The meat tray is a celebrated/ much maligned Australian football club raffle prize. Carlton Draught is looking to class it up a little bit with a new campaign, and has commissioned a wagyu beef farm to create “the world’s greatest ever meat tray”. The beef will be “infused” with the same hops and barley that goes in to Carlton Draught. This infusion will come from feeding the prized cows hops and barley before they’re taken to the pearly gates of the abattoir.

Here is a picture of one of the cows that may be lucky enough to make it on to the meat tray.

“Carlton Draught and pub meat trays are both classic Aussie traditions,” Carlton Group marketing manager Vincent Ruiu says. “The only way we could make this better was to combine Australia’s favourite draught beer with Australia’s finest meat trays.”

It’s an intriguing campaign from the big beer brand, which slots in perfectly with the ‘made from beer’ tagline, but positions the beer in ambiguous territory between Aussie bloke BBQ beverage and a drink for a more discerning gourmet market. Then again, gourmet BBQs have almost become mainstream in recent years, and the push from Draught might just be perfect timing to ride the wave.

To produce the Carlton Draught Wagyu Beef, the brand has enlisted Australian farmer and Jac Wagyu company owner, Jason Lewis, to rear twenty head of cattle on a special feeding program, providing the herd with ten tonnes of malted barley and two tonnes of natural hops.

The common people of Australia have the chance to taste the tray, with a ‘Massive Meat Wheel’ promotion offering 100K, and a taste of the beef. Carlton Draught will also run tasting sessions of the beef across Australia, with consumers alerted via Facebook.