Father’s Day is now one of the biggest craft beer sales events in the year for Coles Liquor, rivalling Easter weekend
as craft beer challenges traditional gifts such as spirits, socks and chocolates.

Research from the Australian Retailers Association in collaboration with Roy Morgan also shows alcohol and food top the most popular purchases for Father’s Day this year, with Australians forecast to spend $735 million on Father’s Day gifts.

The rising popularity of beer as a Father’s Day gift has led Coles Liquor to partner with craft brewer Wolf of the Willows to create Dad Lager. The German-style lager is an easy-drinking beer designed to appeal to father figures from every generation.

The lager is part of an easy-drinking renaissance in craft brewing, which is better known for its quirky styles and intense flavour combinations.

‘Session’ or ‘drinkable’ beers have boomed in recent years across the Australian craft sector and most breweries now have a lighter style lager, sour or IPA on their list.

Coles Liquor General Manager of Customer Loyalty, Trade Planning and Insights Mia Lloyd said: “Wolf of the Willows is such an impressive brewer and we are so proud to have this exclusive lager on the shelves for Father’s Day.

“Wolf of the Willows founders, husband and wife Scott and Renae McKinnon, have built this business from the ground up and we are so excited to be able to share their story and their beer with our customers around the country.”

For Wolf of the Willows, creating Dad Lager was a chance to share the bounty of their bayside brewery in Melbourne with a national audience and raise a glass to Dad.

Scott McKinnon can trace his passion for beer back to his childhood on the family’s property in rural Victoria, where his Dad Peter first helped him to brew ginger beer.

“In the past few years family support – and not just the family you are related to but also the family we all create with the people around us who care for us – has been so important,“ he said.

“Our fathers have been so hands-on in building the current brewery as well as providing support from an emotional standpoint for us and their grandchildren.”

Renae McKinnon said her dad Stephen Quick lent his experience as an electrician to the cause, recently installing a cutting-edge wastewater treatment plant to bolster the brewer’s sustainability credentials.

“We now have incredible water quality exiting the brewery and that would not have been possible without Stephen’s help or my son, who planted the idea during a dinner table conversation about sustainability – so it really is a multi-generational achievement from son to father to grandfather,” she said.

Dad Lager is available at all Liquorland, First Choice Liquor Market stores and online for $12 per four pack.