Emu is a

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cer ...

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 The Emu Brewery was a brewery in Perth, Western Australia, which traced its history to the first decade of the colony. Founded in 1837 by James Stokes as the Albion Brewery, it was located beside the Swan River on a block bounded by Mounts Bay ...

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 t ...

in 1927. The production of the Emu branded beer continued from a separate autonomous brewery in

Perth Perth is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth most populous city in Aust ...

until 1978, and then was relocated to a combined brewery in

Canning Vale Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container ( jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although ...

. In 2014 Lion Nathan moved production of both the Emu and Swan beer brands to the company's West End Brewery in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

. 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 Castlemaine Perkins is a brewery at 185 Milton Road, Milton, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is a wholly owned entity of the Japanese-controlled Lion company. Operations began in 1878 and continue today. Castlemaine Perkins is the home of ...

brewery in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

Tooheys Tooheys is a brewery in the suburb of Lidcombe, in Sydney, Australia. It produces beers and ciders under the ''Tooheys'' and '' Hahn Brewery'' trademarks, and is part of the Lion beverages group which was acquired by the Japanese Kirin Company ...

brewery in Sydney.

Varieties

Emu Bitter

Emu Bitter is a mild bitter

lager Lager () is beer which has been brewed and conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be pale, amber, or dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially available style of beer. The term "lager" comes from the German for "stora ...

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 wh ...

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 Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city i ...

, England. Built in 1848 at the foot of Mount Eliza, the brewery's name was later changed to the

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 Mounts Bay Road is a major road in Perth, Western Australia, extending southwest from the central business district along the north bank of the Swan River, at the base of Kings Park. Route description Mounts Bay Road runs between William Str ...

at the western end of the

Perth CBD Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

. The

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

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 the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer, ...

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