The Meaning of Headlines: ‘bevvy’

The Canberra Times published an article in their Good Food section on 6 April 2017 with the headline: Enjoy a bevvy with Bob. Former PM launches Hawke’s Brewing Co. What does ‘bevvy’ mean? And why should we enjoy it?

A ‘bevvy’ in Australian slang is a beverage, a drink.

The first sentence of the article asks, ‘Want to enjoy a bevvy with Bob?’ The

former prime minister of Australia, from 1983 to 1991 as leader of the Australian Labor party, once famously broke the world beer-skoling record in his student days at Oxford University.

He poured the first Hawke's lager on 6 April 2017 at The Clock Hotel in Surry Hills to launch the beer in his name. The brew, the lager beer, is the first from Hawke's Brewing Company, and will initially be offered on tap across 11 pubs in Sydney and Newcastle.

Australian ad men Nathan Lennon and David Gibson dreamed up the idea two years ago when they were working in a Wall Street office on Australia Day in New York. "It was minus 5 degrees outside. We were getting homesick and we realised all our friends were back home having nice cold beer in the sun. So we started talking about who we'd most like to have a beer with and we landed on Bob Hawke," Lennon said.

A year later, the pair were on a plane back to Sydney to draw up a business plan with sales manager Luke Langton and pitch the idea to Hawke himself.

"We explained how we saw this brand launching into the market – and he said yes."

Bob Hawke (1929-) lent his name to the project on the condition that his percentage of profits went to one of the legacies of his leadership, the environmental charity Landcare Australia, to help support rural communities around the country. "As you sip that Hawke's lager, you'll be making a contribution to the environment and to your country," Hawke said.

Brewer Justin Fox created the beer, and described it as having "a subtle citrus aroma, light bitterness and a gentle, dry finish. What we've landed upon is a really beautiful clean beer … it's a refreshing lager - really light, clean, crisp with a really soft top note and really soft malt note."

Scorecard for The Canberra Times headline is 99%. The beverage, the beer, was always described by politician Bob Hawke, now 87 years old, in his student days and during his political career, as ‘bevvy.’ But while you can have a can of Hawke’s bevvy, you are probably unlikely to ‘enjoy a bevvy with Bob’ in person.

http://www.goodfood.com.au/eat-out/news/former-prime-minister-bob-hawke-launches-hawkes-brewing-co-beer-20170406-gveyjn

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).