Fancy a coldie? Our expert panel drank their way through 44 premium beers to help you choose your poison.(Test: premium beer)

Publication: Choice (Chippendale, Australia)

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COPYRIGHT 2003 Australian Consumers' Association

IN A NUTSHELL

* Our expert tasters came up with a CHOICE six-pack of top-rating beers in a variety of styles (see page 25).

* Freshness is vital to beer quality--check the dates when you buy (see Buying tips, far right).

* UV light--including sunlight--can badly affect beer: don't buy it if it's been stored in bright light, and keep it somewhere cool and dark (the fridge springs to mind) at home.

Move over, all you chardonnay-sipping sophisticates--the beer drinker's day is here. Gone is the image of the thong-wearing Ocker with beer gut and Stubbies. Now you can go to the neighbourhood barbie with your latest premium beer in tow and be seen as cutting edge, no less.

While sales of regular beer are flat, the premium beer sector is on the rise: it's doubled its size in the past four years and now accounts for about 7.5% of beer sales. The time is ripe to take a look at the 'premium' beer market and separate the flat from the frothy, so to speak.

SO WHAT'S PREMIUM?

We started with a list of practically every beer that's available at mainstream bottle shops, and from there started our cull based on price (because, let's face it, expensive beer is what the average punter sees as 'premium', even if it's not premium quality). This left us with beers that were more expensive than the average. From this list we chose primarily those that were widely available.

However, we also included some of the cheaper or less available ones to broaden the field. Because some brands come in multiple types (lager, ale, etc) we limited our list to one or two types per brand to keep the numbers manageable. And we added a handful of regular top-selling beers for comparison.

FRESH IS BEST

Beer is best fresh from the brewery. It doesn't improve with age (with a few exceptions--some Belgian-style beers like being aged) and over time loses flavour. It's also pretty sensitive to light and heat. When exposed to UV light, including sunlight, it can develop a condition known as light strike, resulting in a strong sulphur (rubbery or burnt) character. This can happen in as little as 30 minutes in bright sunlight.

Because freshness is such a critical factor with...

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