Coopers Celebration Ale

150 years of Coopers brewing in Australia - a momentous occasion indeed.

And to mark it we have this from Thomas Cooper's Selection no less. Not sure how he selected it from beyond the grave but be that as it may, this was evidently brewed with Centennial hops (good start), Nelson Sauvin (getting a bit excited now) and .. Pride of Ringwood (sigh).

It pours a bit darker than the norm and shows a hint of chocolate along with metallic notes on the nose. The taste.. well the esters they're on about are there but mostly in the form of green apple tastes reminiscent of the standard pale ale. The finish really didn't do it for me.. dead macro lager bad malt. To use the words of my copilot for this test Mr Grip: "it certainly reminds me why I used to scull my beer".

I don't mean to just pile on any mass produced beer here - if anything, I'd like to see an increase in flavoursome quality from these limited batches help to drive more people toward craft / small batch beer. I'm just not convinced this will do the job and a little disappointed they weren't a bit more ambitious with this one. 3.0

Coopers Pale Ale

This really needs no review other than to say it is Coopers Pale Ale.

A classic and rightly so of the Australian beer scene, and was a welcome companion when it could be found when I was living in Japan also (thankyou, Mishima restaurant opposite Iseya inokashirakoenguchiten).

Mate of mine said recently it occupies a really special place between the mainstream and craft beer in Australia.. and I agree. This is still the best "$40 carton" you can buy pound for pound and I hope that continues as Australia's third largest brewer (despite limited market share) into the future. 7.5 and ongoing respect.