Hello to a familiar old favourite
LION Lager is back with a roar.
“People are very happy,” said barman Welcome Mapumulo, pouring one of South Africa’s famous beers which was discontinued more than a decade ago but which has been reintroduced, albeit temporarily.
Patrons at Pietermaritzburg’s legendary Thistle Hotel, fondly known as the Boshoff Street Country Club, were excited about the reintroduction of the popular lager.
Justin Anderson started drinking the brew around the turn of the century when he came of drinking age. Then it went off the market and he moved on to drinking Castle.
“I must say I’ve missed it,” he said.
However, he does not find the “new” Lion has quite the same flavour he remembers – “It wasn’t as weak.”
However, he calls it the type of beer one can sit and drink at a dam or while watching cricket on a hot day.
Explaining it from the perspective of the brewers, SAB Miller spokesman Benedict Maaga said Lion Lager “found itself over time serving the same sort of consumer needs intrinsically and emotionally as other brands within the SAB portfolio”.
“It eventually lost share and the company then took the decision to re-position Lion, before eventually withdrawing the brand in 2003.
“Lion Lager has now been given a new role to provide excitement and a value offering for beer lovers in the holiday period,” he said.