Aussies giving Kiwi beers the thumbs up

Shane Warne drinking Moa Beer at their headquarters in the South Island. Photo / Supplied

Strewth! Chuck another shrimp on the barbie - and we will have a Kiwi beer with that.

Aussie beer drinkers are turning their noses up at traditional brews like Carlton, Castlemaine and Tooheys and increasingly downing rival New Zealand brands.

Craft brewer Moa has doubled the volume of its beer heading across the ditch in the space of a year and expects sales to keep on soaring.

Between April and October this year, Moa sent 622,000 bottles across the Tasman, twice as many as the same period in 2014.

And Moa isn't the only Kiwi beer being lapped up by the Aussies - DB has seen volumes of its Monteith's beers grow by more than 80 per cent in Australia in the past year.

This makes it the largest international craft brand in Australia with over 2.5 million litres sold there in 2015.

"Australians have been traditionally parochial about their beer but as impossible as it sounds, we have managed to force a few cracks into that relationship," Moa chief executive Geoff Ross told the Herald on Sunday. "There is more to beer than bland lager in cans and Australian drinkers are now willing to try new brews.

"Perhaps they are not reading the back of the bottles and don't realise the beer is from New Zealand. By that time, hopefully we have got them, by stealth."

The increased Moa sales in Australia is down to a combination of a successful pre-summer sampling campaign and a large presence with 200-store national retailer Dan Murphy's.

Across the Rugby World Cup, Moa also sparked interest with the release of a cheeky Four More Years dark stout made with Guatemalan coffee beans, a nod to Australian rugby player George Gregan's infamous slight after the All Blacks semi-final loss to the Wallabies in 2003.

Mr Ross believes there is opportunity for Kiwi craft beers to perform in much the same way as Sauvignon Blanc did for wine exports to Australia in the 1990s.

Other distinctive New Zealand beers from the Garage Project and Panhead were also increasing in popularity across the Tasman, as Aussie palates become more refined, he added.

"Australians are increasingly trading up to premium international and craft beer.

"Our proximity to this market and the large number of Kiwis who live there mean there is a respect and a curiosity for what we are producing."

Nick Nairn, general manager of Drinkworks --DB Breweries' Australian subsidiary -- said a Monteith's beer specifically created for Australian palettes, Pointers Pale Ale, was also going down a storm.

"In just three short months, this new product has become the number one selling Monteith's beer in Australia," he said.

Leading Kiwi brewer Lion said it was presently only exporting Steinlager Pure to Australia and had only noticed a slight increase in Australian sales during the recent All Blacks matches.

"This is not a key market for us from a NZ beer perspective," a Lion spokeswoman said.

The Australian office office of market research giant Nielsen said no figures about the level of New Zealand beer sales in the Australian market were presently available as it was "not currently measuring these".