Style Lager Introduced 1957 | Alcohol by volume 4.9% | |
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Similar Chibuku Shake Shake, Carlton Midstrength, Radegast, Snow beer, Sirop de Picon | ||
NT Draught is a lager produced by Carlton & United Breweries (CUB), a subsidiary of Foster's Group. NT Draught are the makers of the Darwin Stubby. A Darwin Stubby refers to several large beer bottle sizes in Australia. It was first introduced in April 1958 with an 80-imperial-fluid-ounce (2,270 ml; 76.9 U.S. fl oz) capacity. The 2.25-litre (76.1 U.S. fl oz; 79.2 imp fl oz) Darwin Stubby has an iconic, if kitsch status in Australian folklore. In May 2015 Carlton & United Breweries announced that they will no longer brew NT Draught on a regular basis.
History
In 1956 Carlton & United Breweries established the first brewery in Darwin, in the suburb of Berrimah. The first beer, Carlton Draught, was brewed on 13 October of that year. The brewery however did not have an associated bottling plant, so bottled beer still had to be shipped from Melbourne. Due to the logistics of shipping bottles such a long distance, the company decided in April 1958 to introduce a bigger bottle, a 2,270 ml (80 imp fl oz; 77 US fl oz) bottle, which became known as the “Darwin Stubby”.
In 1981 Swan Brewery and CUB merged to form the Northern Territory Breweries Pty Ltd. In 1981 CUB bought out Swan’s interest leaving it in sole control of the Northern Territory beer market. The Darwin brewery closed in 1989 however NT Draught continued to be brewed from the company's Melbourne brewery. In October 1996 CUB acquired the 200,000 hl Darwin Brewery in Winnellie from Goldchill Brewing, and commenced production of Victoria Bitter and Carlton Light for the Northern Territory in November. The brewery also produced NT Draught in the Darwin Stubby.
In May 2015 Carlton & United Breweries announced that due to decreasing volumes and increasing costs that it would be ceasing production of NT Draught. The company did advise that it would become one of their heritage beers and they would investigate bringing it out in special runs.
