I like Coopers. I like their beer and I like the company. I respect the fact that when they say they have stayed true to their traditions, it's not just a well-crafted-but-largely-fictional back story to their brand. They make ales, good ales, and it has been a struggle for their business to do so as tastes and fashions have changed. The only reason they have been able to pursue the course that they have is by being a family company. True, they make a 'premium' lager and it's pretty good within the class in which it sits...but being the tallest pygmy in the tribe doesn't make you a giant. So I am eagerly awaiting the chance to taste their new Coopers 62 Pilsner, soft launched yesterday at the Balaklava Cup in South Australia.
It's a pilsener-style beer and seems to fill the gap temporarily occupied by Grolsch in the Premium Beverages lineup (Premium Beverages is Coopers' distribution business which also distributes Budweiser - the InBev-Anheuser Busch one, not Budvar. For a brief period in late 2007 to early 2008 Premium Beverages also distributed Grolsch. This agreement lapsed in May 2008 after Grolsch was bought by SABMiller. SABMiller purchased NSW-based Bluetongue at around the same time.)
Coopers 1862 is set for a major launch in Sydney in the next week or so, followed by a national roll-out. Press release below (I include these seperately as a lot of media releases cross my desk and I can't stand to see it when they are published almost in their entirety uncredited - which happens all too often. See how often you see these words crop up over the next few weeks...PR Bingo).
Coopers 62 Pilsner
The Cooper Family introduces the perfectly individual pilsner
September 2009, Sydney: The Coopers Brewery has introduced the latest generation into their family of beers. Renowned for brewing award-winning ales and stouts since 1862, the Cooper Family has created Coopers 62, a full-flavour Pilsner made with the same uncompromising passion they are renowned for.
Glenn Cooper, Chairman and Marketing Director of Coopers, said “The launch of Coopers 62 Pilsner is an extremely exciting project and it’s our first step into this category. Coopers 62 Pilsner has been painstakingly perfected and tested, and offers Australians the option of drinking a home grown yet world class pilsner.”
Coopers 62 is the perfectly individual pilsner for the beer drinker who knows who they are and what quality tastes like. It is targeted towards a discerning and self-assured individual, who enjoys a quality premium domestic or imported lager.
Based on a classic Bohemian-style Pilsner, Coopers 62 has a straw-to-golden colour and dense, rich foam. Hopped, using a combination of traditional Saaz and Hersbrucker varieties, it has a medium-bodied palate and is generously fermented to produce a well-attenuated lager.
The hop flavours of Coopers 62 are perfectly balanced by an all-malt recipe of Australian-grown malted barley to finish with a residual sweetness, typical of this style of beer. The end result is a crisp, full-flavoured taste with a smooth, satisfying finish, brewed just for you.