XXXX it's Queenslander-(ese?) for BEER

There's a running joke in the southern Australian states that XXXX (Four X) beer is such named because Queenslanders don't know how to spell BEER. The joke still stands.

Queenslanders take their beer seriously. Probably because it's so bloody hot and humid in this state, any liquid intake seems to be immediatly perspired. In nfact, they take their beer so seriously, that when the Castlemaine Perkins brewery was bought out by a Western Australian upstart...... who dumbly put his Western Australian address on the XXXX labels, Queenslanders rebelled by buying the independently run Queensland Powers beer instead.

Bond brewing lost a fortune.

The Western Australian upstart eventually went broke and the brewery is owned by some New Zealanders via Lion Nathan. Smart cookies, the Queensland address remains. Powers was eventually swallowed up by Carlton United Breweries in Victoria and from what I can tell the brand no longer exists.

It's actually rather difficult to know who owns what these days in Australia. The big boys seem to trade breweries, dairies, and wineries like trading cards. Foster's has sold it's European rights to a Scottish company.....go figure.

Anyway, the brewery is still there, despite the various owners over the years. Viewed from most high places around Brisbanes western suburbs, pumping out rivers of gold.

There's some great big X's painted on the sides of the grain silos and some neon signs letting Queenslanders know what it does.