Hahn Pale Ale

Brewed by Hahn Brewing Company (Lion Nathan Co.)
Style: Golden Ale/Blond Ale
Camperdown NSW, Australia

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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The label on the bottle reminds me of a Coopers Pale Ale, Coopers was the company that Lion Nathan tried unsuccessfully to acquire recently so is this Lion Nathan’s response? Cloudy straw coloured body with an average size, mainly lasting white head. Some grapefruit on the nose but mainly yeast. Easy drinking and better than their Vienna Red. Good carbonation, yeasty, soft lemon, zesty, light to medium in body, drinks alright for a Hahn product just not a lot to make it outstanding.

Spic hop malt aroma. Cloudy pale yellow colour with good head and lacing. Sweet malt hop flavour with floral undertones. Fizzy palate.

Looks quite good for a beer from this producer; glowing orange with lemon coloured edges and a nice thin creamy head. I think it does have a Coopers-esque nose; sweet citrus and faint estery notes. Palate is ok, more citrus fruity notes (albeit mild) but the sweet syrupy adjunction, corn syrup flavours do detract. Fizz at a good level. Easily the best LN beer I’ve had in recent timees.

From a 330ml bottle. I have to agree with the other posters. Reading the label, it says balanced flavour and aroma.. I’d agree there. If you call bland balanced.Something I expect at the work Christmas party to keep people somewhat happy.

Hmmm, don’t quite know what to make of this. Slight citrus on the nose and some slight skunkiness. There are some apple and pear flavours with light malts that finishes well with some pleasent light bitterness. It is quite an innoffensive quaffer and a lot less work to down than a vic or for that matter a coopers if you were on a night out with the lads. I don’t see this as a rip off of Coopers at all except that the naming of it as Pale Ale, so what? When I bought it, I didn’t know if it would be IPA, American Pale ale, or old fashioned aussie pale ale and coopers didn’t come in to play at all. On Merit, I’d consider buying more at a bar, but would not be the first choice to buy at home. Now that the tasting bit is out of the way, what do I really think? It is a bit like Hahn is being used to push the James squire Boutiqueness to the masses. There are plenty of people that will drink hahn, but not JS etc. I don’t think this is aimed at the Coopers drinkers at all since they are all too loyal for something like this, but at the same time,

UPDATED: AUG 3, 2006 Bottled: as everyone points out its a attempt at cashing in on the popularity of the Coopers Pale Ale. Naturally, instead of being bold, thet’ve opted for bland. Bland light citrus aroma, bland body, bland half-assed faint malt flavour, bland finish and bland packaging. A very boring beer in total, but at least it wasn’t skunked I suppose. Re-rate I guess I was a bit harsh since there is an appreciatible citrus flavour in the body. It is also an easy drinker which is the plan I think. Still pretty bland

Don’t know why they bothered.
Looks like Bundaberg Ginger beer in the glass with just as much head as one of those could raise (none). Little bit of seaweed and celery in the otherwise metallic aroma, and also, as aforementioned - it smells of skunk. Damn, that’s some bad shit! Just returned from Germany to this, my first beer back in Oz. Bloody woeful. It tastes like I’d imagine a bar-towel tastes when wringed out after a Sunday session. It’s got just a percentage of VB, EB and Swan Draught all mixed into one gassy, metallic and zingy mess that just turned my stomach. Second mouthful had some watery pear and apple with some fizz-whizz thrown in for complexity. What are these boys thinking at the top. It becomes pasty after a few swills, and that bastard celery comes through again. I can’t finish this..... no more notes! (33cL, 22/02/07, Morley Liquor Merchants)

’Classically Cloudy’. As indicated by my esteemed colleagues (all 3 of them but all great blokes to share a beer with) there is a clear perception of ripped offedness and petty nyah nyah, we can do one too. There is no distinction between this and the Cooper’s beer in appearance either, which by a number of criteria would probably score at the lower end of the scale. Cloudy indeed with a soapy look to it. The nose is certainly citrusy and it lacks the estery freshness of the Coopers beer. The flavour balances rather too subtley in both hop and malt but I would have to say that it appears to at least be a clean and possibly well brewed beer. I think we would expect a little more control over the beer to appease Hahn drinkers, as oposed to hardened Cooperites who expect and accept a slightly dirtier beer. For all the cloud in the glass it is odd not to see any noticeable sediment in the bottle. Not as bad as others consider even though mine only has a 3 day longer life than the laddie’s. Like a lot of the old report cards sitting in a box somewhere, the comment is ’could do better’.

Absolute Coopers Pale Ale rip off, as has been pointed out and will continue to be. Some zesty sour lemon in the aroma, which translated into the flavour very subtly. A bit creamy in the mouth, leaving the flavour feeling rather bland. The finish was pretty vacant (a la the sex pistols), having me picking up the glass again quite soon so that I could remember what it tasted like. Not too bad, but it’s blandness leaves it (and me) wanting.

This reeks of petty revenge. Lion Nathan’s take-over offer for Coopers was rebuffed, so they shove out knock-offs like this to compete against Coopers’ leading brands. Laughable. This is a pale imitation (pardon the pun) of Coopers Pale Ale, which to be honest isn’t great anyway. How does Chuck Hahn expect to be taken seriously as a brewer when his products are so prone to being light-struck, thanks to the stupid green bottles? This is a brand-new line, so this sample has been corrupted in just a week or two. The aroma is all skunk, with some distant bready malts and metallic POR hops. In the glass, it was a cloudy pear-juice colour and raised a thin head. Great - it tastes skunked, too. I can’t pick any of the subtleties that the reliable Bluevegie found in his sample - all I get are sour watery lemony juice, a nasty coppery finish and SKUNK. Pretty fizzy and burp-inducing, too. Thank fuck Lion Nathan didn’t get their hands on Coopers if this represents the future. (330ml bottle from Randwick Village Cellars; best before 22/2/07)