On Wednesday the 20th of December I visited the Albany Brewing Company in Albany, Western Australia. This brewery is housed in the White Star Hotel that has a history of being a brewpub stretching back to the early 1900’s. At that time the hotel was owned and run by The White Star Shipping Company that was later acquired by the Cunard Line of cruise ships.
Before the Albany Brewing Company took over the brewery, just over twelve months ago, it was the Tangle Head Brewery. They had been operating in Albany for quite a few years. The hotel has a couple of bars, a restaurant that focuses on local food, wine and beer, and also regularly has live music.
The brewery produces a core range of six beers, those being; Ginger Beer, Pale Ale, Lager, Porter, Wheat Beer and a Hop Back Ale. Both the Ginger Beer and the Hop Back Ale are gluten free.
The beers that I sampled were:
1. Lager, 4.5% abv, this German Pilsner style beer has a golden straw colour and a subtle malt aroma. It has a sweet citrus and malt flavour and a gentle bitterness on a crisp dry finish.
2. Wheat, 5.0% abv, this German Hefeweizen has a straw colour and a banana and yeast aroma. It has a wonderful sweet fruity banana and wheat flavour. True to the style.
3. Pale Ale, 5.0% abv, this has a golden colour and a citrus aroma. It has a sweet malt taste and then a mild fruitiness on a gentle bitter finish.
4. Hop Back Ale, 5.2% abv, this gluten free Ale has a golden colour and a floral aroma. It has a mild fruitiness and bitterness on a crisp finish.
The beers produced by Albany Brewing Company are quite enjoyable and easy drinking. There is nothing confronting about any that I tried and they should all appeal to the mainstream beer drinkers.
