Stu, you may be able to help me with this question, or Luke?
If a bar sells DB beers on tap, are they restricted to selling only DB products at their bar? Do they sign a contract? Same goes with Lion Nathan? So if someone owned a bar, and was contracted to DB, would that prevent them from having, say, Macs on tap?
As a rule DB contracted bars cannot serve Lion (or anyone elses) products on tap or sometimes even in packaged form- same goes vice versa. However, in a changing market, the big breweries are becoming more flexible with the way they contract bars- examples of this would be us at Malthouse (limited DB contract with heaps of micros on tap and lion products in the fridge) - D4 has a similar arrangement I believe.
If there was not a demand for mainstream beer then we wouldnt sell it. Also, I recon that if we can sell mainstream beer side by side with craft product then at least the general public are being exposed to what else is on offer out there- trust me there have been plenty of converts who now drink Tuatara Pilsner and Epic Pale Ale who would not have considered it a couple of years ago.
I often get the vibe of beer snobbery on here ...... but, hey its a free country...