Coopers Sparkling Ale

Brewed by Coopers Brewery
Style: Golden Ale/Blond Ale
Regency Park, South Australia, Australia

On tap @ Bondi, San Diego. Interesting ale, this was. Definitely the best brew on tap, but still rather weak. Still, it wasn’t bad on a nice June evening. I can’t explain it, but this had a Belgian like flavor, almost like a triple and a wit beer mixed together. Pretty good, but ultimately missing something. However, the waitresses at Bondi are missing NOTHING.

Rating update from a somewhat more fresh bottle from Oddbins: actually very similar to my previous tasting, but a bit brighter aroma, a bit cleaner malt character. Really not a bad drop at all. There is something very earthy and satisfying about it.
(Previous rating: Bottle, Dodgy Deli, Oxford. Pale copper, a small layer of white head. Musky garden aroma, recalling the viney smell of fresh tomatoes, a mixed bed of herbs, and the bready bile-like smell of compost. Bright dry flavor, brisk earthy hops, a bit of corn bread finish. I appreciate the significant hop presence and pleasant dry character of this beer. It’s not a standout, but still a pleasant pint. 3.2)

Bottle. Visibly unfiltered graininess, silty, golden orange color. Small head that disappeared quickly. Almost no aroma, just a slight pleasant fruitiness. The flavor surprised me...combination of the fruity-banana flavors of an American wheat and the hoppy bitterness of a pale ale. Interesting and extremely drinkable. I’d love to drink this one on a warm day.

12oz bottle. Aroma is very weak. Average sized white, foamy, head that fully diminished and left no lace. Murky body with lots of tiny particles. Light yellow/orange hue. Flavor is lightly sweet and bitter. Palate is light to medium bodied and watery soft/flat. No nose to speak of but the flavor was good. Some flowery hopps and sweet malts. Says on bottle that you can mix up the sediment which is how it was served (I really didn’t like that). This was served way too cold so it might open up otherwise. Good brew, wouldn’t turn one down.

(Bottle, Monk’s Café, Stockholm) Golden yellow colour with greenish notes, lots of sediment making it rather hazy. Short white head. Fruity nose with notes of tropical fruit (mango, pineapple, citrus). Actually not very daring. Fruity taste with citrus, tropical fruit, grass and spicy hops in a rather short finish. Some sweetness, but mainly dry. Lively and rather sparkling on the tongue. Refreshing and tasty, but lacking something extra.

Bottle. Pours Hazy gold with a white head. Dirt looking yeast settles to the bottom. Aroma is musty fruit, grain, and yeast. Flavor is bitter, champagne-like with dry fruitiness and grain.

Pours a very cloudy golden colour, the generous amount of sediment gives the beer it’s sparkling texture. Somewhat similar to belgian blonds, but with a more low-key flavour. The taste is both fruity and bitter without being overly so on either. Very nice.

Witbier haze. Spritzy and watery for the ABV. Sniffs like a fruity Belgian Blond with wood, pear, vanilla, apple, apricot... pretty much the whole fruitbowl, then. It’s a massive red herring. Flavour crushingly anticlimactic with watery banana and lingering nut bitterness hovering perilously close to the plughole.