What's in your beer? Brewers Association wants you to know

The Brewers Association says its "Beautiful Truth" campaign seeks to address some of the misconceptions around what is in beer, particularly regarding sugar and preservatives. Photo / Natalie Slade

Actors Robbie Magasiva and Antonia Prebble, world champion rower Eric Murray, and Wellington based soul singer-songwriter Hollie Smith have teamed up for an ad campaign educating Kiwis about what they are drinking.

The campaign is part of a major initiative called "Beer the Beautiful Truth", aimed at sharing facts about beer and encouraging consumers to take a closer look at what they are drinking.

As part of this, Brewers Association members Lion and DB Breweries have added nutrition information panels to the back of around 250 million bottles and cans to date.

The panels carry information on sugar, calories, dietary fibre, protein and carbohydrate content.

Brewers Association of New Zealand executive director Dylan Firth said people would be happy to know most of the beer they were drinking was 99 per cent sugar free and preservative free.

"Research has shown that there are a number of misperceptions about what is in beer, particularly around sugar content and preservatives," Firth said.

"This campaign is about providing people with nutritional information so they can make informed decisions about what they drink."

Firth said New Zealanders consumed an average of 37 teaspoons of added sugar every day - six times the recommended amount.

"With this in mind, we think it is important that consumers who are choosing to have a beer are armed with the information they need to make informed choices," he said.