Sunday 21 February 2009

News

Issue 8 of Beer & Brewer magazine hit the shelves this week. This edition looks at all things Australian, including answering the question What really is Australian for beer? and looks at the Australian Sparkling Ale, Australia’s only native beer style.

Interview

We spoke with Glenn Cooper, Chairman and Marketing Director at Coopers, about their new ad campaign looking at the practice of rolling or tipping your Coopers beers to stir the sediment.

Off-putting for many beer drinkers used to finely filtered lagers, the yeast is actually yeast used in the brewing practice retained when bottling. The yeast continues to ferment in the bottle, naturally carbonating the beer in a process called bottle conditioning. There have been competing practices for stirring it up over the years, and some beer drinkers even decant their beer leaving the yeast in the bottle.

Roll or Turn your Coopers????

The age-old question of whether you tip or roll a bottle of Coopers Original Pale Ale before it is opened has finally been answered.

While the decision still lies with the customer, we at Coopers prefer the rolling process.

Coopers Chairman and Marketing Director, Mr Glenn Cooper, says that after extensive research, some of it late at night, rolling was found to be the preferred method of distributing the sediment contained in each bottle of Coopers Original Pale Ale.

Coopers sediments arise from the natural process used in the brewing process. It is responsible for the cloudy appearance and it is common practice for bartenders to roll a bottle of Coopers Original Pale Ale on its side to mix the sediments before serving.

Mr Cooper said the practice of rolling or tipping bottles of Coopers Original Pale Ale to disturb the sediment before the tops were removed had grown from Coopers’ drinkers themselves.

“It’s a practice that is only applied to Coopers’ ales and has become almost an automatic response when someone is handed a bottle of Coopers Original Pale Ale,” he said.

Mr Cooper said that to ensure the practice of rolling became better known, Coopers was launching a $1 million advertising campaign in South Australia to highlight the practice and promote the key difference between Coopers Original Pale Ale and most other beers – the cloudy appearance of Coopers.

The campaign is the biggest Coopers has launched to date for its Pale Ale brand and will cover on radio, press, on-premise, off-premise promotions and outdoor advertisements.

He said the new campaign was typical of the kind of advertisements Coopers were known for -irreverent, cheeky and fun.

A quirky new website, www.rollyourcoopers.com.au has also been launched to capitalise on the idea.

Coopers Marketing Development Manager, Mrs Claire Filsell, said the website was a key driver to reach the younger demographic for which it was aimed.

“It’s a bit of fun with its “virtual bar” and video lounge as well as the ability for the drinker to interact with the rolling theme and include their own “roll you Coopers Pale Ale” photographs,” she said.

“The site is creating quite a stir and has already attracted considerable interest, including hits from a dozen different countries.”
Created by Coopers’ advertising agency kwp!,the new campaign will introduce the concept of Sediment Imbalance Syndrome (SIS).

“If you don’t roll your Coopers, you could be suffering from a ‘sediment imbalance’,” Mrs Filsell said.

“There will be sediment imbalance testing teams appearing in key hotels to ensure drinkers sediments are kept in balance. This will be fun and very interactive.”

Mr Cooper said a new national advertising campaign for Coopers Original Pale Ale would also be unveiled in coming weeks.
The campaign would have the theme that Coopers Original Pale Ale was the beer people grew into as their tastes matured.

Tasting

Following our interview with Glenn Cooper we tried Coopers Original Pale Ale (375ml 4.5% ABV). To put the Roll Your Coopers idea to the test we took our bottle (that Matt had carefully nursed to avoid stirring the sediments up) and decanted the first half bottle into the tasting glasses. The beer was sparkling clear and had a fruity-apricot aroma. For the second sample the remaining sediment was stirred up by swirling the bottle and poured into the glasses. This time the beer was a cloudy and very pale colour with visible yeast in suspension. The aroma wasn’t greatly increased, but the flavours were greatly enhanced with a fuller body and pronouced fruit flavours.

Give this experiment a try yourselves at home. It gives a good indication of some of the flavours that yeast can contribute to your beer. Yeast is also a rich source of Vitamin B!