OK, so I caved in and spent money on this beer, despite the previous track record of Coopers lagers, several warnings on this site and previous experience drinking soapy Coopers lite at a celeb tennis match in Adelaide (coz it was the only beer being sold there).
Last week, I purchased a Coopers lager at fave bottle shop and then went down the road to buy a Cascade first Harvest 2006 and a Russian Baltika wheat.
The Coopers product was dated best before 18.6.06 (as I could best determine, coz some stupid bugger printed it over the raised Coopers logo on the bottle, crikey!!). I enjoyed the beer. It tasted like a nice German or Czech pils with a decocted malt flavour and aroma and flavour hops. I drank it from the bottle and thoroughly enjoyed it, savouring it to the very end, and intending to buy a case if it was all that nice.
Take 2. I went to a different bottlo today and bought 2 more stubbies. They were dated best before 10.12.06.
Aaah, that's the Cooper's lager flavour people have told me about. POR bitterness, low maltiness and no hop flavour. Couldn't believe that my tastebuds could be so variable, and I was hoping to do some beer judging later this year (BJCP study course participant).
So I saved the other bottle (with same date) for this evening. It tasted the same, so I had a glass of water before continuing. Big taste, swirl the beer and swallow slowly. Nup, this beer is gutless and I hope someone who works for Coopers can explain this to me.
I'd like to attribute the difference to the batches, and hopefully not the care the beer got from the different shops. Both beers were in the front of the fridge, at the back of the shop.
Coopers website states in a press release dated 3rd November, 2005:
Tasting Notes
Coopers Lager
Coopers Lager has a crisp, refreshing flavour with a good balance of malt and hop characteristics,
similar in style to premium European lagers.
It has a light golden colour, high clarity and an excellent head. The aroma is fresh and clean with
fruity esters and floral late hop notes.
The flavour is initially smooth and malty followed by a firm, mid-palate bitterness and crisp, non-lingering
after-bitterness.
The malt is from top quality South Australian-grown Sloop and Gairdner barley. Australian Pride of
Ringwood hops have been used to provide the majority of the bitterness, while late hopping with
Saaz hops provides distinctive floral hop notes.
The yeast is a bottom-fermenting type selected for its ability to ferment at low temperatures and
provides appealing fruit-estery characteristics.
After fermentation at low temperatures, the beer is chilled below zero for lagering and finally cold
filtered before being kegged or bottled using state-of-the-art equipment that prevents air contacting
the beer and causing oxidisation that damages flavour.
Coopers Premium Lager has an alcohol level of 5%.
I reckon that bottles shops who don't look after their beer should go out of business. It looks like there's one shop in Newcastle that won't be seeing any money from me for a while. I'll email Coopers for their opinion. Maybe they have changed recipe already.
Seth's 2 cents (refundable deposit only in SA)
