It's official. Kurri Kurri folk love their beer.
The inaugural State of the Hops report by BWS & Dan Murphy's ranked the Hunter Valley town at No.5 in the top 20 Australian postcodes where beer holds a dominant share of total liquor sales.
Branxton also made the cut, sitting at 16th.
The report, backed by purchasing data from millions of BWS and Dan Murphy's shoppers, also revealed mid-strength beer had overtaken full-strength to become Australia's biggest-selling beer style (by volume sold).
Stout is the fastest-growing subcategory of beer, and Japan has dethroned Mexico as Australia's favourite international brew.
Interestingly, "Mill-Z" women are now a key force driving category growth. Gen Z and younger Millennial women are discovering beer at a higher rate than their male counterparts, making beer the second-fastest-growing liquor category for this demographic.
The data also reveals how tastes differ by state.
Foghorn Brewery's Shawn Sherlock was surprised by the report's suggestion that mid-strength beer's popularity was a recent revelation.
"Mid-strength and lighter ABV beer options have been growing for some years. The XXXX Golds and Great Northern mids of the world have been the biggest-selling individual brands in Australia for a while now," he said.
"I think in the current climate this reflects a few things: a combination of people becoming more conscious of their alcohol intake, especially when driving, but for general health-related reasons as well. The desire to have a few beers but not be as impacted by the booze.
"Younger people (Gen Z) are drinking less in general, and in the current economic climate light beer especially, and mid-strength to an extent, tends to be a little cheaper. Consumers generally are very price conscious at the moment."
As for Guinness, Mr Sherlock says in his experience it "goes through a surge in popularity roughly every 15 to 20 years or so".
"The Irish band I used to play in back in the day did very well out of the '90s Guinness/Irish boom. Stout in general and Guinness in particular has a core fan base, and that seems to grow and gain extra traction every so often," he said.
"We have noticed a bit of a surge in popularity in dark beers here at the brewery in the past 12 months - our Dubliner Stout, Sligo Extra Stout and Dark Ale especially are all doing well. Long may it last.
"Dark beers are a great way of exposing mainstream drinkers to beers with more flavour and character generally and are often 'gateway' beers for people wanting to explore the wider world of beer flavour beyond Tooheys and VB and their many equivalents."
With regard to the popularity of Japanese lagers, he's not surprised.
"They are great, easy-drinking beers, and Japan as a destination is going through a boom in Aussie tourist popularity at the moment," he said.
"And then there's the biggest factor: the vast majority of Australian volume beer brands, and the vast majority of litres sold in Australia, are directly owned by Japanese brewers. Australia's two major brewing companies - Lion Nathan (Toohey's and XXXX) and CUB (VB and Carlton) are both owned outright by the two big Japanese brewing companies Kirin and Asahi.
"You don't need to be a conspiracy theorist to see why Japanese lagers may be overtaking other international styles in volume share."
The increase in women beer drinkers is something Mr Sherlock has noticed in recent years at Foghorn Brewery.
"They have been a critical part of our growth as a business over the past 11 years," he said.
"The choice and wide range of flavours craft beer offers as a category has broken through the pale and stale blokey image of traditional mainstream beers."
When asked about NSW beer drinkers favouring specialised styles, he replied: "My comment would be that as a proud NSW local, the fact that our state has more discerning tastes than others states doesn't surprise me at all."
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