Lion Nathan has unveiled their ‘Natural Beer Promise: Brewed in Compliance’ stamp to guarantee the all-natural content of their beers.
The new stamp was revealed to around 650 industry members, with the label certifying the beer contains only five ingredients – water, malted grains, yeast, cane sugar and hops.
Lion Nathan aims to educate drinkers after a PureProfile survey revealed that nine out of 10 Australian drinkers were unsure of the ingredients in beer.
According to the company web site, the “standards” of a “natural beer” must meet the following:
Natural Ingredients
Our ingredients are natural. They consist of malted (or unmalted) grains, hops, yeast, water and cane sugar.
Brewed Naturally
We define “brewed naturally” as the transformation of a grain mash into beer, through yeast fermentation without adding enzymes, artificial additives, colours, preservatives or modified hop extracts to the wort or finished beer.
Because quality yeast is vital to the process we need to maintain the yeast’s condition, through the addition of mineral supplements and pH adjustment – before it is added to the beer. We also adjust our water’s pH, calcium, chloride and sulphate levels to achieve our consistent quality.
The beer may be clarified and filtered through carageenan, diatomaceous earth, silica, PVPP or agarose. None of these filter aids are present in the final product. Pasteurisation is allowed to ensure the shelf life of the finished beer.
No artificial additives or preservatives
The only additive we sometimes use is CO2, a naturally occurring gas. We occasionally add this to top up the CO2 bubbles naturally created during fermentation. We don’t add caramel, sulphur dioxide or any other additives – and we certainly don’t use any preservatives in our natural beers.