When we talk about Australian craft beer, we tend to think of the brewery boom that started in the 1980s and exploded in the 2000s.
But one Australian brewery was doing things a little differently more than a century before that.
Coopers Brewery started brewing in South Australia in 1862 and, more than 160 years later, remains family owned and operated by the Cooper family. Today, it is Australia’s oldest family-owned and operated brewery and its largest independent, family-owned brewery.
So perhaps it’s time we started thinking of Coopers as Australia’s original craft brewery.
And there are some pretty compelling reasons why.
It’s All About the Yeast
If you’ve ever tasted a Coopers Pale Ale or Sparkling Ale, you’ll know there’s a distinctive character that tells you almost immediately you’re drinking a Coopers.
A big part of that comes from the brewery’s famous house ale yeast.
Coopers has cultivated its yeast strain through generations of brewers, and it produces the fruity aromas and flavours that have become a signature of its ales.
In an industry where many breweries can buy the same malt, hops and commercial yeast strains, having your own distinctive house yeast gives your beer something that can’t easily be replicated.
They Even Make Their Own Malt
Coopers takes control of another important brewing ingredient in a way few breweries can.
In 2017, it opened its own maltings at Regency Park.
In fact, Coopers says it is the only brewery in Australia with its own maltings on site.
Australian barley can be malted specifically to the brewery’s requirements, giving its brewers greater control over one of the four fundamental ingredients in beer.
That’s pretty serious commitment to making beer your own way.
Why Do You Roll a Coopers?
Then there’s perhaps the most famous part of the Coopers brewing process – natural conditioning.
Unlike most mainstream Australian beers, Coopers ales and stout undergo a secondary fermentation after packaging.
A small amount of yeast is added before the beer goes into the bottle, can or keg. That yeast continues fermentation, naturally carbonating the beer while consuming residual sugars and oxygen.
And that’s important.
Oxygen is one of beer’s great enemies. By removing oxygen from the packaged beer, natural conditioning helps protect the beer from oxidation and extends its shelf life.
The yeast eventually settles to the bottom, creating that famous Coopers sediment.
That’s also why you’re encouraged to gently roll your Coopers before opening it, putting the yeast back into suspension and creating its characteristic cloudy appearance.
And here’s a great bit of Beerducation trivia:
Coopers naturally conditioned ales and stout don’t carry a Best Before date.
They carry a Best After date.
The beer spends around two weeks conditioning after packaging before Coopers considers it ready to drink.
Australia’s Own Beer Style
Then there’s Coopers Sparkling Ale.
First brewed in 1862, it’s not merely an old Australian beer – it represents a beer style that is genuinely part of Australia’s brewing heritage.
Australian Sparkling Ale is recognised as style 12B in the international BJCP Beer Style Guidelines, alongside styles such as German Pils, Irish Stout, Belgian Tripel and American IPA.
And according to the BJCP, Coopers is the only surviving brewery producing the traditional Australian Sparkling Ale style.
That’s something Australian beer drinkers should be pretty proud of.
They Just Keep Brewing Beer
Coopers hasn’t survived for more than 160 years by chasing every beer trend that comes along.
Its range has grown, and today includes lagers and more contemporary beers such as XPA and Pacific Pale Ale, but the brewery continues to produce the beers that made its reputation – Original Pale Ale, Sparkling Ale, Dark Ale, Mild Ale and Best Extra Stout.
And once a year there’s something special.
Coopers Vintage Ale has been released annually since 1998, with the recipe changing each year to showcase different combinations of malt, hops and yeast character.
Unlike most beers, which are generally best enjoyed fresh, Vintage Ale is specifically designed for cellaring. Coopers recommends ageing it for up to five years – and potentially even longer under the right conditions.
As it ages, the hop bitterness softens while malt and fruity yeast characters develop, allowing the beer to change and become more complex over time.
Australia’s Original Craft Brewer?
The word “cooper” traditionally describes the craftsman who made and repaired the wooden barrels and casks once essential for storing and transporting beer.
It’s an appropriate name for a brewery that has maintained so much traditional brewing craftsmanship.
Long before the term craft beer became fashionable, Coopers was family owned, cultivating its own yeast, naturally conditioning beer, brewing distinctive ales and refusing to abandon the methods that made its beers unique.
More than 160 years later, it’s still independent, still family owned and still brewing unmistakably Australian beer.
So next time you roll a Coopers Pale or crack open a Sparkling Ale, perhaps don’t think of it simply as one of Australia’s old breweries.
Think of it as Australia’s original craft brewery.
