Cooper’s our number one pale ale

Beer

While craft brewers attract ever more publicity, one of Australia’s oldest beer brands won this year’s trophy for best Australian pale ale style at the Australian International Beer Awards.

Coopers Sparkling Ale, first produced in the 1860s, took out the top gong. Chief brewer, Dr Tim Cooper, said it was produced originally by the company’s founder, Thomas Cooper, and remains one of the Cooper’s biggest sellers.

Indeed, Sparkling Ale spearheaded the company’s push, albeit as a niche product, into other states from its South Australian base some decades ago.

As its popularity grew, scaling up production of this bottle-fermented brew went hi-tech with the introduction of an Aber Meter. The device, developed at the University of Aberystwyth, precisely controls the number of living yeast cells transferred at high speed from fermentation tank to bottle.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 19 June 2013 in the Canberra Times

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