Lager House is coming in February 2026 – but where? Photo: Supplied.
Capital Brewing Co has announced a new venue to open in 2026 – Lager House – but it’s keeping tight-lipped on location details for now.
Capital Brewing managing director Laurence Kain and co-founder Tom Hertel first met while bartending in Dickson as students in 2005.
They opened Capital Brewing in 2016 which has become a nationally recognised brand, with a large wholesale team and a pumping Fyshwick brew pub. But Laurence and Tom still had a quiet yearning to return to their roots in the local hospitality scene.
Enter Lager House: a neighbourhood pub with great food and great lager.
“I was having a bit of a difficult time honestly coming out of COVID lockdowns and the recession that followed, costs had risen and it was getting harder and harder. It was getting a bit depressing – things weren’t as easy or fun as they used to be,” Laurence told Region.
“But then I got handed a wedding invitation from a couple who had met and had their first date at the tap room. It really made me appreciate how people are using this space … and I realised my purpose is to create cool experiences for people in spaces where they can come together and enjoy each other’s company.
“In the age of AI and technology, these ‘third spaces’ where people congregate are increasingly important. Hospitality provides such a valuable space to society to combat the loneliness epidemic, so that’s the really exciting thing about [opening this new venue].”
Tom Hertel and Laurence Kain met while working in the hospitality industry in their student days and started Capital Brewing together. Photo: Supplied.
After 10 years of developing Capital Brewing’s wholesale business, Laurence and Tom realised they’d built a team who could keep the home fires burning and allow them to pursue this passion project.
Inspired by their travels to lager houses in Europe and the US, the pair is creating a specialty venue designed to showcase the crisp clarity of a well-brewed lager.
“Lagers are a really ancient form of beer, with a long tradition in Europe,” Laurence said.
“There’s lots of specialty breweries over there that are hundreds of years old: some of them are still brewed by monks! It’s a style that ferments colder and slower and the product really benefits from chilling and leaving it for a period to mature: the word lager comes from the German to store, or to rest.”
This style of beer is technically difficult to brew, requiring precision, care, and pure, clean water (something which Canberra has in abundance).
There’s also many different styles that the team can play with over time – dark lagers, Japanese rice lagers, amber lagers and smoked lagers – which Laurence says will keep the team of brewers creatively engaged.
Laurence says he has found his purpose in creating meeting places for people, like the tap room and Fyshwick. Photo: Supplied.
Snowy Mountains chef Paul Starley is coming on board to run the kitchen at Lager House.
He will be cooking over a massive, custom-made, Brazilian-style wood-fired grill. There will be snacks and pub classics done just right, as well as grilled seafood, vegetarian dishes cooked in the coals and flame-charred meats.
The space will feature an open U-shaped bar, recycled timber accents by Thor’s Hammer and a large open terrace.
Three 1500 litre beer tanks will keep the specially brewed seasonal lagers cold. The team has even commissioned side-pouring beer taps and glassware from the Czech Republic: the birthplace of Pilsner where beer pouring is considered an art form.
The planned opening for Lager House is February 2026. But where will it be? Well, I guess we’ll have to wait to find out …
Follow Lager House on Instagram to be the first to know more.
