Emu is a beer brand name now owned by

Lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...

. It was originally brewed by the Emu Brewery in 1908 until the brewery's sale to the

Swan Brewery The Swan Brewery is a brewing company, whose brewery was located in Perth, Western Australia. History The brewery was established in 1857 by Frederick Sherwood at the foot of what is now Sherwood Court in Perth. The brewery was named for ...

in 1927. The production of the Emu branded beer continued from a separate autonomous brewery in Perth until 1978, and then was relocated to a combined brewery in Canning Vale. In 2014 Lion Nathan moved production of both the Emu and Swan beer brands to the company's West End Brewery in Adelaide. Following the closure of the West End Brewery in October 2020, it was announced that Swan and Emu branded beer would be brewed at either the Castlemaine Perkins brewery in Brisbane or Tooheys brewery in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Varieties

Emu Bitter

Emu Bitter is a mild bitter lager that has a strong

hops Hops are the flowers (also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant ''Humulus lupulus'', a member of the Cannabaceae family of flowering plants. They are used primarily as a bittering, flavouring, and stability agent in beer, to whi ...

taste, which was introduced in 1923 as one of Swan Brewing Companies flagships. The

alcohol by volume Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) o ...

content of the beer is currently 4.0%. The man pictured on the label is former Swan Brewer Ken Arrowsmith. He oversaw the introduction of Emu Draft and was head brewer during the brands popularity boom in the late 1980s and into the 1990s. Colloquial names for the beer include:"Bush Chooks", "EB" or "Kenny". Emu Bitter can

Emu Export

Emu Export is a clean light yellow lager that was first launched in 1954 with an alcohol content of 4.9%. The current alcohol volume has been reduced to 4.2%. Colloquial names for the beer include: "the red lead", "the red death", "flightless bird", "export", "sport", "E squared", "chook's piss", "bush chook", "wife basher" or "red can" “sexport” or “red hand grenade”. Also "RTS" Red Tin Sychosis (sic) Emu Export

Emu Draft

Emu Draft is a mid-strength distinctively rich amber coloured lager that was introduced in 1992. The current alcohol content is 3.0%.

Emu Brewery

Emu beer originated from the Stanley Brewery (previously the Albion Brewery) which was established by James Stokes, a 27-year-old settler from Bristol, England. Built in 1848 at the foot of Mount Eliza, the brewery's name was later changed to the Emu Brewery to better identify with its popular Emu bottled beer. In 1927 Swan Brewery acquired control of what was then its major competitor - the Emu Brewery. Because of the popularity of the Emu bottled beer, Swan decided to expand and modernise the Emu Brewery and to run it as a separate concern rather than amalgamate it with Swan's other lines. As a result, and even in relatively modern times, the Emu Brand had a namesake brewery. The last "Emu Brewery" stood at the corner of Spring Street and Mounts Bay Road at the western end of the Perth CBD. The art deco building, designed by architects Oldham, Boas and Ednie-Brown in 1937, featured large interesting and attractive stone motives of

brewing Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and #Fermenting, fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with Yeast#Beer, yeast. It may be done in a brewery ...

activities created by WA sculptor Edward F Kohler. The building was considered one of the more attractive buildings operated by the

Company and a star example of the Perth Art Deco architectural era. Swan were proud enough of the building to feature a picture of it on the label of their bottles and cans of Emu Export Lager. Once this last "Emu Brewery" was closed, proposed redevelopment of the site became a controversial issue as it was overlooked by Parliament House. The site remained empty and abandoned for many years and was the target for vandalism and graffiti. Despite a heritage listing, the site consequently became run down and the brewery building was demolished in late 1991 / early 1992.

References

* ''Emu Draft - launch of the Swan Brewery new beer called Emu Draft or affectionately known as "The Red Death"'' Western liquor guide, April 1992, p. 18

External links

* * * * * * * *{{cite web , title=More history of original Perth brewing history esp. on pages 6 and 7 , url=http://register.heritage.wa.gov.au/PDF_Files/C%20-%20A-D/Carlton%20Hotel%20(P-AD).PDF , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725125143/http://register.heritage.wa.gov.au/PDF_Files/C%20-%20A-D/Carlton%20Hotel%20%28P-AD%29.PDF , archivedate=25 July 2008 , df=dmy Culture of Western Australia Kirin Group Australian beer brands