Beer Radar for TWTW – Fri 13th July 2012
By John Krüger
I was lucky enough to sit at the big boys and girls table at the recent Coopers Vintage Ale launch last Friday at the Coopers Ale House and was seated smack bang between Coopers Director of Corporate Affairs, Melanie Cooper and Coopers SA/NT sales coordinator Geoff Pevreall. You couldn’t get more chalk and cheese but there wasn’t a mention of football or weather; the conversation was fascinating. There’s plenty coming up from the Coopers camp and Geoff was that excited he could hardly sit still.
Last year’s lunch was a bit girly with seafood and twiddly bits. Someone must have had a word in the chef’s ear about bloking it up this year because we started with good old crumbed lamb chops and moved on to a delicious steak the size of a butcher’s fist. Plates of vegetables stood up like flower decorations on stands and remained pretty well untouched. The courses were matched with a few different vintages of Coopers Vintage ale and the 2007 had the crowd buzzing. It was chocolaty and not unlike a good Pedro Ximénez. Slabs of local cheeses and dried fruits went perfectly with it. Geoff decided to grab 2 stubbies of the 2007 for our end of the table instead of mucking around with little XL5 glasses, so we had quite a few tastes.
I’m declaring this year’s Vintage Ale to be the most drinkable now out of any of the previous vintages I’ve tasted. Coopers Vintage ale tends to need a year in a quiet place to bring all of the components into alignment but the grapefruit peel characters of the late Cascade hops really give it a fresh zing. Buy a slab, drink a 6-pack now and put the rest away for next year, or grab a longneck of Coopers Stout and try the most indulgent black & tan you’ve ever had.
