Due to massive public demand, England Bitter will soon be on sale in bottle shops across the nation in celebration of Australia retaining the most famous trophy in cricket during the 2023 Ashes series.

Following the extraordinary local and international reaction to Carlton & United’s cheekily rebranded Victoria Bitter, Carlton & United Breweries is brewing a limited run of England Bitter stubbies to go on sale early next month.

England Bitter made international headlines when it was bundled on a plane this month and delivered to the England cricket team to help them commiserate their disappointment over the Aussies’ famous victory in the second Test, which gave
Australia a 2-0 series lead.

CUB even re-recorded the iconic VB jingle following the furore that started after England coach Brendon McCullum said after the second Test loss he wouldn’t share a beer with the Aussies.

The draw overnight at Old Trafford – thanks to some traditional English summer rain – means Australia retain the trophy.

VB Marketing Manager Marc Lord said: “We raise our glass to the English and how they fought their way back into the series. We hope both teams can share a nice England Bitter together in the changerooms, without any bitterness. We’ll even throw in the ice so the players don’t have to drink it warm.”

Lord said the public demand in Australia for England Bitter had been extraordinary.

“The response from the Australian public was amazing,” he said. “The England Bitter campaign reflected the pulse of the nation, so what better way to say ‘cheers’ to retaining the trophy than with an England Bitter.”

Only a limited run of 30,000 cases of England Bitter will be brewed and will be on sale at major bottleshops across the country.

How the England Bitter coup played out

CUB took out full-page ads in major Australian newspapers ahead of the third test starting at Headingley and came with a rejigging of VB’s iconic jingle that included the words: “You can get it not protecting your stumps, you can get it ignoring the umps.”

CUB CEO Danny Celoni said: “VB is a brand that has never been shy, so when we saw a chance to engage in a little banter with the English cricket team over their refusal to share a beer with our boys, we thought why not.

“Thanks to the swift thinking and creativity of our marketing and corporate affairs teams and the agility of our team in supply, we’ve been a little bit cheeky and shipped a limited run of a special ‘England Bitter’ beer to the England Cricket Team just in time for the third test. We’ve even updated our jingle to make sure they know we are thinking about them.”  

VB Assistant Brand Manager Ben Haysman added: “We’ve gone viral on social, bought print media in both Austrailan and United Kingdom newspapers, created a new iconic VB jingle, and received great media coverage across Sunrise, The Today Show, Sky News, The Project, the Herald Sun and more with cartoonist Mark Knight even taking things into his own hands.

“A mammoth team effort from Marc Lord, Sarah Wilcox, Reid Sexton, Julian Sheezel, Sophie Gosper, Allan Carlow and The Monkeys, Tom Lamplugh and PHD, James Ramsey and 1House to get this up in just 36 hours … well done, we’ve earned a VB.”

Here’s the full jingle:

You can get it getting stumped.
You can get it complaining to the umps.

You can get it throwing away your wicket
You can get it invoking the spirit of cricket

You get it if your Ben Stokes
You can get it if you’re the coach.

Yes our beer may be bitter.
But our cricket team isn’t

So England, we’ve got a beer with your name on it.
For when you change your mind.

And that beer is England. England Bitter.

VB sends warm slabs of England Bitter to UK