nobody was really from Canberra but immediately became Canberrans.
Their favourite type of tea in that T2 ‘Canberra Breakfast’ blend.
