Hawthorn Brewing Co is proud to announce the release of its sixth beer, the Golden Ale.
“We are always looking for gaps in the market and for new brews to complement our existing beer styles,” Managing Director Peter Willis explains.
“Golden Ale is a popular style and, with its lower hop profile, is very easy drinking. It adds another dimension to our range and complements our other lighter style beer [a Czech pilsner] well.”
With German malts, the full-flavoured, yet easy-to-drink, ale has a sparkling golden appearance with use of hops from the USA, the UK and Australia with characters of passionfruit and tropical fruit. Available from February 2014, Hawthorn’s sixth beer joins its flagship Pale Ale, UK-style Amber Ale, Czechstyle Pilsner, Belgian-style Witbier and the Australian IPA. The Golden Ale continues the Hawthorn Brewing Co’s motto of utilising the world’s best brewing styles and techniques.
“It is important to offer a wide taste profile to give our customers options,” Willis continues.
“The Golden Ale is a step up from our craft beer entry-level Pilsner. This is important, as we look to increase the range of styles that our customers have been exposed to, without it proving too big a step. It’s all about having a diversity of products to suit the consumer.”
The Hawthorn lads have taken a different approach to this release. Traditionally they brew a small limited release keg run to test the market. If the market says ‘yes’ then that beer becomes their seasonal keg/packaged beer for the following year. However, with the Golden Ale, they jumped straight into a larger batch of packaged-only beer. Willis explains:
“The keg market is extremely competitive and we did not want to detract from our existing four keg products. In addition the feedback we received from our customers to a packaged Golden Ale was very positive. Our customers are very loyal and have been with us for a long time, so they have confidence in the brews we produce. This reassurance is very humbling and allows us to move forward with brews confident there is a market for them”.
Hawthorn Brewing Co. started in 2008 as a backyard idea of three mates with a history of home brewing. After living abroad for many years, the boys experienced first hand the variety of styles and flavours in the international beer scene. It was here that the idea started to take hold.
“We’d had some pretty good results on the home brewing front [they have run an invite only beer festival for more than ten years] but to transition to a commercial brewing company was a big step… but very rewarding,” Willis says.
While the lads don’t currently have their own fully operational brewery, they do have the ‘Hawthorn brew shed’ where Chief Brewing Officer Hamish Reed tinkers away developing, tasting and tweaking their many recipes in small batches. These are then upscaled at commercial breweries where Reed works with the in-house brewers to ensure the taste, style and specs achieved in the brew shed are replicated.
Since its inception, the company has gone from strength-to-strength gathering a loyal following of dedicated craft beer fans winning many awards along the way.
“The support for our beer has been wonderful,” Willis says.
“Consumers, retailers and venue operators alike have all embraced our products”.
Hawthorn Brewing Company products are available nationally at all good independent retailers, Dan Murphy’s, BWS, First Choice Liquor and Vintage Cellars, as well as your favourite pubs, restaurants, cafes and bars.