The Perfect Lager Project

Over the last couple of months I have been participating in a social experiment to develop the perfect lager by crowd sourcing beer drinking experiences. The motivating driver for me to participate was free beer, and keeping with Hardknott Dave's approach - No I didn't ask for free beer, although I'm always open to receiving cash, beer or other goods and services in exchange for positive comment on these hallow pages.

The approach in this marketing drive is unique in that all beer drinking experiences are collected interactively through an iPhone app. It's as simple as every time you crack open a bottle, you take a photo through the app and it records what the beer is and sends it off to a data repository for later analysis. It also gives you the option to share your experience through Facebook, Twitter and other social media which drives further interest in the eventual product.

I'll admit that I have not really been drinking much beer and have been sipping too much red wine lately, however I did manage to contribute a dozen or so different beer experiences to the project.

The promotion is being run by Casella wines who produce the Yellow Tail range. Firstly, I hope the beer is better than their wine which targets the lower end of the market and is almost the definition of mediocrity. Its not bad, but hardly exciting either.

The wine aside, I have faith that the project will produce a decent beer, although mediocre in that it will have to appeal to the broadest market possible and sell well. Brewing just for niche beer geeks is not going to keep you in business for long in the Australian market which is dominated by mega swill lager that sells in large volumes. I received an email with some statistics sources from the project which are roughly 70% of beer is lager, 20% ale's. I am expecting a flavoursome lager with a fruity/hoppy twist from the initial results.

Anyhow, I am sure Google will turn up some more info for those who are interested

Jealous

I have not posted in a long while. The Piss It Up The Wall era is over and the blog has now reverted back to The Beer Diary. I have deleted all of those obscene posts and the content in now back in balance as it should be. Maybe I'll resurrect them on a new blog?

The truth be told I have not been drinking or brewing much lately and my time has been taken up by the birth of my son Dylan. I plan to fix this and get back to blogging on a semi regular basis. Australia is moving forward with it's craft brewing movement but not a the same speed as the US, UK or even NZ. Most pubs seem to offer megaswill and cider with a token 'craft' offering from one of the major brands.

I will say though that I am extremely jealous of all the activity occurring in the US at the moment. I know that Prof. Pilsener and Mark Dredge have been over in San Diego for the Beer World Cup. Even my brother is in the states at the moment. To make me jealous he sent me the following photo. It reminds me exactly how much I need a holiday.