COOPERS. The brewery is as iconic symbol of South Australia as the Adelaide Oval or Barossa Valley wines.
Yet while we all might recognise the distinctive logos and some of us know it is Australia’s largest family brewer, a trip to the company’s Regency Park headquarters in suburban Adelaide reveals a wealth of little known trivia.
1.) A jack of all trades: The founder of the Coopers empire, way back in the 1860s, Thomas Cooper, had a wildly varying spread of career paths that would impress Millenials of today. A shoe-maker in his native Yorkshire, he came to Australia and became a stone-mason. He initially began brewing beer as a tonic for his sick wife before beginning commercial brewing. What are the chances of finding a doc willing to write you a script for a six-pack of Coopers Sparkling today?
2.) Pubs with no beer: Thomas Cooper was a strict Methodist and did not approve of public houses, so all Coopers beer was originally sold door to door.
3.) Millonaires’ Row: As good a work as breweries do, it is generally not something you want on your doorstep – the rich smell of malt and the clanking of bottles can get a bit much. This is why the former site of the Coopers Brewery, in leafy Leabrook in Adelaide’s well-heeled eastern suburbs was somewhat of an anomaly. The brewery was nestled in among the mansions of the suburb with the third highest median house price in Adelaide in 2016 for many years before moving to its new home in Regency Park in the northern suburbs in 2001.
4.) From little things… Coopers may today be synonymous with brewing in South Australia, but it has risen from humble origins. At the turn of the 20th century, it was just the 12th largest brewery in Adelaide. Today, only two breweries from that era, Coopers and West End remain.
5.) Troubled times: Coopers could have so easily gone the way of many other breweries during the 1980s. Faced with mounting debts and falling consumption of its flagship ale products as consumers flocked to lager, the brewery was said to be just a week away from being forced to shut its doors. The owners managed to keep the wolf from the door and with the help of added revenue from the sale of its popular home-brew kits, made possible by changes to home-brewing laws, the business weathered the storm. From the 1990s onward, its reputation as a flagship for the Australian brewing industry has led the company from strength to strength.
6.) Modern classic: Arguably Coopers’ most famous product, Coopers Pale Ale, or Coopers Green as it is affectionately known, is a relatively recent release in comparison with other Coopers beers. Battling to win market share with its high alcohol traditional ale products, in the 1980s Coopers came out with its Pale Ale, lower in alcohol and with less bitterness units. The product was an instant classic and is today one of Australia’s most popular brews, winning fans among mainstream and craft beer fans alike.
7.) The least likely of places: Coopers has a solid export program. The first few major export destinations are relatively easy to guess, New Zealand, Great Britain, south-east Asia. But a big surprise comes in at number 5. Mongolia. It’s a country where airag, or fermented mare’s milk is considered the national drink. Just how did the landlocked central Asian nation get a taste for Aussie beer? The answer is less exotic than you may think. Mining giant Rio Tinto has a massive development Oyu Tolgoi and Aussie ex-pats have found the only way to truly quench their thirst in the Gobi desert is with a trusty stubbie of Adelaide’s finest.