Coopers Brewery is an Australian company, publicly owned but not listed with a stock exchange. Its shares are primarily owned by the extended Cooper family, and the company's constitution makes it difficult to sell shares outside the family. The brewery was established by Thomas Cooper in 1862 at his home in Norwood then in 1881 relocated to larger, commercial facilities at Leabrook in Adelaide, South Australia, and in 2001 moved to Regency Park. Coopers is known to make a variety of high quality beers, most famous of which is its Sparkling Ale. It is also well established as a producer of home brew supplies.

Cooper's beers are widely available on tap in South Australia, and in some bars in the rest of Australia as specialty beers. It is widely available bottled around Australia and occasionally at specialist importers in other countries. Whilst Lion Nathan runs a brewery in South Australia selling beers under the "West End" and "Southwark" brands, Coopers is the only South Australian beer sold outside the state.

Their bottled beers are characterised by their secondary fermentation technique - some yeast remains in the bottle after bottling - thus the bottled beer contains some sediment. There are two schools of thought with regards to the sediment - some drinkers like to mix the sediment throughout the beer by tipping or rolling the beer before drinking, while others prefer to pour the beer into a glass leaving (most) of the sediment at the base of the bottle.

In late 2005, Lion Nathan made an unsolicited takeover bid for Coopers, which was strongly opposed by Coopers' management, and ultimately rejected at an Extraordinary General Meeting when 93.4% of the shareholders voted in favour of permanently removing the 3rd tier purchasing rights of Lion Nathan, effectively preventing any current or future takeover bid.

Products

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The beers it produces are:

• Coopers Sparkling Ale: an English style golden ale. It has a distinctive cloudy appearance due to the sediment being left in the bottle. The Sparkling Ale has a slightly different flavour and higher alcoholic content than the Pale Ale.
• Coopers Pale Ale: a pale ale.
• Coopers Best Extra Stout: a stout.
• Coopers Dark Ale
• Coopers Mild Ale
• Coopers Premium Lager
• Coopers Premium Light
• Coopers Extra Strong Vintage Ale
• Coopers Special Old Stout
• Birell: A Non-alcoholic lager style beer.

Homebrew

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The company also produces a range of malt extracts and concentrate for home brewers. The kits produced are:

• Coopers Original Series Bitter
• Coopers Original Series Dark Ale
• Coopers Original Series Draught
• Coopers Original Series Ginger Beer
• Coopers Original Series Lager
• Coopers Original Series Real Ale
• Coopers Original Series Stout
• Coopers International Series Australian Pale Ale
• Coopers International Series Bavarian Lager
• Coopers International Series Canadian Blonde
• Coopers International Series Mexican Cerveza
• Thomas Coopers Premium Selection Australian Bitter
• Thomas Coopers Premium Selection Heritage Lager
• Thomas Coopers Premium Selection Sparkling Ale
• Thomas Coopers Premium Selection Traditional Draught
• Thomas Coopers Brewmaster Selection India Pale Ale
• Thomas Coopers Brewmaster Selection Irish Stout
• Thomas Coopers Brewmaster Selection Pilsener
• Thomas Coopers Brewmaster Selection Wheat Beer

External links

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• Coopers Brewery Website
• Tim Cooper interview

Beer and breweries in Australia | Adelaide culture | 1881 establishments