By Vic Crossland:You could be forgiven for thinking there’s a new style of beer – Australian Pallid Ale. Some alleged pale ales brought to the market over the past year are so lacking in character that lovers of the style have become quite depressed.

It’s as though certain brewers have watched the rampant commercial success of South Australia’s Coopers Original Pale Ale on tap and packaged and decided: “We’ll have some of that.”

To many beer fans, long-established Coopers “green” is the quintessential Australian pale ale. The popularity it’s gained at bars around the country is reflected not only in sales but in its fifth consecutive Best Tap Beer title at this year’s Australian Liquor Industry Awards.

Latecomers which go beyond the pale seemed to have missed the reason why Coopers is the “original”: Its house ale yeast can’t be copied, and it balances Australian hops and grain immaculately.

There are other worthy pale ales. Perth’s Nail Ale (4.7 per cent) was first brewed in 2000 as an Aussie pale, hopped, like Coopers, with Pride of Ringwood from Tasmania. Brewer John Stallwoood has won many awards since refining the keg-conditioned ale, available on tap in Fremantle though only infrequently in bottles. Nail’s new low alcohol ale (3 per cent) has now been released.

Bootleg Settler’s Pale Ale has rightfully gained a cult following, especially at Friday evening “hopback” sessions when it is tapped via a container packed with hop flowers for enhanced aroma and flavour.

American hops, as in Settler’s, are the main brewers’ choice for today’s “Australian” pale ales. The Old Coast Road Brewery in Myalup is an exception. Brewer Andrew Harris calls his pale ale by the traditional English nickname – bitter. He has a love of vintage British roadsters, which feature on the tap-badge and bottle labels of Harris Bitter Ale. He confesses his first Harris Bitter brewed five years ago had a dash of citrusy Cascade hops. “Now I’m over all that US hop thing,” he says. “I just use European hops, true to style.”

Kooinda “boutique” family brewery has blossomed since starting in a suburban backyard in Melbourne in 2008, and this year moved to a factory building to increase capacity and satisfy demand. The first batch of Kooinda Pale Ale at the new site was completed in September and new-labelled bottles of more recent brews are brought to WA by the Freo Doctor store.

Endeavour Reserve Pale Ale is bottle-conditioned and, like Coopers, carries a “best after” date. The Endeavour company works on the winemaking principle of selecting the season’s best ingredients from Australian hop and barley fields. The result is a notable pale ale.

THE BEERS

BOOTLEG SETTLER’S PALE ALE (4.8 PER CENT)

US hops dominate a heady aroma of grapefruit and passion fruit, but what might have been overblown tropical fruit flavours are subtlely smoothed into a dry, mouth-coating, spiced maltiness and well-achieved bitterness. Golden in colour and with a lively white head, it’s a beautiful ale.

KOOINDA PALE ALE (4.7 PER CENT)

When, as advised on the label, the ale is decanted into a glass, a generous, exuberant foam rests on a hazy light brown liquid wafting inviting hoppy aromas. Hops are evident from the first, dry, orangey sip to the tongue-and-tonsil tickling bitterness which builds up to a gimme-more finale.

OLD COAST ROAD HARRIS BITTER ALE (3.7 PER CENT)

This copper-coloured beer is the one that makes brewer Andrew Harris most proud, basing it on England’s bitter ales of the pre-lager 1960s. He matched top-class Maris Otter ale malt with imported hops, Northern Brewer for bitterness and East Kent Goldings for flavour and dry-hopped aroma. Tank-conditioning allows peppery, earthy hop character and malty fruit to come through on a dry palate with more depth than expected in “mid-strength” beer. There’s just enough bitterness.

ENDEAVOUR 2011 RESERVE PALE ALE (4.5 PER CENT)

Floral-grapefruit aroma and lemony flavour evoke American hop character, though the Summer, Galaxy and Cascade hop are all Australian grown. And their influence is tempered with down-to-earth grainy texture and reasonable bitterness at the end of a long, dry palate.

BEER OF THE WEEK

COOPERS ORIGINAL PALE ALE (4.5 PER CENT)

Savvy bar staff roll these bottles along a measured mat before twisting off the green cap to pour the ale. Neither a piece of  theatre nor meaningless ritual, it’s a practical way of stirring up the distinctive, fine Coopers yeast so the pale ale is ready to drink in ideal condition - one reason this hazy, orange-tinged “pale ale” stands alone. Another reason is that the date stamp on the bottles is “best after” rather than the usual “best before”, because the yeast needs time to bring the beer up to prime condition. Wwait until a month or so “after” the date stamp, follow the rolling method and you’re rewarded with the smell of mown grass, citrusy fruit flavours and a refreshing yet comfortingly smooth balanced medium-bodied quaff in a class of its own.

Written by Vic Crossland

From Fresh, The West Australian, 12^th January