Hahn Premium has had a facelift with all new labels – and a revamped recipe – that feature the brand’s namesake and craft beer identity, Chuck Hahn’s signature. The six-packs of Hahn Premium also now feature three AIBA medals, denoting the awards that the beer has picked up over the years: Champion Beer, Champion Lager and Grand Champion Beer.
With sales of the beer falling in recent times, it was decided that the brew was in need of a revamp. As such, the beer previously known as Hahn Premium Australian Lager, is now named Hahn Premium Australian Pilsener. To match the name change, the recipe has also been tweaked with a change in the hop additions, noted on the label as a “late gift of Hersbrucher hops”. According to Chuck, there had been some changes in the brewing process due to the automatic processes in the brewery that he wasn’t happy about.
“I tasted the beer and I realised it wasn’t tasting how I wanted it too,” he says. “They weren’t late hopping it enough, or using fresh enough hops to create the European hop character I was after.”
With that in mind Chuck changed the process of the beer’s creation by upping the Hersbrucher hops as previously mentioned as well as upping the malt content from 80 per cent to 90 per cent.
However, despite the new name the beer has apparently always been brewed to a Pilsener recipe, it was simply named a Lager due to the lack of consumer awareness.
“When the beer was created back in 1988, no one knew what a Pilsenser was so we just called it a Lager,” says Chuck. “But now everyone is educated.”
The silver and gold colour scheme of the product has been maintained, along with the presence of Chuck’s signature on the case packaging.
Hahn is hoping that the re-brand will bring the Premium Lager up to speed with the two other popular Hahn brands, Super Dry – the most popular modified carb beer on the market (and the beer that Chuck drinks after he has mowed the lawn) – and Premium Light – which is the biggest light beer in the market.