The Coopers Story
Discover the ale that started six generations of family brewing.
Thomas Cooper's growing passion for brewing soon became his profession.
In 1862, Thomas Cooper made a tonic for his sick wife using an old family recipe. The ale he crafted was so flavoursome that friends and neighbours soon came to appreciate it for more than just its restorative properties. Demand for his naturally-conditioned ales grew throughout the fledgling colony of South Australia, and Thomas’ passion for brewing quickly became his profession.
Thomas handed the reins of the brewery to four of his sons before he passed away, which started a proud family tradition that’s spanned six generations and over 160 years. We're still using Thomas’ recipe with just a few tweaks from the Cooper family along the way.
Read about our brewing process.
How we've grown
We’ve combined traditional brewing methods with cutting-edge production technology to grow our capacity and deliver consistent brew quality and flavour.
As a result, we can produce our naturally conditioned stout and ales with absolute confidence that whenever one of our signature beers is poured around the world, the drinker will enjoy a quality Coopers brew. It’s what makes Coopers unique in Australia's brewing landscape.
Why we're unique
You can taste over 160 years of brewing history in every sip of our ales – and it’s their natural conditioning that makes them so special.
This centuries-old brewing technique describes the secondary fermentation that our ales undergo once they've been bottled, canned or kegged.
We add a small amount of yeast to the brew before packaging, which consumes any residual sugars and oxygen, naturally carbonating the beer and slightly increasing its alcohol content. It helps retain our ale's distinctive and complex flavours by eliminating the need for pasteurisation, additives or preservatives; plus, it extends its shelf life by removing oxygen.
Natural conditioning is what makes our ales so different from other beers in Australia and around the world, and the process wouldn't be possible without our famous Coopers ale yeast. This lovingly cultivated strain of yeast has been nurtured by generations of Coopers brewers.
Its history is nearly as long as the life of our brewery, and it’s the star ingredient that turns our recipe into something magical. Our yeast gives Coopers ales the complex flavours and rich fruity aromas they're so famous for. Only a handful of breweries in the world still have the skill and patience to undertake natural conditioning at scale, and the Cooper family is proud to hand it down from one generation to the next.
How we roll
When the natural conditioning process is complete, our spent ale yeast falls to the bottom of the bottle, can or keg as a fine sediment.
When that happens, the beer’s ready to crack open. Think of it as the Coopers flavour guarantee. This process takes two weeks, and that's why our stout and ales have a 'best after' instead of a 'best before' date.
For the complete Coopers experience, we encourage drinkers to gently roll their bottle or can before opening it. This disperses the sediment to give the beer its signature cloudy appearance and distinctive taste.
There's a chance that people will stare at you while you do this, but don't let it faze you. Roll your Coopers with pride – we promise the results are worth it.
Thomas Cooper
What would a cobbler, a stonemason or a dairyman know about brewing beer? Find out how the Coopers Beer story began.
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