Beer Styles

What is a Sparkling Ale? A top-fermented beer that undergoes secondary fermentation with live yeast in the bottle, keg, or can, which keeps it cloudy. Coopers Sparkling Ale comes in at 5.8 percent ABV, golden and hazy, with fruity character, a soft malt sweetness, and a touch of bitterness on the finish.

How do Sparkling Ale and Pale Ale differ at Coopers? The Pale Ale comes in at 4.5 percent, making it lighter, fresher, and drier, though it also stays hazy. It has been brewed under this name since 1989, with earlier versions bearing similar names going back further.

The Best Extra Stout comes in at 6.3 percent and is a dark, top-fermented beer with roasted notes of coffee and bitter chocolate. The term stout originally just meant strong. What sets it apart from its London ancestor, porter, is mainly its fuller body and heavier roast character.

Then there's the Mild Ale at 3.5 percent and the Session Ale, a summery beer with pronounced tropical fruit hop aroma. Here, mild refers to gentle hopping, not a lack of flavor. The alcohol figures come from the brewery. Pale Ale, Sparkling Ale, and Session Ale all share secondary fermentation with yeast, which is why none of them is ever perfectly clear.

The profile shows the Stout meeting the Foreign Extra Stout standard, a category that fits Coopers Best Extra Stout at 6.3 percent. With the Sparkling Ale, the conditioning method matters more than a set of numbers. Anyone wanting to taste the differences should try all three Coopers beers side by side, paying attention to haze, sweetness, and roast character.