More than just another lager

Vic Crossland 

2006-04-06 

If you suspect the Hahn Vienna Red now hitting the liquor stores is just another ho-hum lager, then master brewer Chuck Hahn wants you to think again. He verifies the slogan "crafted in a single batch" with his signature, good reason to treat the first Hahn Brewer"s Selection beer with respect.
 The term single batch defines crafted beer. It means brewing is done in the age-old way with a mash tun, kettle and fermenter rather than the continuous process of most modern mass-produced beers.
    And this differentiation  comes through nicely in the 5 per cent limited-edition "toasted malt lager" designed by Dr Hahn.  There"s much more going on than with your everyday lager. Floral aroma carries on as flavour, with hints of citrus and apple, and the fruitiness of three malts complements faint hop spice. It becomes sweeter as it warms up, but remains crisp and clean.   
  One slight criticism: Lion Nathan brand recognition is evident in the shaped 330ml green bottle, identical to Hahn Premium bottles, when brown glass might be preferable. And for a limited edition, the cardboard six-pack is not as classy as the handled containers for Chuck Hahn"s James Squire craft beers.
 Comparison of Hahn Vienna Red lager with Matilda Bay"s crafted Rooftop Red Lager is inevitable. Firstly, Hahn – at $14.95 a six-pack - is cheaper than Rooftop, so unsurprisingly seems less full in the mouth.  "More summery", is how one taster put it, "medium-bodied" is what the label says. As well, Hahn appears lighter red in the glass – rosy bronze as against Rooftop"s dark copper colour, probably because of differing emphasis in the malt mixes. Both lagers employ hersbrucker hops and are similarly flowery on the nose.
Matilda Bay"s version, a medal winner at last year"s Australian beer awards, available in brown glass bottles across Australia after first going on tap only in WA, presents a smooth, robust palate with toffee and caramel tones and a long dry finish. Where Rooftop is recommended with seafood and tempura vegies, Hahn  Vienna Red was accompanied at the recent Sydney launch by pork belly with black pudding.
 Either way, they"re a good match – showing that craft brewers have good, yet individual, tastes.
 
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dr Hahn researched the origins of lager styles from when bottom-fermenting yeast was introduced at the  Dreher family brewery in Vienna in 1841. The yeast strain was brought to Plzen - starting Czech pilsener -  a year later. Marzen, Munchner and Oktoberfest beers developed from the Munich breweries and Vienna lagers from the Vienna breweries. 
"This history backs up the development of the Hahn Vienna Red lager as a slightly darker and richer variation of the original Hahn Premium, which is more in the (pale) European pilsener style. Both represent the first brewing of beers using bottom-fermenting lager yeasts," Dr Hahn said. Differences lay in the doubling of the late-hop content and use of darker Vienna-style malts in addition to pale malts in this new limited edition beer.

Brooklands tavern – an immense "backyard shed" - has opened in Perth"s booming Southern River suburb. With its raked corrugated metal roofs,  modern and flexible restaurant and function-room layout and al fresco area,  the pub on Warton Road is designed as a community meeting point, welcomed as such at the opening by Gosnells Mayor Pat Morris.
 In keeping with the homely theme, the bar entrance is signposted The Back Shed, the restaurant simply as The Cook House.
   Main partner Ross Hancock says he was inspired by the book The Complete Blokes and Sheds by Mark Thomson to build a "place where friends can duck out to for a beer or two and a chat". 
 Many years ago I ducked out of playing pub league darts in  the area because it was a beer desert. With this new tavern,  the situation is partly redeemed. There are more than 20 beers on taps at the long curved bar and although many are the usual premium and mainstream lagers expected from the big two brewing concerns, there are alternatives. Ales include Little Creatures Pale and Rogers", Coopers Sparkling Ale and from Britain mid-strength Belhaven Best and Tetley"s..
   General manager Jeremy Stanislaus is keen to extend the choice and with 12 years experience in British theme pubs around Perth he has the knowledge and contacts to do it. One possibility he"s looking at is local craft brews.

Feedback from the first Fremantle International Beer Festival continues to paint a glowing picture. "We got through twice as much beer in tastings and sales than we"d expected," The International Beer Shop"s Leif Ryan said. One of his imports, La Gauloise Blonde Belgian ale, sold out at the bar.
    Jarrah Jack"s craft brews went so fast on day one that director Alan Liebeck had to drive to Bunbury to pick up a vanload of kegs rushed up from the Pemberton microbrewery. "Otherwise we"d have had no beer left for customers to taste for the rest of the festival," he said.
    Members of the WA Brewers Association who did not take part reflected on the festival at last week"s meeting. Some said they"d been put off by the music concert aspect, which organizers say will be toned down next time, when they hope more local craft brewers will join in.