Southwark Bitter
South Australia Brewing Co.

Back in the day, a century or more ago, this beer was an ale. When Australia like the rest of the world took to lagers in a big way, this beer went along for the ride. But it isn't like every other adjunct lager in 2 important respects. It kept a darker malt and it has a lot more bittering hops than you will see in a typical lager. The malt character is a legacy of its origins as an ale. The bitterness is a result of how SA Brewing marketed their beers. Simply, their West End beer was their draught beer. Southwark was the beer you bought at the bottle shop to take home. Not being refrigerated thru the supply chain, Southwark upped the bittering hops as a preservative. It's the same logic as what went into the creation of IPAs. Australian beer drinkers from outside of South Australia have always understood Southwark to be different, and often not in a good way. (Australians have seldom been comfortable with difference.) So the claim that it is just like any other adjunct lager is ridiculous.

As for the beer itself, putting beer snobbery aside, its a very well made beer. It has a fair amount of malt and caramel sweetness and the bitterness is a good thing in a hot climate. It doesn't have fruity aromas because lagers aren't supposed to have those. Malt and hops. That's what a lager is. Rating it down because it isn't an ale is ignorant. It pours a good clean head and leaves ample lacing.

Sadly, with the closure of local operations and the move to interstate production, this beer will probably not survive. And that will be a genuine loss.

 

375 ML poured into a globe glass

Retired?? Found it all over the place in Adelaide when I was there over Easter.

A-- Poured a golden yellow straw color. One finger bright white white colored head that dropped down to just above film leaving a few lines of lacing. Good head retention on swirling. Got one and a half fingers of head. Body looks thin and shows no carbonation bubbles.

S-- Metallic sweet corn. Yes, a total adjunct. A few hops for giggles I assume and a bit of a soapy smell to this. Inoffensive smell really and pretty thin what I do get.

T-- Sweet corn, stewed lettuce or bok choy, metallic and sugary.

M-- Mix metal and sugar and you get this. Metallic sugar. UGH. Throw in some stewed corn, veggies and sweet bread you get a delicious treat. Not really.

O-- In the mold of VB and Tooheys but I think more metallic. As it warms up just gets more sweet and stewed veggies. Probably a lot better cold but oh well. Can taste why this does not leave SA. Looks good but after that, straight downhill.

Southwark bitter is possibly the best Australian beer I have ever tasted. It is also cheap for its great taste. It is not a very well known beer but is the main beer of the rural parts of South Australia such as the Eyre Peninsula. It runs on to the tongue with a satisfying trophy feeling and leaves you with the most pleasant bitter after taste. The appearance of the beer doesn't live up to the taste but it does pour well, it forms a nice white head which dissolves fairly quickly, the actual colour of the beer is a rich golden yellow. There is no real distinct smell to the brew but the taste is just exceptional. I would not recommend this beer to pansies or non-beer lovers. Southwark bitter is criticized a lot for being too bitter, to these people I say toughen up or don't drink beer! Beer is meant to be bitter, there is even an award given to the most bitter beer in the world. Southwark won this award in 2001. For beer lovers Southwark bitter is an absolute must try, it may even change your beer drinking habits forever, I know it changed mine. Overall a top drop.

I will confess to having a slight soft spot for this beer. It is possibly THE most commonly drunk beer in the town I am from. It is the one that is most commonly on tap. It is the one that is normally carried out of large cold rooms in run down hotels, in bottles in large boxes by big tattooed men wearing sunglasses and shirts with the sleeves torn off.

It is also the first beer I drank when the passing of the seasons meant that the law suddenly smiled upon me for doing so. This was my coming of age beer.

I wish I had grown up somewhere else. Or later. Or both.

The beer's appearance is actually quite good. It pours well, forms a nice white head which dissipates fairly quickly and is a rich golden yellow. From the tap, it is a good solid workingmans beer.

It is when you drink it that you start to notice all is not well in Oz...

Taste is ok, if somewhat bland. There is a somewhat pleasant nuttiness to it, but it is well hidden by the other, less pleasant characters of the beer.

However, this beer has an aftertaste that only gets worse as the beer warms up. If you love your children, DO NOT LET THIS BEER WARM UP! Drink it while it is still frosty and slippery.

Mouthfeel is also temperature related. As it warms up, it just feels wrong in your mouth. I suspect this is why the people I grew up with drink so much of it. It starts to feel bad, so they pour it down and get another one. Lusting after the new beer feel...?

Smell is quite non-descript. Imagine you in a garden and you see a big red rose. You bend down to sniff it, and realise there is no smell. Not quite the situation here, but the disappoint is the same.

If you are in South Australia, and you want to drink what the locals drink this is one of the two big ones. The other is marginally better. If you MUST drink it though, buy it by the schooner, don't buy too many schooners, and finish them quickly.

You have been warned.

One thing for the site moderators to note. This beer is brewed in "Thebarton" - one word.

"The Barton" is what we tell foreigners...

;-)

375mL bottle. Was curious to try this because it seems you can't get it east of South Australia. Since the label proudly states "25 IBU (international bittering units)", I believe it is intended as an English Bitter, not a macro lager, despite what Rastaman thinks.

Appearance: Sticky lacing, thin head retention. Too much head and too light in colour (pale amber) for an English Bitter. Inappropriate, even if it were to be considered a macro lager.

Smell: Crap. Adjuncty, Australian macro smell. Weak, poor.

Taste: Not what I expected, to say the least! Sweet, a bit of a smooth aftertaste. Other than this, all that's there is terrible macro adjunctivitis, exacerbated by the bitterness. It is indeed bitter, but the bitter flavouring only enhances what else is in the ale, and in this case it's just chemicals.

Mouthfeel: Creamy. Good mouthfeel almost makes up for shite taste. However, the taste is shite so the beer is a letdown.

Drinkability: Better than your average macro, I suppose, but it's not on tap anywhere in NSW, or even too many places in central Adelaide, it seems. You'd have to be an idiot to drink this in SA when Coopers ales are everywhere.

Notes: It's such a pity that this beer sucks, because the stout is incredibly good. Either this beer is a new invention on a budget, and the stout an old English recipe, or the stout recipe was a fluke and they decided to keep making it that way. Weird to have one excellent beer and two other way below average beers (bitter and premium lager) from the same brewery. This won't kill my passion for the stout, however.

Pretty bad, typical Aussie "bitter". Rusty metal/tinny, with the traditional POR hrashness on the finish, malt sweet (corn), i not really bitter at all, thin body. Pretty lame, but better than a lot of Aussie bitters, but i guess that doesn't say much, preeety lame stuff.