Carlton Dry to make changes after ring pull cap flop

Carlton Dry has pulled an about-face after its redesigned bottle sparked an outcry from customers, with some left injured by the “ridiculous” change.

Carlton Dry will bring back stubby twist tops after its new ring pull cap caused customer fury.

Frothing mad beer drinkers have complained about the redesign, with some reporting suffering finger cuts.

Carlton Dry has now apologised, saying the twist tops will return in March.

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“We’ve listened to our consumers and it’s clear they prefer opening their beer the more traditional way,” Carlton Dry brand director Brian Phan told the Sunday Herald Sun.

“So we’re going back to twist tops. It wasn’t broken and we shouldn’t have tried to fix it.”

Tradies Joel Griffs, Luke Smith, Brody MacDonald, and Josh Lanyon try to work the new smaller bottles. Picture: Jason Edwards

The backflip comes less than three months after the ring pulls were launched in late October, when the pull caps were described as “easy to use”.

Those fuming about the new caps have dubbed them “finger shredders”, “ridiculous” and “rubbish”.

In a bid to quell unrest, the brewer even resorted to releasing a video explaining how drinkers should place their thumb on the cap and pull the ring out, then up.

Frustrated customers grappling with the packaging have been posting pictures of opening fails on social media and threatening to ditch the brand.

Some have also shared images of cut or bloodied fingers, accusing Carlton Dry of unleashing a hazard.

Others are up in arms about the bottle size shrinking from 355ml to 330ml without a price drop, attacking the change as a “rip-off”.

Carlton Dry said the size was reduced to avoid a price rise.

“To keep our prices unchanged on the 330ml bottles we’re not passing on any of our increases in production costs for a 12-month period and we won’t pass on the federal government’s February increase in beer tax.”

Tradie Joel Griffs, who tested the ring pull caps with some mates, said: “It’s all right, they pop off pretty easily, but when we were trying to open them one of them broke.

“One of the ring pulls actually busted and then you would have to get a screwdriver or something to actually pop it off.”

Facebook is awash with criticism of the new design.

“Carlton Dry, as good as the beer is, has honestly done the stupidest thing they could have done,” a disenchanted drinker said.

One woman raged: “Don’t start me on the pull top! It’s made for keeping arthritic people from drinking! A finger shredder and a beer foamer!”

The changes also triggered a “Boycott the new Carlton Dry bottles” Facebook page.

Carlton Dry would not disclose how many injury reports it had received.

@KarenCollierHS