‘Beer without a buzz’ available

Press, 3 November 1984, Page 2

‘Beer without a buzz’ available

Swan Breweries, of Perth, hopes that its “beer without a buzz” will capture New Zealand lager drinkers. Swan special ! light lager, which has an alcohol content of 0.9 per cent, should appeal to the calorieconscious beer drinker who wants to avoid drink-driving convictions, according to the beer’s New Zealand marketers. The beer was now available from the main Christchurch liquor outlets, said the marketing manager of Allied Liquor ■ Merchants, Mr Allen McCormick. It would cost about the same as normal-strerigth Austra-

lian beer. The beer is brewed to full strength, about 5 per cent alcohol, then the alcohol is removed by vacuum distillation. As a result, the light lager has about half the calories of a normalstrength beer.

Tasters at “The Press” yesterday pronounced the beer light and tangy. An added advantage, according to Mr McCormick, is that drinkers of the lowalcohol beer can keep on the right side of the Ministry of Transport.

He said that the beer would not be sold through supermarkets, as the com-

Kfelt it was an alcoholic rage and as such should be sold through liquor outlets. The Mental Health Foundation said yesterday that it welcomed the introduction of a low-alcohol beer, but had some reservations. Its director, Dr Max Abbott, said that the foundation welcomed any measure which could reduce the consumption of alcohol. “The low-alcohol beer will only be beneficial if customers take it as an alternative to high alcoholcontent beverages and, lower their consumption,” he said.