Australian Pale Ale
This article takes a look at Australian pale ale, as typified by Coopers Sparkling Ale — a beer with an unlikely name and an even more unlikely yeast sediment. Michael Jackson once described this beer as an Australian classic. If “classic” has anything to do with longevity, then after 146 years as the flagship beer of Coopers Brewery in Adelaide, South Australia —established 1862 and sole survivor of 350 independent Australian breweries in 1890 — I’d say this beer has earned the title! So let’s see if we can replicate this classic from Downunder and judge for ourselves. Before we get into recipes though, let’s try to come to grips with the style itself, so we can understand the Coopers example.
Origins of Australian Pale Ale
For the first half-century of British colonization, the staple alcoholic drink in Australia was rum. So by the time brewing got seriously underway in the mid-19th Century, the world was already in the throes of a Burton-led Pale Ale revolution. Burton IPA was taking Britain by storm, and flooding into ports in every corner of the globe. In Australia, pale ale was ideally suited to the hot climate, and quickly became the predominant style. And as a contemporary of Burton IPA, the Coopers example still bears the Burton imprint. It’s a bottle conditioned pale ale that is very highly attenuated, owing to the use of “Burton style” yeast.
At 5.8% alcohol by volume (ABV), however, compared to the 8% ABV of Burton IPA, the Coopers beer is more akin to the lighter bottled pale ales which started to appear in the domestic UK market from around 1870 onwards. By that time the terms IPA and pale ale were synonymous — in fact market leader Bass had already dropped “India” from their label. So the lighter versions were commonly labelled sparkling ale, presumably in reference to clarity and carbonation as a bottled style. Similarly, in Australia, we find numerous sparkling ale brands by late 19th Century, and subsequent record of them elsewhere in the New World as well, particularly Canada, America and New Zealand. However Coopers Sparkling Ale is the only one to have survived in original form.
Apart from alcohol content, the other major difference between IPA and sparkling ale was that the local version had no requirement for dry-hopping as a preservative for export. This is reflected in the Coopers example today, which continues to employ a single bittering addition only.
Another UK term for bottled pale ale which appeared around that time was “dinner ale,” as an even lighter version for mealtimes. Similarly, Coopers also produced a Light Dinner Ale, which was relaunched in the late 1980’s as Coopers Original Pale Ale. At 4.5% ABV, this version is favored by many homebrewers as a more practical quaffer than its big brother, Sparkling Ale. For the purposes of Australian homebrew competitions, the style parameters have been extended to accommodate lighter versions. Consideration is currently being given to the name “Australian Pale/Sparkling Ale,” to reflect their historical inter-changeability in Australia, and in recognition of the two closely related contemporary examples. For those interested, the full style description is available at www.aabc.org.au.
Coopers Sparkling Ale Today
Coopers ales remained virtually unchanged for most of the 20th Century, as successive generations of the Cooper family strived to maintain traditional brewing practices. Still in use as late as the 1970’s and 80’s were coolships, open fermentation in wooden vats using the original multi-strain yeast and maturation in oak casks. By the mid-1980s, these unique ales were enjoying a renaissance as “boutique beers,” and steadily increasing demand saw Coopers finally embark on a program of modernization, culminating in complete relocation to a new state of the art brewery in 2001. Improved process control has led to technical improvements in the beer, most noticeably clarity — after almost a century and a half, Coopers Sparkling Ale is finally sparkling! However the basic 19th Century formulation has been preserved, with only minor recipe adjustments as beer ingredients themselves evolved.
Australian pale malt today is prepared almost entirely for use in mainstream pale lagers, and as such is almost certainly paler than the domestic pale malt available in colonial times. Coopers Sparkling Ale today retains its traditional amber color with a touch of crystal malt, but not enough to contribute any significant caramel flavors. A pro-portion of wheat malt is also used. Cane sugar was used extensively in colonial times, as a necessity to dilute excessive protein levels in low-grade domestic pale malt. As malt quality improved however, Coopers ales resumed their original all-malt formulation, as brewed initially by Thomas Cooper using imported English malt. Nowadays cane sugar is used only for bottle priming, and if necessary, for minor adjustments in the boil to achieve “sales gravity.”
Colonial brewers used a range of hops, both domestic and imported. Nowadays, Coopers use Pride of Ringwood — the definitive Australian hop developed in 1959 by CUB (Carlton and United Breweries), at their hop research facility in the Melbourne suburb of Ringwood. Pride of Ringwood is a high-alpha hop (at the time the world’s highest), typically around 9–11% AA, and is used in all mainstream Australian beers. It is generally considered somewhat coarse in flavor and bitterness, so you only need about 30–35 IBU in this style. As John Palmer pointed out in his presentation at the recent Australian National Homebrewing Conference, perception of bitterness depends on “bitter stuff,” not just alpha acids, so the numbers don’t tell the full story. Pride of Ringwood is a cross-cultivar of a Tasmanian wild hop and an English hop (Pride of Kent), and the wild hop seems to dominate. Even with just a bittering addition, Pride of Ringwood lends a distinctive flavor note in pale beers — variously described as peppery, herbaceous or even woody.
Coopers original yeast underwent some cleaning up in the mid-1980s to improve flocculation and is now a single strain. However, it retains its Burton-style attenuative properties, and extensive trials ensured its unique flavor profile was maintained. As always, the same strain is used for primary fermentation and bottle conditioning. Coopers today employs reverse osmosis water treatment, with subsequent mineral salt addition as required. For pale ale, the obvious choice is calcium sulfate.
Let’s Get Brewing!
The first thing we need to do is buy some Coopers yeast. It’s the cheapest yeast in town, and you get free beer with every purchase! As Coopers says, “We encourage homebrewers to reactivate yeast from our commercial ales to use in their brews.” Following is a simple method, requiring one bottle only:
Pour the beer into your glass in one hit, leaving the dregs in the bottle. Swirl it around to rouse the yeast sediment and release the CO2 in the remaining beer. Pour in a little bit of wort — no more than about 2 inches (50 mm) in the bottom. No need to oxygenate because we’re only looking to reactivate the yeast, not grow it. Place some Glad Wrap or aluminum foil over the opening.
Incubate the yeast at around (77 °F) 25 °C for 24 hours. This is usually plenty, and you’ll know it’s ready by the foam generated when you swirl the contents.
Pour your activated Coopers yeast into a starter bottle containing about a quart (1 L) of pale wort, and oxygenate by shaking vigorously. Incubate at around (77 °F) 25 °C for pitching at high-kräusen (usually 24–36 hours).
The grain bill provided in the all-grain recipe is a proven one, but there are plenty of similar malts which work equally well. Naturally, you may have to adjust the quantities to achieve the appropriate amber color. When mashing for this style, it’s critical to produce a highly attenuable wort. Any proven mash regime for highly attenuated styles is fine — such as a single infusion mash at 148–150 °F (64–66 °C) or a step mash with a rest in the 140–145 °F (60–63 °C) range — or you can try the one on page 46. It’s my own standard routine for such beers, and while it’s a little unorthodox, it’s well proven.
Make a thin mash, 1.5 qts./lb. (3 L/kg), and stir it every 10–15 minutes. Mash in at 153 °F (67 °C) for 15 minutes, then reduce to 145 °F (63 °C) with cold water addition. Hold for 90 minutes, or allow to fall to around 140 °F (60 °C). Don’t mash out, just sparge slowly with 145 °F (63 °C) water. Boil for 90 minutes, adding hops at the start. Chill to 68 °F (20 °C), whirlpool to coagulate the cold break, allow to settle covered for an hour or so, then rack into your fermenter. Pitch and ferment at 68 °F (20 °C), ramping up a few degrees towards the end to ensure full attenuation.
Primary fermentation will be over in 3 or 4 days, however it’s wise to allow another day or two for acetaldehyde reabsorption (green apple). Never rack into secondary and bottle after no longer than 6 days in primary, otherwise the yeast count may drop below ideal for bottle conditioning. Bottle prime with cane sugar, sufficient to produce about 3.5 volumes of CO2 after refermentation. Coopers primes their kegs with sugar just like their bottles, so if you’re kegging your beer you may want to do this too, rather than force carbonation. Condition your bottles or kegs at 68 °F (20 °C) and they should be well carbonated within a week. Pitch to pour in 10 days, Australian pale ale is certainly a “present use” style! Thanks to the absence of late hopping, it doesn’t need time to mellow out like the hoppy pale ales often do. However, experience shows that the beer will benefit from a few weeks maturation.
Evaluating your Coopers clone
If you’re familiar with Coopers Sparkling Ale, then your palate will tell you how close you are to the mark. But it still helps to understand the structure of this beer, because it’s quite different from other pale ale styles. First and foremost, your hydrometer will tell you if you’ve achieved the all-essential attenuation. You really do need to get your FG close to spec to achieve the light, dry, refreshing character that typifies the beer. And, with that sort of attenuation, you need to keep your carbonation very high, otherwise it can seem a bit lifeless and watery. Secondly, your beer color will tell you whether you’ve got the crystal malt right — anything much past amber will be too malt-accentuated.
Thirdly, in the absence of genuine late hop character, the yeast will need to step into the gap, otherwise it will be a very bland beer indeed. So you need plenty of fruitiness and, depending on pitching rate and fermentation temperature, Coopers yeast can generate apple, pear, banana or even a tropical fruit salad impression with noticeable citrus, often grapefruit. Extreme fruit character can be interesting, but a refined pear-like fruitiness is more typical of the Coopers example today, with little or no banana. As well as the fruitiness, any beer brewed with Coopers yeast will display a signature aroma — usually described as bready, yeasty, earthy or even potato sack! It’s certainly distinctive and definitely quite rustic.
Fourthly, as with any style, it all needs to balance. The fruitiness, yeasty/bready aromas and mild peppery hop note should all be present, and together they deliver quite a bit of complexity up front, as long as you don’t overdo the crystal malt. There should be a brief initial malt sweetness, but then a solid bitterness should kick in. Aftertaste should be a pleasant balance of fruitiness and pale malt flavor, and the finish should be long and dry, begging the next draught.
It goes without saying that for proper evaluation, Australian pale ale should be served without rousing the sediment. When enjoying the style casually, however, you might want to try serving it mit hefe (with yeast) — quite a popular practice with Coopers ales nowadays, thanks largely to their “Cloudy but Fine” advertising campaign of the 1990s. Just like a hefeweizen, it softens the mouthfeel and gives an impression of substance, as well as enhancing some of the fruity/yeasty flavors. So if your beer is lacking a bit in these areas, or you just fancy a vitamin boost, go right ahead!
Summing up, this is a beer that demands to be appreciated on its own terms — to ask for more hops is to misunderstand the style. As a 19th Century style it can be considered basic, but basic doesn’t mean rudimentary. There’s quite a lot of craft in taking the cheapest domestic ingredients available, and combining them in the simplest of all brewing processes, to produce a well-balanced, flavorful beer that’s not only full of character, but highly quaffable at nearly 6% ABV. So beware not to underestimate this classic — in more ways than one!
Coopers Sparkling Ale clone
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.045 FG = 1.005 IBU = 35 SRM = 8 ABV =5.8%
Ingredients
14.4 oz. (408 g) Joe White Pilsener malt
10.6 oz. (300 g) Joe White wheat malt
7.0 oz. (200 g) Weyermann CaraRed®
1.0 lb (0.45 kg) Coopers Light dried malt extract
4.0 lb. (1.8 kg) Coopers Light liquid malt extract
10 AAU Pride of Ringwood hops (1.1 oz./30 g of 9.5% alpha acids)
Coopers yeast (cultured from bottle)
7.0 oz (200 g) cane sugar (sucrose) (for priming)
Step by Step
Steep crushed grains at 148 °F (64 °C) in 3.0 qts. (2.8 L) of water for 45 mins. Combine “grain tea,” water and dried malt extract to make 3.0 gallons (11 L) of wort. Boil for 60 minutes, adding liquid malt extract for final 15 minutes of the boil. Ferment at 68 °F (20 °C). Add corn sugar and bottle condition.
Coopers Sparkling Ale clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.045 FG = 1.005 IBU = 35 SRM = 8 ABV = 5.8%
Ingredients
7 lb. 11 oz. (3.5 kg) Joe White Pilsener malt
10.6 oz. (300 g) Joe White wheat malt
7.0 oz. (200 g) Weyermann CaraRed®
8.4 AAU Pride of Ringwood hops (90 mins) (0.88 oz./25 g of 9.5% alpha acids)
Coopers yeast (cultured from bottle)
7.0 oz (200 g) cane sugar (sucrose) (for priming)
Step by Step
Culture yeast from a Coopers bottle. Treat water with calcium sulfate to achieve 115 ppm Ca2+ and 280 ppm SO4-. (If starting from distilled water, this is approx. 0.5 g/L.) Mash for a highly-fermentable wort. (See the article for options.) Boil wort for 90 minutes, adding hops at the beginning. Ferment at 68 °F (20 °C). Bottle condition, shooting for 3.5 volumes of carbon dioxide. (Note: ABV estimate includes priming sugar.)
