Coopers Sparkling Ale

Pours hazy yellow with light head. Nose is slightly fruit/sweet. Taste is very light but avoids the hops with a rise of mid taste fruit. lots of carbonation.

A couple years ago while I was in Total Wine, I stumbled across a stout from an unknown brewery in Australia. It was pretty darn good. Fast-forward a couple years... So I was hungry and craved Outback and stopped in for their coconut shrimp (yum!) and a drink. I figured I’d scope out their beer menu and lo-behold... Coopers. That little unknown brewery of a couple years ago was now being offered at outback. My decision on what to drink was suddenly made much easier. Pours bright and golden from the bottle, with a decent amount of yeast trickling out with the last of the bottle. Personally, I enjoy some of the yeast settled in the bottom of my beer, but usually not all of it. It basically boils down to personal preference. One can pour so as to leave all the settled yeast on the bottom, or enjoy all of its bready yeasty goodness in their brew by swirling the last dregs around in the bottle before pouring it in the glass. Coopers Sparkling Ale is described as golden English ale, but it reminds me more of a lighter Belgium blonde ale. I can definitely taste the crisp zing of bitter lemon and a hint of spiced hops, almost reminiscent of spiced apples. The yeast and malt balance each other out very well, hinting of fresh sourdough. A crisp mild bitterness lingers in the back of the tongue, accenting the overall characteristic of the beer. While thin on the head, it does have a nice nose of lemon and yeast. Again, I am reminded of my Belgium golden ales and triples which have fermented in the bottle. That musky, spicy smell that makes my mouth water. Overall, a fine example of blonde ale or as Coopers calls it, a Sparkling Ale. Semantics aside, it can sparkle in my glass any day.

No 435
Rated: 17.06.2008
Bottle brown, 375 ml
Appearance: Pours murky to muddy with great load of yeast sediment, body colour is orangy - honey to blond. Carbonation of body is very mild. Head is white, frothy, initially medium and slowly decreasing to small, there is fair lacing.
Aroma: Reminding me of some unfiltered and unpasteurized home brews, slightly accidic, yeasty and having the characteristic Australian clementine - hoppy nose. Very juicy with a hint of C vitamine, slightly orangy, fresh big green Argentine apples, generally the malty base is hidden and beer tilts considerably towards hoppyness and honest natural accidity. Some faint notes of white wine grapes.
Flavour: Front is moderate alcoholic, spicy and bitter with a kind of harsh impression on palate like milions of micro drawing - pins are preaking or stinging your tongue, a bit thin bodied, considerably noticable Australian hoppy character, clementine, green unripe Argentinian apple, slight notes of white wine grapes, in the base is easily noticable malty - grainy character, yeastyness is present in the flavour but not disturbing, leaves kind of unfresh aftertaste. Finish duration is short to medium.
Palate: Body is light to medium, texture is wattery, carbonation on palate is medium, finish feel is light to moderate astringent and light to moderate alcoholic.

The beer pours a hazy orange amber color with a thin white head that disappeared quickly. The nose was slightly grassy with a light maltyness. The taste is light with a very carbonated mouth feel. I was so looking forward to this beer and was let down.

This 12.7 oz bottle is an interestingly shaped brown with a twist off cap.Pleasant yeasty olfactory. In the looks department, if starts off pale yellow but then morphs into a beautiful swirling hazy chunky gunk laden brew from the sludge on the bottom. It looks like there is a teaspoon of pepper in the bottom of my drink. Very nice carbonation, and I like it. Its creamy and fizzy yet very enjoyable. The look of this stuff sitting in the glass is somewhat viscous with the slowly rising carbonation. Pale ale bite of hops. Linger after each sip. Finish is lingering bitter on the back of the throat. IMHO a good example of an ale. You’d never know this stuff was close to 6% in alky, way too laid back.