Tipples Beer Review #100 – Coopers Vintage Ale 2011 – 2018 (Australia)

This is my 100th beer review here on steemit, which seems a) like a lot of beer and 2) like it deserves to be celebrated with something special.

So here it is the story of the most epic day of tasting in my year – Coopers Day.

Coopers in the largest of the craft brewers in Australia, each year they release a vintage ale, each year since 2011 I’ve bought at least a six pack and put it away in my cellar (really just storage room in the underground car park in our apartment building) to let it age, each year more at added to the collection, but also on one special day one of each year’s beer are removed, drunk and compared.

All Eight beers ready for opening

So lets start with the beers – 8 of them – one from each year from 2011 through to 2018. As you can see the original 2011 is in the old style bottles, then the elegant 2012-2017 design, but it’s changed again in 2018 – and I don’t think it’s for the better at all – sure Thomas Cooper with his awesome beard but the rest of the label is cut price.

A close up of Tommy and Tommy

*More arty bottle shots

It’s quite a production, this year we stepped it up, as well as my girlfriend Jordan (who always drinks with me) we added a friend of our who is South Australian (where Coopers is from) and loosely associated with the Coopers family (as I think all South Australians are).

On the table the eight beers, the eight glasses for each of our three drinkers, and new for this year cheese, crackers, dip, chocolates and all of those good things, we are set for an awesome afternoon.

the full setup

Cooper Vintage is the ‘same’ beer every year, it’s a 7.5% ish malt driven brew, it has caramel notes and is oncve sweet with just a hint of hop bitterness. What I’m looked for in this tasting is how the beers change over time.

The beer up close – a beautiful toffee brown, almost bourbon whiskey colour

When you are tasting aged beers, firstly it’s important to remember which is which, because once they are poured they will look the same. Hence the pink labels under each glass in this shot.

2017 getting all crazy heady on the pour

But once everything it poured out it’s time to smell, taste, swap back and forth between the years to compare to analyse, to pick the best, and to end on the best.

Here are the ratings of each year from worst to best (keeping in mind that the worst is still very good) :

2018 – a little unfair as this is a beer designed to be cellared so of course it won’t be at it’s best – this boozy and very yeasty, with big banana esters which will disappear over time
2012 – This was very sediment – it had a sweet toffee smell, but that sweetness wasn’t there in the taste, it was a little dull.
2017 – This one was very heady which is a little concerning, it has a very commercial beer smell to it as well, but actually it drinks very smooth – starting to really come into it’s own.
2013 – Still has good sweetness, but very little carbonation left, still has a slight hint of alcohol burn in it, but still very very good.
2014 – Has all the tastes of the others, perfectly balance, but they flavor dies quickly which is a shame.
2015 – A little thinner than most, sweet at the start but does away quickly.
2016 – This one feels like a barely wine, it’s very sweet and has a strong alcolhol burn
2011 – this was a real surprise, normally this beer is best at about the 3-5 year mark, with everything else being too young (and thus to harsh) or too old (and therefore the flavor has all gone away) but 7 years old and this 2011 is all still there, it has a strong sweet smell, and the brightest flavor.

The tasting notes on the bottles

Lots of bottlecaps left behind

If you haven’t tried aging beers give it a try – just keep in mind the type of beer it is you want something big, boozy and not hop driven. And when you open them, invite someone around and share the experience.

And as always this is part of the awesome #Beersaturday competition run by @detlev – check it out here:
https://steemit.com/life/@detlev/welcome-to-week-76-of-the-thirsty-steemit-beersaturday-challenge