Beer production in Australia has traditionally been dominated by regional producers. Since the 1980s, there have been a steady stream of takeovers and amalgamations, and now the two major producers (who were once Australian-owned) are Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) and Lion.
In December 2011, CUB became a subsidiary of British multinational SABMiller (the world's then-second-largest international brewing company) and in October 2016 CUB became 100% owned by AB InBev the world's largest brewing company, based in Belgium. AB InBev then sold CUB to Japanese company Asahi Breweries on 1 June 2020.
Since October 2009, Lion has been a subsidiary of Japanese brewer, Kirin Company a brewing company established in 1885. The largest remaining Australian owned brewer is Coopers Brewery with a market share of about 4% of total beer volume sales in Australia.
The two foreign-owned companies accounted for 89% of beer volume sales in 2011, with CUB's market share at 48% (declining from a 55% market share in 2006) and Lion at 41% (increasing from 37%).
In May 2012 the dominant Australian-produced beers were XXXX Gold, which accounted for 12.4% of all beer consumed in Australia, VB, with 12.3%, Carlton Draught 9.3%, Tooheys New 7.1%, Tooheys Extra Dry 4.4% and Carlton Mid 3.8%.
A microbrewery, or craft brewery, is a modern brewery which produces a limited amount of beer, usually with an orientation toward distinctive and flavourful products. In Australia, there is no strict definition for a microbrewery; however, the definition for membership of the Independent Brewers Association provides a fair guide that could be considered appropriate. That is, a brewer sells less than 40 million litres of beer per annum and is not more than 20% owned by a brewer that produces more than 40 million litres of beer per annum anywhere in the world.
The following is a list of notable microbreweries in Australia, listed alphabetically. In July 2017, there was approximately 500 small breweries in Australia.
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