As a single from Total Wine, Kennesaw, GA, USA. Standard look with all the things I am looking for from the style; a golden pour with exceptional clarity. A pretty good head, some lace and no skunk. It hits on all of these points, and in addition is refreshing and tasty. Malts a re solid and a small hop balance finishes the whole thing off. A simple and nice brew, wel within the parameters of the style and it hits all the spots.
Notes on beers brewed by
Coopers Brewery Limited
Coopers Dark Ale
Without the bottle sediment this pours very much like a decent looking Brown Ale without the red highlights - when the sediment is added it takes on a somewhat unattractive, typical Dubbel appearance. The sediment is very chalky looking. Aroma? Well I get almost nothing (except the obvious "beer" and a little alcohol) Well I'm not sure if this is much like an English Mild, it really drinks more like a low quality Brown Ale, and not a very tasty one at that. Yeasty and dry in the mouth, thin...
Coopers Extra Strong Vintage Ale
Rather unattractive beer, with a dirty brown appearance, some head and a tiny bit of lace. The color of the body is really not very nice, it looks like muddy pond water. Very soft and creamy mouthfeel that is surely this beers best feature. Lovely smoothness and some extremely small bubbles make a very slick carbonation - really nice. Aroma and tastes are both rather bland apart fom the general mild maltiness. This is not an unpleasant beer, just a rather non-descript ale with a creamy...
Coopers Best Extra Stout
Jet black pour with a disappointing head and not much lacing. Lots and lots of sediment, a little too much for my liking in this style. For whatever reason, the sediment in the jet black body looks slightly off-putting (perhaps that's the Guinness perfect pint syndrome). Aroma is very sweet, with some coffee and a little chocolate. I suspect that the aroma would be too much for some people, but I like the sweet malt nose. Tastes are bitter sweet, with a decent bite in the lingering finish....
Coopers Sparkling Ale
Pale orange appearance, but throw in the sediment from the bottle conditioning and you get something that more resembles a cloudy Wit. Small head that doesn't really hang around. Interesting aroma of honey and alcohol, really quite nice. A little sting from the carbonation, which seems high, and from some hop bitterness, but it smooths out pretty quickly to be an easy drink. Mouthfeel is OK but the carbonation is a little OTT and the finish is dry with some bitterness. Malt balance is in...
Coopers Original Pale Ale
Taco Mac, Marietta, GA, $4.75. Unusual this, and fairly average to boot. Pours like an unfiltered, bottle fermented wheat, tasted like a sour lager, calls itself a Pale Ale, what gives?? I usually like the yeast sediment to be added to my glass with the beer, but on this ocassion I wish I hadn't. Rather than getting an attractive, classic cloudy look, I got a nasty, murky pond water effect. Didn't look good at all. The smell was lemony, almost to the point of seeming artificial and the initial...