By Andrew Starke
Coopers Brewery is expanding its International Series of home brew concentrates with the addition of a traditional English Bitter.
The introduction of English Bitter follows a recent boost in sales of premium home brew products, in line with the shift over the past years towards premium commercial beers.
Coopers marketing manager brewing products, Scott Harris, said the development of English Bitter followed a number of requests from home brewers keen to produce a beer similar in style to the bitter served in traditional English pubs.
He said that when brewed according to instructions, the new Coopers English Bitter concentrate produced a beer that was typical of the bitter style with a brown-copper colour, red hues and a creamy head.
“The beer itself has a floral aroma and a blend of toasty, sweet malt flavours and a firm, bitter finish,” he said. “This product has been specifically developed to be used with Coopers brew enhancers to enable the brewer to achieve a very high quality beer simply and quickly.”
The new beer is part of Coopers International series, which includes Australian Pale Ale, Canadian Blonde, European Lager and Mexican Cerveza.
“The International series has been very successful for Coopers as it allows home brewers to produce the popular international beer styles that are in demand at the moment for a fraction of the price of the imported beers,” he said. “We are currently working on other new products to add to this range.”
Harris said sales of the International series had jumped 26 percent in the past quarter compared with last year, with the move towards premium beers combined with the economic downturn believed to be key factors in this increase.
English Bitter is now available from Big W, Coles, Kmart and specialist home brew stores.