Coopers Vintage Ale

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

375 ml bottle batch # 4-OCT/2002 pours hazy with chunks of yeast floating around, orange amber color with a fluffy white head that lasts. Spicy, fruity, yeasty aroma. Spicy and peppery pear and oak flavor. Medium body with a crisp and snappy mouthfeel, finishes with some dryness.

Oct 3, 2000 batch: Pours transparent reddish tan with a medium head that fades to a thin solid layer that remains. Aroma is of caramel, light fruits, and a mild tea. Flavor is caramel, light fruits (grapes, apples, etc.), and a tea type flavor. No real trace of alcohol. Definatly an interesting beer.

I picked this one up when I was up in Manhattan at BrewTopa this summer! That was a great time!

Batch # 4-Oct / Vintage 2002
Pours a murky orange and golden brown body, very minimal head. The aroma is tart, yeasty and spicy all in one! As I take a sip I first notice large hints of oak cask flavors accompanied by a semisweet caramel and butterscotch flavor. Then there is a tartness of apples that is long and dry and a tangerine zestyness. But most noteworthy is the spiciness of this Ale! It’s insane, loads of black pepper, clove, coriander, and I think even some cinnamon all surrounding a Christmas cider like essence. The palate is oily but a bit thin… dry spick finish as I had recently mentioned.
Overall I think that the past 2.75 years have developed this brew nicely!

12 oz. brown, stubbie, twist off bottle. I hate twist offs. Batch No.4 OCT 2002. Past it’s prime. Barely a sound as I pried off the crown. Poured out a hazy, cloudy, caramel color, with a fast fading white head. Aromas are of malts past their prime, yeast, and caramel. Tastes are the same as the smells. I had to choke it down to get a taste of it. Not the best Strong Ale I ever had, that much is certain. A drain pour if ever there was one.

Batch #4:10/4/02: Cloudy, amber body; minimal head, but ample carbonation; fruity (pear, pineapple); sweet and malty, with butterscotch, pear, apple, very slight medicinical phenols; some slight bitter hopping and tangyness for balance; creamy and oily palate; well hidden alcohol; very good.

Batch No: 4-Oct-2002: Poured an opaque glowing deep orange with a big creamy head that lasted as a thin coverlet till the end. First impression of the aroma was of apricots and calvados. This was followed by very faint, light caramel, and alcohol. When poured with the yeast it displayed fine sweet bready character also. Complex malts dominated the flavour, with some yeast notes towards the end. This was smooth and rich in the mouth (particularly with the yeast), and had a nice light, lingering bitterness. Very, very nice ’late nights by the fire’ beer.

Batch #4 - Oct 2002 This is not a brew I expected to run across at my local beer store, but there it was. So here goes. Murky orange-amber with a tvery tight off-white head that colpases in the middle but clings to the glass tenaciously. The aroma is a bit phenolic along with some fruits and somr rich savory components. The flavor is very English in style, malts buttery almost , minimal hoppiness and very minimal bitterness. II get some exotic fruit, though maybe this is just my mind transporting me to the land of Oz. Dry finish, phenols show up here. Overall pretty good but not excellent.

Bottled. Batch number 4 - October 2002. Pours a tanned peach with a faint tan head. Aroma is sweet with alcohol, fruit and brown sugar. The taste is alcohol, raw sugar, dark fruit, and rich malt. A bit thinner tasting and palate-wise than the aroma would suggest. Finish is almost bland. Not a bad beer, but just not enough of an assault on the tongue as I thought it would be when I smelled it.