The team at Better Beer had a very good reason for making their first foray into the mid-strength beer market – the people who love it, really love it.
The fledgling brewery, a partnership between Victorian brewer Nick Cogger and Jack Steele and Matt Ford – aka internet sensation The Inspired Unemployed – recently added to its core range The Middy, a crisp and clean lager that clocks in at a modest and manageable 3% ABV.
Chief executive Cogger says that it was always part of the plan to launch a mid-strength beer, given how devoted its drinkers are to the category. And even though Better Beer has far-outstripped expectations since its launch in November 2021, the company is entering territory dominated by some of the biggest-selling brands in Australia, including Great Northern and XXXX Gold.
“Mid-strength drinkers are the stickiest of all the drinkers and they don’t leave the mid-strength category,” he says, quoting statistics that suggest that 85 per cent of mid-strength enthusiasts drink only that. “So if you don’t have a mid-strength, you are losing around 30 per cent of the total market, which is too much.”
Cogger believes there are two types of mid-strength beer drinkers: those who want to moderate their alcohol intake and those, especially in hotter markets such as Queensland, who want something that’s very sessionable.
“I think there is a crossover between wanting to cut down on alcohol intake and then there’s the other part of the mid-strength market that maybe wants to drink all day and not get carried out by a security guard or their partner,” he says with a laugh.
Better Beer’s flagship brew is the Zero Carb which, along with their Zero Alc, has helped to drive projected sales of $45 million in the 2022-23 financial year, and has landed in the top 10 of the prestigious GABS Hottest 100 for the past two years.
While a ‘better for you’ drinking philosophy has been built into Better Beer from the beginning – Cogger has a background in seltzers, alcoholic kombuchas and hard cold brews through his Torquay Beverage Company – he says it was important to leave some carbs in the Middy for the sake of flavour.
“It would have wiped out most of the body and been a really bland beer,” he says. “The key for us was that we left some carbohydrates in – it’s still less than 1g per can – but it gives it a bit more body than our normal beer.”
Cogger first connected with Steel and Ford, who then had about 10,000 Instagram followers as the Inspired Unemployed, in 2019 when he contacted them to promote his alcoholic Kombucha brand called KBooch. The team-up was a fruitful one and, about a year later, they were back in touch with him with a plan to start a craft brewery.
Sensing their talents could be better used elsewhere – as well as being wary of an overcrowded craft beer market – Cogger thought that the pair of former tradies’ everyman appeal could be harnessed in the same way that Foster’s used Paul Hogan in the 1980s.
The hilarious videos that brought such joy during the Covid lockdowns (and are now being made into a TV show) grew the Inspired Unemployed social media following to more than 1.5 million, and Cogger realised they were “Australians that everyone wants to have a beer with”.
“They had huge appeal and then I got to know them better with their work ethic,” he says. “They pretend they are all parties and fun but they are pretty intense individuals and across every single detail.”
Sensing that their market was “middle Australia”, Cogger and his new partners kept their ambitions simple with broad appeal lagers, which he thinks might have put the company at odds with the more hard-core sections of the craft beer market and industry. For that reason, winning a silver medal at the 2023 Royal Queensland Beer Awards last month was all the sweeter, and one in the eye for the “beer snobs” who thought the Better Beer product was style and marketing over substance.
“People don’t want to drink it and say it’s just crap beer because they think it’s just a marketing thing,” says Cogger of the blind-tasting by expert judges. “But when you’re blindfolded, it’s actually a silver medal-winning product.”
TAKE THE MIDDLE PATH
Smart Craft Beer Club’s Ben Malouf picks three of the best mid-strength beers:
Black Hops Mid Range Mid-Strength Pale Ale
ABV: 3.5%
This mid-strength take on the classic hop-forward Pale Ale was recently awarded
Australia’s AIBA champion low alcohol beer. The punchy character from US hops is
balanced with a distinct malt base. At 3.5%, it’s the Black Hops beer to keep you in the battle for longer.
Better Beer Middy
ABV: 3%
A crisp & refreshing mid-strength beer, with a super clean finish. With only 3% per
can, now every day of the week can be a ‘day for it’. Brewed in NSW, Middy is
simply made of the good stuff: water, malt, hops and yeast. Each 355ml can is 0.8
standard drinks, contains zero sugar and 1g carbs.
Leishman Lager
ABV: 3.5%
Leishman Lager is a brilliant straw colour topped with a creamy white head. It’s crisp
and dry, backed up by a gentle bitterness and a malty backbone.
SPECIAL OFFERS
● Best bargain beer box: Mismatch Brewing Traditional Stout $69 case of 16 (RRP $115).
● Limited release mixed pack: 8 hard-to-find limited release craft beers in this smart value bundle, $69.95 + shipping.
● Always awesome mixed pack: 8 curated craft beers from the best of Australian breweries, $59 + shipping.
For the best craft beer deals visit smartcraftbeer.com.au
Originally published as Inspired Unemployed hitting the sweet spot with new mid-strength beer you can ‘drink all day’