found this in 2 seconds on google don't know if it's much help
This is an excerpt from Homebrewers Digest #2498, 9/3/97.
From: Andy Walsh
Subject: for that hard, cold thirst, the beer is VIC!
Brian Travis asks about Victoria Bitter.
First, a little history.
Fosters Brewing make 3 standard lagers; Fosters Lager, Victoria Bitter
and Crown Lager (4 if you include Melbourne Bitter). For many years,
Fosters was the most popular of the 3, VB was barely advertised, and
Crown the expensive "premium" brand. To confuse matters, Australian
"Bitter" is not particularly bitter, and is not an ale either. It is
just a low-hopped lager, and the term "Bitter" was seized by marketers
to differentiate their product from all the other similar products (you
can only have so many bottle/can colours. Fosters is blue, VB green,
Melbourne Bitter red and Crown comes in a fancy gold-labelled bottle).
Then something happened. VB for some unknown reason steadily grew in
sales (despite an incredibly low advertising budget - the ads on TV now
are at least 20 years old and use the voice of an actor dead for some 15
years or so!) until now it commands some 40% of the entire Australian
beer market. Who says increasing advertising pays dividends?
Since I've surprised a few of the North American HBDers recently by
stating US Tettnang = Fuggle (thanks for some great detective work,
Jim!), I'll go out on a limb and surprise the Aussies by stating that
for all intents and purposes the 3 beers mentioned are the same too.
Fosters brew one stream from which all 3 derive, without boiling hops
(or minimal, solely to aid break formation), and use high gravity
techniques. Hops are added to the bright beer (post filtration) in the
form of a product called HPL6, an isomerised hop extract formed
originally from hops extracted with liquid CO2. No hop aroma exists in
any of them, and IBUs vary marginally from the 22 mark. All have the
same alcohol concentration of 4.9% (by volume). The aroma is best
described as "sewer" (ethyl mercaptan?), from the combination of high
temperature lager fermentation and yeast strain used.
Recipe for any of them:
-OG = 1.042 (or 1.060 if you want to high gravity brew for authenticity)
-FG = 1.006
-soft water
-30% sucrose
-2 row well-modified lager malt
-encourage fermentability via 63-65C rests with pH ~ 5.2 @ mash temp.
(no protein rest!)
-Step infusion mash.
-Fermentation - pitch at 14C, allow to rise up to 18C
-Choice of yeast critical. Fosters use their own strain. Some yeasts
won't ferment well with this much sucrose and will either stick and/or
produce truckloads of acetaldehyde. Try Wyeast Danish lager.
Addition of a yeast nutrient (nitrogen) is wise with so much sucrose
-22 IBU with pride of ringwood hops (any high alpha will do)
-no hop flavour or aroma
-No diacetyl.
-Serve so cold you can't taste how vile it really is, and don't forget
to hold your nose...
One world...one hop...one yeast...one malt...one beer...
Andy (Cantillon-is-just-Coopers-made-in-a-dirty-fermenter) Walsh.
PS. Beer trivia - the Fosters brothers were American, and returned to
New York after just 1 year. (gee, thanks for the legacy!)
