No longer can we pick Queenslanders by the beer they drink

Once upon a time, you knew who the tourists were by what beer they ordered, but these days, brewed variety is the spice of life.

Ashley Robinson. Picture: Patrick Woods

I see the Moffat Beach Brewery won a couple of national awards for its local brew which is fantastic news.

There certainly are some great beer brewers on the Coast: old-timers like Sunshine Coast Brewery, and of late there are more breweries opening up than local MPs slapping themselves on the back.

They are everywhere: Ten Toes, Glass House, Your Mates, just to name a few.

It sure is a burgeoning industry and looks like a whole lot of fun to boot.

Why do I mention this, you may well ask.

It's because I do love a beer.

I'm not sure about some of the flowery citrus-based offers that seem to be popular of late, but in saying that, it is pretty hard to find a bad beer.

Aside from my love for the stuff, beer trends show once again how the Coast is changing, as seen at the NRL game on the Coast the other night.

If you told me back in the '80s when I was in Gympie watching Great Britain v Wide Bay, drinking XXXX Bitter and cheering on Martin Offiah, that a few decades later I would be watching an actual NRL fixture at Kawana and drinking a beer called Young Henry's, I would have said you were off your lemon spread.

My, how the Coast has changed in footy and beer.

I remember while growing up, Dad used to drink Gold Top tallies, which I think were brewed in Ipswich and were eventually bought out by Carlton.

Back in those days, the bloody Victorians were trying to infiltrate the land of Castlemaine Perkins with the little XXXX man and Bundy Rum.

How dare these southerners?

We apparently were happy with beer and rum and a redneck way of life.

Digressing slightly, I remember in the '90s when bourbon started to get a foothold.

Jim Beam was killing it, as was Jack Daniels. But Bundy was holding its own still.

So Cougar Bourbon decided maybe it should make some rum.

Someone sent some Bundy to Kentucky to the Cougar Bourbon chemists and said to "make something that tastes like this because these Queenslanders love it”.

On receipt of the bottles, the chemist rang the genius who had sent the bottles and asked him to send some more because they thought his sample had gone off.

"No, that's what it tastes like,” he replied.

Back in the day, we were a bit special up here.

When VB came on tap, the choice was still usually XXXX or XXXX.

So when someone came and asked for a VB or Fosters, we all knew they were a tourist.

Then it got a bit more complicated with Power's coming to the market towards the end of the '80s.

It was all a bit confusing, particularly when the Kiwis bought XXXX. All of a sudden, there were all sorts of southern beers and we started to wonder who the tourists really were as schooners took over from pots and sevens, and the pony disappeared.

What is a pony, you may well ask.

It's a 5oz beer which became redundant.

I guess these days, with all the boutique beers, the only clear way to tell who is a Queenslander in a crowd is to look for the blokes drinking Bundy and milk.