Seems like all those previous worries about Australia running out of beer due to the coronavirus pandemic proved to be unfounded because it looks like we have a little too much beer and COVID-19 is forcing us to pour it all down the drain.
Beer lovers in Australia, you may want to look away because it gets pretty depressing.
Speaking of yeast-related topics, the GOAT team talk about the rise of baking while in isolation on ‘It’s Been A Big Day For…’ below:
According to 7News, the coronavirus pandemic has caused a thousands of kegs of unwanted beer to pile up and since no one can visit the pub due to COVID-19 lockdown rules, Australian brewers are having to get rid of it all or it’ll just go to waste. I know what some people are thinking but drinking it all or registering a six-pack as a service animal aren’t viable options, sadly.
The wild drop in booze demand and forced closure of venues in Australia due to COVID-19 has forced brewers to pour about 4.5 million litres – or about 25 million schooners – of unwanted beer down the drain, literally.
25. Million. Schooners.
Lion Australia, one of the country’s largest brewers, is reportedly tipping some 90,000 kegs of unwanted beer at wastewater treatment plants while Carlton & United Breweries is donating thousands of two-litre glass bottles to pubs in an effort to get people to buy more takeaway beer.
It sucks that we can’t go to the pub for a refreshing beer and it doubly sucks for all the brewers and brewery workers across Australia who are affected by the coronavirus pandemic. But hey, let’s try and look at the upside of all this because there is one major pro to this massive beer dump.
With Australia’s beer stocks cleared until the COVID-19 lockdown rules are lifted, it means that our very first schooner post-isolation will be super fresh. Hell, it might be the freshest beer we’ll ever taste in our lifetime.
In the words of Lion Australia’s Rob Higgins: “I think all Australians love going to the pub and sharing a beer with their mates, and this will just really promote clean, fresh beer.”
That being said, it’ll still take some time for brewers to make this fresh batch of post-coronavirus beer and get Australia’s booze supplies back up so we’ll probably be waiting even longer than usual. But let’s try to keep a schooner half-full mindset and think of how good that first post-COVID-19 beer is going to taste.
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