Your Shout!
In recent times it has become widely available on tap, I’d say the majority of pubs in NSW now offer it and it’s my first choice pub beer. Cases can be picked up for $40 – $55 if you look around. I guess the higher pricepoint for such a period of time makes people think of it as a premium beer, that they now sell it at the same price as VB/New/Carlton makes it seem a bargain. I’ve always thought it a bloody good beer and have been happy to pay a little more for it.. mind you I’m not complaining!
The South Australian brewer is responsible for some of the finest beer in the country. The Original Pale Ale is naturally fermented in the ‘Burton-on-Trent’ style, then a secondary fermentation creates the trademark sediment that gives ‘Pale’ its fine cloudy appearance. This beer has no as no additives or preservatives and has a 4.5% alcohol volume. As the beer has natural sediment, the beer is best served by rolling the beer along a bench gently to mix the sediment before drinking. The sediment is quite natural and adds a bit of flavour to this delightful beer.
To translate and simplify this from my very limited knowledge (corrections and elaboration is more than welcome in the comments), Water, Hops and Sugar and mixed in a huge copper fermentation tank, then Yeast is sprinkled on top. After several weeks at room temperature primary fermentation finishes when the yeast has converted all the sugar into alcohol. We now have warm flat beer, suitable for export to the UK.
This is poured into the same bottles that will be eventually sold. A teaspoon of sugar (likely Dextrose) is then added into each bottle and the caps are crowned on. The yeast in the beer gets another feed from this new sugar, producing carbon-dioxide. With the cap on the bottle, pressure builds up and forces bubbles into the beer.
By contrast, kegged beer doesn’t require secondary fermentation, as once the beer is poured into the keg high pressure CO2 is connected for a few day until the beer is bubbly enough. I have no idea how the kegged Coopers Original Pale Ale is carbonated, but would love to find out.
