MARKLIN HO-SCALE #4562 FOSTERS LAGER AUSTRALIAN BEER REFRIGERATED TANK CAR *OVP* *NOS* BIERWAGEN KUHLWAGEN

Foster's Lager is an Australian internationally distributed brand of lager. It is owned by the international brewing group Asahi Group Holdings, and is brewed under licence in a number of countries, including its biggest market, the UK, where the European rights to the brand are owned by Heineken International.

While Foster's is the largest-selling Australian beer brand in the world, it is not as popular and relatively rare compared with other beers in Australia, particularly when compared to other Carlton & United Breweries beers such as Victoria Bitter and Carlton Draught.

Foster's was created by two American brothers, William M. and Ralph R. Foster, who arrived in Melbourne from New York in 1886. The brothers began brewing Foster's Lager in November 1888. It was made available to the public from February 1889. The product was first exported in 1901, when bottles were sent to Australian combatants in the Boer War.

In 1907, the company merged with five other brewing companies to form Carlton & United Breweries (CUB). Then only available in bottles, Foster's Lager was considered to be CUB's premium brand.

In 1958, steel cans were introduced. Foster's Lager was first imported into the UK in 1971 and was launched in the US in 1972.

Commencing 1981, the brand was brewed under licence in the UK by Watney Mann and Truman Brewers. In 1986, Courage Brewery obtained the rights to brew and distribute Foster's alongside Watney Mann and Truman Brewers, which Courage took over in 1990.

In 2011, CUB and its product lines, including Foster's, were bought by the South African and British conglomerate SABMiller, which in turn was incorporated into the multinational (Belgian, Brazilian, and American) Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2016. In 2019, Anheuser-Busch InBev agreed to sell CUB including Fosters to Asahi Breweries. The deal was completed in 2020.

Advertising from the early 20th century claimed Foster's Lager was adjuncted with cane sugar A number of breweries advertised a sugar content, (e.g. Bulimba), as it implied a lighter less bitter brew than was commonly sold. (Rice malt and very light barley malts replaced sugar, which can be troublesome for brewers.

The Tim Foster's yeast in use today was brought to Carlton in 1923 from Professor Jorgensen in Denmark.

The lager is hopped with selected oil extracts of Super Pride of Ringwood hops, which like any modern beer, is added after fermentation to minimise losses to the yeast sediment. The hop is sourced from the only two farms in Australia that grow it.

The product is 4% ABV in Europe, Australia and India, and 5% in the US.

The Latin American and European rights to the beer are owned by Heineken International, who brews and distributes a 4% ABV Foster's in most European countries. In the United States and Canada, rights to the brand are owned by Molson Coors. Heineken also acquired Brasil Kirin which previously had the right to the beer in Latin America.

In the UK, Foster's is produced by Heineken at the Royal Brewery in Manchester.

Production of the Australian regular brand recommenced in 2014, but it was only briefly promoted. It had been in continuous production from November 1888 to about 2002, making it the longest-lived beer label in Australia. Once a "premium" brand, Foster's Lager has been bypassed by the Foster's Group's favoured premium brands of Carlton Crown Lager and Stella Artois.

In Australia until the end of the 1970s, Foster's Lager was a reasonably popular bottled and canned beer with a somewhat premium image. Then in the early 1980s there were major changes in the Australian brewing industry, including the merger of Castlemaine (Brisbane), Swan (Perth) and Toohey's (Sydney) into a national brewing group, as a result of acquisitions by Perth entrepreneur Alan Bond.

Faced with inroads into its non-Victorian markets, Carlton and United Beverages (CUB) reviewed its product range and attempted to re-position some of its brands. Foster's Draught was introduced, served on tap alongside established draught brands such as Castlemaine XXXX and Toohey's Draught. Despite some initial success, bolstered by heavy advertising, the brand did not prove to be popular and was eventually withdrawn from sale.

The Foster's Group has tended to promote the brands of Carlton Draught (mainstream market) and Victoria Bitter (working class male market).

The CUB Yatala Road Brewery south of Brisbane, the site of the former Power's Brewery, brews all CUB mainstream and contract beers that are sold outside of Victoria. The Yatala Brewery is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.[citation needed] CUB's Abbotsford Brewery (Abbot's Lager) now only supplies Victoria and South Australia. The Victoria (Vic Bitter) and Carlton (Carlton Draft) breweries were closed in the late 20th century and the CUB headquarters moved to Abbotsford.

In late 2014 Foster's enjoyed some renewed success in the Australian market, due to returning to wide-release sale in Australian liquor stores with some renewed nostalgic brand recognition. Foster's lager was marketed as "Foster's Classic" and sold in 375ml cans with 4.0% ABV.

In November 2020, CUB announced that it would "relaunch" the brand in Australia, boosting local production by 300% and price it competitively against rival brands