Chris the equivalent here in Australia is called Birrell. And it is god awful stuff. I was doing some work on a movie set (A Thousand Skies) in the outback (for want of a better description of the Flinders Ranges) years ago and we were in this ghost town. They had done the old pub up to make it look like it was still in use. We were supposed to be patrons partaking of the amber nectar as a famous Australian Aviator flew his plane down and parked it in front of the pub. (Not a particularly unusual thing to this day at places like Birdsville).
Due to the legalities of workplace drinking all alcohol is banned on Movie sets here. So the beer was Birrel. Not only was it Birrel, it was HOT Birrel. It was 38C in the shade and the shoot took 4 hours on and off. A real pub was an hour and a half away. 3 hours in we were honestly just about ready to vomit from this disgusting stuff when one of the local Cockies (Farmers) who was helping the production company turned up with 3 ice cold slabs of Coopers Ale.
Not a word was said by anyone. Not the director, the guy from the production company or even the union rep.
All partook.
