Australia: Coopers Birell continues solid growth

Coopers Birell has carved a significant niche for itself in the Australian beverage market, with national sales having increased by almost 3% over the past two years, Coopers announced on July 8. Birell, which is brewed in Australia by Coopers Brewery under licence from Danish brewer Carlsberg, is a brewed malt beverage sold through supermarkets as well as liquor outlets.

Coopers Managing Director and Chief Brewer, Dr Tim Cooper, said Birell’s continuing success was largely due to its strong flavour profile. “Birell is made through the normal brewing process, using a special yeast that produces a full flavoured beverage with the taste of beer but without the alcohol,” he said.

“The most common way to produce very low alcohol beer is to remove alcohol from a normal strength beer through an evaporative or filtration process. However, this also tends to strip out much of the flavour.

“By using a normal brewing process with all malted barley, no added sugar and a special yeast, the flavour is retained.”

Dr Cooper said Birell had been made by Coopers for the past 28 years and had developed a strong market among people who enjoyed the taste of beer, but for health or other reasons did not want to ingest alcohol.

He said Birell was particularly popular in golf and bowling clubs where players could enjoy a number of drinks after a game and drive home safely.
In recent years, Coopers has also opened export markets for Birell in New Zealand and Japan.

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