Coopers Brewery
Leabrook, Australia
Imported by: Cascadia Importers
Brewed naturally by the centuries-old top fermentation method. This beer displays a solid head and a distinctive, full-bodied flavour enhanced by a soft, fruity character and the sediment which gives it a cloudy appearance.
ABV: 5.8
ABW: 4.62
COLOR: n/a
BITTERNESS: n/a
ORIGINAL GRAVITY: n/a
AVAILABLE: AK, AR, CA, FL, IL, IN, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, NC, NE, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, TN, WA, WY
This beer is aptly named, with a big fizz that pours straight out of the bottle, creating a frothy off-white head of enormous bubbles that quickly recede. The first sip is more bitter than anticipated with pleasingly assertive citrusy notes of lemon and lime zest that completely steal the limelight from the underlying bready sweetness. A dry finish leaves the mouth clean as a whistle and wanting another sip. The sum of all the parts make this a very enjoyable, easy-drinking beer that yearns for a pretty spring or summer day and a chair on the deck.
An Australian favorite for more than a hundred years, Sparkling Ale is a bottle-conditioned, English-style pale ale beautifully corrupted by the use of fruity Pride of Ringwood Tasmanian hops. There are echoes of a bedtime malt drink in the nose and initial taste, but then oranges and mangos deliver a juicy drinkability that is enhanced by mouth-filling carbonation and a spiky hop bitterness. The same tropical and citrus fruits linger in the finish that winds up dry, bitter and pithy. Often served naturally cloudy, this is another beer that is all too easy to quaff, given its strength.
Lisa Morrison, aka The Beer Goddess, writes about beer whenever and wherever she can and also gets to talk about it on a weekly radio show in her hometown of Portland, OR.
Author of the Good Bottled Beer Guide and The Book of Beer Knowledge, Jeff Evans is an eight-time editor of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide. More of his writing can be found at www.insidebeer.com.
