Waiting out Isaac down under - Coopers Best Extra Stout

As I write this, we are in the throws of now Category 1 Hurricane Isaac. The storm has made landfall to our east and we have not gotten mostly wind so far and little rain. The storm has stalled and will be moving slowly over land for the next 24 hours or so and we expect to get some rain later today. Many folks in the New Orleans area, approximately 140 miles to our east have already lost power and had significant rainfall.

In preparation for the impending storm, my office shut early on Tuesday to allow our employees some time to make last minute preparations. For me this included moving things that could fly around in heavy wind on my patio. For Margaret, it meant making gumbo. For those who are unfamiliar with Louisiana cuisine, gumbo is a hearty rue based soup served over rice that can include seafood or meats like chicken and sausage, as ours did. Since it is such a hearty soup, people in south Louisiana typically make it in the colder weather months. However, do to its comforting qualities, we decided it would be prefect hurricane food.

A shot of Margaret's rue that she makes from scratch.

In order to compliment a hearty soup, I decided I should have a hearty beer to go with it, specifically a Coopers Best Extra Stout from Australia. I picked up this one at the World Market.

When most Americans think of Australian beer, unfortunately they think of Foster's lager. After all, it is Australian for beer, right? My first experience with Foster's came while in college in New Orleans. One of the bars that I would frequent, TJ Quill's would have an "Oil Can Night" every Tuesday. Of course the oil can was the large size Foster's lager. I was more interested in the size of the beer than the taste back then and it seemed like a deal. I can't think of many better examples of how advertising has taken an inferior product and turned it into a household name and something that people will buy just due to name recognition. I have spoken to people who have spent time in Australia and they said that there, Foster's is akin to our American standouts like Natural Light or Milwaukee's Best. To quote Jerry Seinfeld, "Who are the ad wizards that came up with this one?"

Enough about Foster's. How about the Coopers Best Extra Stout?

Appearance: Beer poured a pitch black color but had some carbonation that was visible upon close inspection. A very weak thin tan head was briefly there. Patchy lacing was present also. Since this beer is fermented in the bottle, some sediment was seen on the bottom of the bottle. Kind of a disappointment from an appearance standpoint.

Smell: Typical malty aroma from this stout. I also got a nice milk chocolate smell as well.

Taste/Mouthfeel: Like the smell, got lots of chocolate and malt flavor with the alcohol taste up front. Also had some lingering hop flavor on the tongue at the start. When the beer warmed up, it mellowed to no longer have the bitterness and was mostly a chocolate and caramel flavor. Like other stouts, the beer had a heavy mouthfeel, but not as heavy as Guinness.

Overall: This is a good example of the stout style. It does have a smoother and more drinkable flavor than a Guinness, but not as much as the Sierra Nevada stout that I recently profiled. All in all, a solid beer that was a nice accompaniment to the gumbo, and way better than the Outback's most famous beer.

As we endure more Isaac, I hope everyone remains safe and are spared property damage and injury.

Cheers!