Background:
The Tasmanian beerscape has always featured two prominent, nationwide leading breweries, Boags and Cascade. For years not only have they battled for the hearts and minds of the nation, but a war has constantly brewed (pardon the pun) over who is more dominant in the local Tasmanian market.
Founded in a jail cell in 1824 by Peter Degraves, the Cascade brewery remains the oldest brewery in Australia, proudly standing at the foot of Mount Wellington and holding market dominance in the south of the State.
Boags was founded 57 years later in Launceston in 1881, and over the next 129 years took hold of the hearts and minds of those living in the north of the state.
Since then Boags and Cascade have tussled for local territory, with Boag's most recent marketing campaign attempting to take ownership of Tasmania's pristine water.
Cue Philip Osborne, a farmer in the midlands of Tasmania, situated above the invisible line that separates the two brewery territories. For years Phillip has grown barley for Cascade and every summer he has built hay sculptures on the side of the State's main highway, which runs through his property. His Stonehenge creation made quite a stir when it appeared in his paddock in 2008, and in 2009 a giant castle made international blogs because of its sheer size.
In late 2010 Philip decided to build two giant beer bottles to signal his support for Cascade and their use and support of Tasmanian products including his own, for which they pay a premium price. By early January the dream had come to life. Using cherry pickers, a crane and a lot of ingenuity Philip and his farm hands constructed the sculptures and tongues soon started wagging up and down the highway.