Coopers Dark Ale

Brewed by Coopers Brewery
Style: Brown Ale
Regency Park, South Australia, Australia

Bottled. Adark brown coloured beer with no head. The aroma has a little chocloate and a tiny amount of roastiness. The taste is quite dry and a bit of caramel comes through, but otherwise there’s not much going on. Disappointing really.

Medium to dark brown with considerable sediment settling in the bottom of the glass. Roasted, burnt malts, stout like, but not really pronounced in any way. Funny in the mouth, kinda like a real halfway house that’s not really going anywhere. Some very faint roasted notes give way to plenty of fizz and not much else, killing the flavour of course. Cooper’s is a bit hit and miss these days.

bottle - 3/21/05 - Pours a very dark brown. There is a burnt, malty aroma with a hint of chocolate . Not much aroma overall. The taste is malty with no finish to speak of. Overall it’s not as bad as what I thought I might be getting. The low rating made me think it might be offensive. It’s not offensive, but it’s nothing to write home about either. I’d say it’s average. I could drink it from time to time if no better brews were available. It kind of reminds me of some porters that I’ve had lately...

Pours dark, fizzy, not much head. Burnt aroma that is faint. Total lack of flavor. I will never try or rate this beer again.

i’ve now had five bottles of you, cooper’s dark, and i can’t say i’m impressed. here’s your last chance to win me over-- and to be fair-- you can do the talking. okay? but first let me say that i don’t have a huge problem with your appearance, you’re a fine raisin brown, with rummy orange highlights. true, your head does suck-- fizzy and surviving about as long as a lobster in boiling water-- but i only note that for the record, i really don’t care about that. okay, you tell me about your aroma. shoot. whataya got? "uhh, dub libbnle cookny" WHAT?! i can’t hear you, speak UP, man! "COOOkie". cookie?! jesus, that’s it? c’mon, elaborate. "uh, oatmeal cookie? oatmeal raisin?" you’re asking ME?! you should know this stuff. fine, oatmeal cookie. on to flavor-- what have to got to say for yourself-- and don’t mutter! "erb, snurf, fibush" i can’t understand what you’re saying, eNUNciate for chrissakes. "i said, a little nutty coffee--nn--not very sweet". right. boring as shit, in other words. got any hops in there? "nn, no, not really, a light tinny bitterness. lots of carbonation though-- is, is that good?" depends... how’s your body? full? thin? "let’s just say i don’t need to diet. uh, anorexic maybe slightly." look. i’m sure you’re a nice beer. you’re just not what i’m looking for in a session ale. no offense, but take a hike. "igbie glush nuf?" exactly.

As an experiment, I tasted this side by side with Tooheys Old, another Australian brown ale of similar a.b.v. Coopers make some of the best widely-available beer in Australia. Tooheys make beer. However, the Old is generally considered the best of the Tooheys line, while the Dark is arguably one of Coopers’ weaker products. They both poured the colour of teak with similar-sized moderate heads. Both create a modest lacing. Appearance: 3/5 for both. Big difference in the aromas. The Tooheys has sweet dark malt and licorice, typical of the style. The Coopers, on the other hand, has that big, fruity Sparkling Ale nose (peaches?) fighting with sweet malts and a waft of molasses. Neither is exceptional. Aroma: Tooheys 6/10, Coopers 5/10. The Tooheys is creamy-smooth but a little thin in the body. The Coopers is thinner still - the mouthfeel is very close to the Sparkling Ale. Palate: Tooheys 3/5, Coopers 2/5. Lots of up-front toasted malt in the Tooheys, wind-inducing carbonation and a restrained dry finish. Chocolate notes but not a lot of complexity. Pleasant but one-dimensional. The Coopers has a big burst of fruity esters on the tongue, some sweet malt and... not a lot else. Little finish to speak of. It’s an odd cove, perfectly drinkable not particularly true to style. Flavor: Tooheys 6/10, Coopers 5/10. Two very moderate ales. Kudos to Tooheys for making something other than the usual swill. Coopers, on the other hand, can do much better. Overall impression: Tooheys 9/10, Coopers 8/10.

Seemed to have expected more from this one, as it is quite hard to get a hold of in the West. Poured an opaque dark brown with a ruby tinge and large ’bread crumb’ yeast particles floating about. Short off-white head managed to stay around, with good lacing. Roasted coffee bean and toasted malt wafts, with an off-setting metallic edge, made up the aroma. In the mouth, a light body and medium light carbonation gave way to paste-like yeast flavours, a bitter-sweet front, roasted malt sides and a short bitter and burnt swallow. Flavours, though, were all overly subtle (which was disappointing!), but over all it wasn’t a bad ’sessionable’ beer.

poured black with a thick off white head. roast aroma and flavor . Not to bad but not great with a metalic finish.