Australia’s First Brewer
At Beer Expo, held at the Melbourne Show Grounds, I met one of the main driving forces behind the craft brewing revolution, Dr. Charles Hahn. Better known simply as Chuck Hahn, he has built a small chain of brewpubs under the Malt Shovel and James Squire names. Chuck was born in New York City and worked for Coors in Colorado for 10 years before he was headhunted by Tooth’s in Sydney. He launched his own Hahn Brewery in New South Wales and built Hahn Premium Lager into a successful brand, but the business collapsed when banks withdrew their support during a recession. He teamed up with Lion Nathan and opened the Malt Shovel Brewery, named after the tavern where James Squire brewed in the late eighteenth century.
Squire is commemorated as Australia’s first brewer. He was a convict transported from England to Australia where he continued a life of crime until he settled down to run his tavern and brew beer. Chuck Hahn launched James Squire Original Pilsner and then rolled out a number of James Squire brewpubs. There are two in Melbourne and one in Sydney, with a fourth due to come on stream in Perth this year. The aim is to have a brewpub in every major city in the country.
The Russell Street site in Melbourne produces small volume beers such as IPA and Porter and occasional “off the wall” brews, including a raspberry wheat. Bigger brands such as Pilsner, Golden Ale and Amber Ale come either from the Malt Shovel brewery in New South Wales, which produces 2.5 million hectolitres a year, or Lion Nathan’s giant South Australian Brewery in Adelaide.
On the eve of Beer Expo, craft brewers from all over the country paraded their beers in central Melbourne. It gave me the opportunity to sample brews from as far away as Western Australia, a state with a population of around just one million but with a surprising number of micros. Feral in the Swan Valley has an impressive portfolio that include a powerfully hopped American-style IPA called Hophog; a lemony and spicy Belgian-style wheat beer, Feral White; Rust, a Belgian-style ale; and Farmhouse Ale, unfiltered, cloudy, with big citrus fruit and spicy notes.
Bootleg, in the Margaret River region of Western Australia, brews a malty dark beer, Raging Bull, with coffee, chocolate and toffee notes; a German-style hefe wheat beer; Tom’s Amber Ale; and Wil’s Pils. In the same state, Little Creatures is a fast-growing craft brewery with national coverage whose range includes Pale Ale, with grapefruit and floral hop notes balancing rich malt, and Bright Ale, packed with citrus hops and juicy malt. There’s even Roger’s Beer―g’day, mates―with chewy caramel notes and spicy hops.
