Beer Radar
By John Krüger
Mild sales in mild weather. (First published in Wine Business Magazine in 2011)
Talking about the weather is about as boring as it gets but let’s apply weather to our favourite subject, beer. We all know that this year’s weather has been arse-about-face. We don’t know if we’re in drought, flood, or a bit of both. Cold spells in the middle of summer confuses the shit out of consumers and department stores are in disarray not knowing if they should be flogging sunscreen or umbrellas. Take pity on the poor bottle-shop attendants. They know as a rule of thumb that for every degree the weather heats up, beer sales increase by 2% but with weather all over the place, is it swilling style beers or strong dark sippers that the punters desire? Australia’s mild start to summer has had the beer drinkers in a quandary. Coopers Marketing Director Glenn Cooper says the states keenest on mid-strength beers, Queensland and Western Australia have been hitting the Coopers Mild Ale hard. “Sales of Mild Ale in cans have been particularly strong and are up 79% on the previous year. However, we have also recorded a 7.7% increase in sales of Coopers Best Extra Stout. Stout is normally a winter drink, but we think the cooler start to summer has extended its season and people have been enjoying it later in the year.” says Glenn.
While we’re talking Coopers, they’ve re-launched the old homebrew system with a slightly different fermenter and are pushing it as the perfect gift for a loved bloke on Valentine’s Day. We think they’re an excellent way to start exploring the hobby of home brewing, but it does have its pitfalls. Let’s face it, you’re not going to make anything like Coopers Pale Ale at home using a tin of goo and a kilo of sugar unless you have your taste buds situated nearer to the ground. As a rule of thumb, the darker the beer, the better the extract cans work. Coopers brown ale, and especially the stout are swillingly good beers for extract homebrew, especially if they’re given 3-6 months to mature in the bottle in a cool dark place. For lighter coloured beers like pale ale and lagers, there’s no way to get rid of that extract taste apart from getting rid of the extract to begin with and brewing with malted grains. The good news is the Coopers home brew fermenter and bottles will still work perfectly if you decide to take the step into all-grain brewing.
We requested a taste of the 2010 Vintage Ale from Coopers and were surprised when a few samples of the 2009 arrived. We were confused, but stoked to try the aged beer. We had been a bit iffy about a beer we’re not hugely into, but the similarities to vintage port and Christmas fruitcake are amazing. This harsh weedy alcohol flavour has turned into musty leather and raisins. B&S ball rum and cheap white bread toasted until it’s just that little bit too burned. The edges are black but you hide it with Vegemite; that kind of bitterness. This beer has changed dramatically and is still definitely worth checking out. We’re not sure where this beer is going, but we’ve stashed the last few in different wine storage, sock drawers and fridges so see how this vintage ale story pans out. We haven’t been this riveted by a storyline since Sawyer started doing Kate on the island with the freaky polar bear.
