Lion to close West End Brewery

South Australia’s West End Brewery has been officially killed by an unpleasant combination of hipsters and health advocates.

Adelaide ceiling contractors Ryan Fraser, left, and Dale Evans share a six-pack of what South Australians call ‘red cans’. Picture: Roy Van Der Vegt

South Australia’s beloved West End Brewery has been officially killed by an unpleasant combination of hipsters and health advocates as the consumption of traditional lager falls prey to craft beer, clean living and wine bars.

West End Draught — long derided by snobs as a bogan’s brew — has a passionate following among tradies, labourers and suburban football teams in its spiritual home in Adelaide.

But with a 20 per cent drop in the sales of traditional beer, parent company Lion has decided that Adelaide production of the beer will now cease.

The announcement that the brewery would close next June came as a shock in a state where West End has been part of life for 160 years, hosting the city’s annual Christmas display at the River Torrens and painting its brick chimney in the colours of the victorious premiership team at the end of every South Australian National Football League season.

There are no guarantees that the lights or the chimney will remain. The site is expected to be sold off for apartments when the brewery shuts for good, with 94 local jobs lost.

Lion insisted on Wednesday that the brewery’s two most popular beers would still be available but would be brewed interstate — West End Draught and Southwark Bitter, known locally as “Red Cans” and “Green Death”.

But locals say they are gutted that the beer — historically made with water from a natural spring fed by the Torrens in the inner-western suburb of Thebarton — will no longer be locally produced and might end up tasting different.

Verity Ferguson, co-owner of Southwark Hotel in Adelaide, pours pints of West End after the news the beer will no longer be brewed in South Australia. Picture: Tom Huntley

Ceiling contractors Ryan Fraser and Dale Evans were splitting a six-pack on Wednesday at the Goody Park Hotel after a day on the tools.

“We love it,” Mr Evans said, sipping from a Red Can with Mr Fraser in the tray of his old model HiLux. “It’s the taste of Adelaide.”

“I’m not into craft beer — it’s too heavy, there’s too much crap floating around in it. West End is crisp and clean.

“A red can straight off the ice out of the Esky is impossible to beat.”

SANFL Aussie Rules legend Scott Hodges won eight premierships playing at full forward for Port Adelaide in the 1980s and 90s and said the traditional unveiling of the premiership team’s colours on the brewery chimney was “part of our heritage”.

“Seeing those colours go up after the grand final is a huge South Australian tradition,” Hodges said.

“After those grand finals we would start the day at the brewery and then write off the day celebrating with a pub crawl through the western suburbs. No pub was safe.

“It’s part of what makes us who we are and it’s bloody sad that it’s going to be lost, but everything is becoming trendy now.”

In a statement, Lion said increased wine consumption and the dwindling demand for old-style draughts and lagers meant the existing SA operation was unsustainable.

“West End has been operating well below its full production capacity for some time now and unfortunately this is no longer viable,” a Lion spokesman said.

“The Australian beer market has been in long-term decline for the past decade as Australian drinkers choose other beverages, like wine, over beer. Per capita beer consumption has dropped around 20 per cent in this time.”