I finally had the opportunity to try the much anticipated (by me at any rate) 2008 Coopers Vintage Ale when Glenn Cooper came to town to launch it today.
I'm a big fan of the Coopers brand of limited edition release and generally buy a carton of each and do my best to keep enough stored to compare side by side with successive vintages. I find they generally mellow out over a year or two with the up front hop flavours easing up and the malt profile developing nicely. That said, it will be really interesting to see how the 2008 ages as this year's vintage doesn't have a very sharp hop flavour to begin with. We were cautioned that the beer was still a bit "new" and would improve with a little more aging. If that's correct, it is going to be a cracker as it was sensational as is. The hop character wasn't immediate, but provides a long, lingering bitterness that is well wrapped in the malt. The malt flavour is beautiful: Toffeeish and treacly with the signature Coopers yeast characters very prominent. I will have to find out the IBUs...they are probably quite high, but very well balanced by the malt.
I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend it.
Ian Watson and I have done lunches featuring the Vintage and Ian has matched it to a seared rib fillet with blue cheese butter...I can't wait to get my hands on some of this year's to give that a try again.
I know this post sounds a bit gushing, but it really was a great beer.
Coopers Vintage Ale 375ml 7.5% abv Limited release, available nationally
POSTSCRIPT(Three days later...): Just tried another 2008 Vintage Ale and was surprised to find that the bitterness was much more apparent the second time. It was interesting...and maybe due to the fact that this was drunk without food or other beers first. The first time I'd tried it I had been drinking Coopers Pale Ale and eating first. It's really interesting how perceived flavour are very much affected by what else you are eating and drinking andthis is a good example. It's still a great beer, just don't be surprised that the bitterness is a little more aggressive than I wrote above.