April, 2010

This year’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, run on the 28th March, was a particularly auspicious occasion for Mildura Brewery. To mark the return of the iconic Lotus name to the Formula One circuit this year, we were privileged to brew a commemorative beer to celebrate Lotus Racing’s debut season. For this we brewed a one off batch of a special lager that we bottled & labeled as “Lotus Racing Limited Edition” for supply to Lotus Racing for the refreshment of members of the Team & it’s guests in the F1
Paddock over the course of the 4 days they were at Albert Park.

Lotus Racing were only granted their license to participate in the 2010 GP season late last year & since then have miraculously managed to put together a team including two very highly regarded drivers, build a factory as well as design, construct & test the brand new Lotus Cosworth T127 racing car in time for the first race in Bahrain early in March.

The lager itself was very well received & several members of some of the other FI teams were even overheard commenting on the fact that the new team on the block had not only succeeded in achieving the virtually impossible in less than 6 months but had
also somehow managed to get their very own beer made as well!

As far as the race is concerned, unfortunately Jarno Trulli’s car failed to make the start due to hydraulic problems on the starting grid. However, Heikki Kovalainen drove immaculately to bring the other car home safely to the finish line in 13th (only a few places behind Michael Schumacher!) At this stage of the season the current car is still some way of the pace of those of the leading teams but by the time they get to the Barcelona Grand Prix in early May some planned aerodynamic upgrades should apparently see the T127 racing much more competitively.

Another new beer that we have started brewing recently is
“Stefano’s Pilsner”. This is a real classic beer, demonstrating both beautiful clean malt & crisp uncomplicated hop characters that was designed & brewed by our recently promoted young Production Brewer, Zac. The beer is currently only available on tap at the pub although we will also be releasing this beer in 330ml bottles in the year. In the meantime, I highly recommend you come along to the brewery for a sample or two. Well done Zac!”

Rod Williams, Head Brewer