News that Mismatch Brewery had made a version of Coopers’ highly acclaimed Sparkling Ale was both intriguing and unsettling. I was keen to try it but felt nervous about the towering task they’d set themselves.
It struck me as similar to a young band recording and releasing their own version of the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night album. A noble idea, perhaps. But why listen to it when the brilliant original is waiting in your vinyl collection?
After a Sunday wander around the Hills, we swung past the Morphett Arms on our way home and I picked up a can. In our outside fridge it sat forgotten for a month and then yesterday, sitting around the patio table overlooking the garden, I opened it.
The label bore that recognisable, suggestive reddish insignia. I upended the can into my glass. The ale looked encouragingly cloudy but fine, just like its inspiration. I could picture a fork standing in its soupy brew. A visually promising start.
Lifting the weighty stein snout-wards, the aroma was muted, lacking the zinging, assertive scent of the Coopers version. Oh.
And, of course, smell foreshadows taste and my first sip revealed a tame impersonation of the original. The zesty hops and bright, arresting notes were there, but cowering behind a curtain as if it knew that triumph were to be found elsewhere. Like your uncle doing his best Michael Caine, it was recognisably in the same territory but fell short of the original.
Mismatch has promoted their sparkling ale as a homage to ‘your dad’s favourite beer.’ I sense a respectful modesty in their aspirations and in the foamy beverage in front of me. It’s a gentler beer, and I can now see, functions as a quiet nod to the wise mentor.
In the car with one of my boys, I was talking about this tribute ale and mentioned ‘your dad’s favourite beer’ saying, ‘Coopers Sparkling Ale is my Dad’s favourite and it’s your Dad’s favourite as well. Maybe one day your kids might say this too.’ Can beer be a family story, an inheritance, a generational ornament?
Years ago in Singapore, I met a man from Michigan. When I told him I was from South Australia, his first words were, ‘The home of Coopers Sparkling Ale! It boasts an exceptional local and international reputation and might well be our state’s finest ambassador.
Have they released this ale expecting it to challenge the original? No, of course not. Mismatch knows we might listen once or twice to the kids’ version of A Hard Day’s Night but will ultimately choose the Fab Four. But I imagine the brewers simply had some fun tackling this project.
Finishing the ale, I was pleased to have sampled it. But I appreciated this excursion was a single event and I’d return to Coopers. How fortunate to relax on a Saturday afternoon with a new beer and have only this to worry about it.
My worldview confirmed, I went inside and put on a Beatles vinyl.
