Amid a storm of new styles and explosion of breweries, Coopers report its traditional Stout has enjoyed a significant resurgence as the beer-curious discover brews that have lasted through the ages.
Coopers Best Extra Stout has been in constant production since 1879. Its heyday in the mid-twentieth century gave way to competition and changing tastes in later decades.
“During the 1950s, we would sell over four million litres of Stout a year,” reports Coopers MD, Dr Tim Cooper.
“However, demand for Stout declined after 1975 with sales dipping to below two million litres in the early 1990s.”
2019 saw sales of 3.4 million litres of Coopers Best Extra Stout – up ten per cent on 2018, and on par with sales volumes of 1975.
Coopers is considered Australia’s ‘original’ craft beer, and Dr Cooper remarks on the revival of its steadfast formula in the era of the craft brewing phenomenon.
“It appears that as new beer styles and flavours enter the market, consumers are also keen to look at flagship beers and styles that have stood the test of time,” he suggests.
Coopers’ Stout uses specially-roasted black malt, delivering a robust blend of fruit and chocolate flavours and bitter hop notes, with an ABV of 6.3 per cent.
It has been joined in recent years by the company’s two newest ales, Session Ale (launched late 2017), and XPA (launched May 2019), which it says have also “been booming”. These new lines now make up almost nine per cent of Coopers’ ale sales.