Taste test on vintage ale

Does Cooper's Extra Strong Vintage Ale really age well? With careful cellaring, will it, as Dr Tim Cooper claims, "mature gracefully with age and develop rounded, rich toffee characters"?

In early January we put it to the test and lined up the past six vintages (2008 to 2013), all from the Schloss Shanahan cellars, for a group of beer drinkers of various ages.

First, we compared the youngest to the oldest. The 2013 led with fresh, vibrant hoppy characters; the 2008, on the other hand, delivered smooth malt, caramel, honey and - yes - toffee-like flavours.

The middle beers revealed shades of this hop-to-malt transition and each had its champion among the tasters. One preferred the youngest, another the oldest and several opted for the beautifully balanced, lively 2010 vintage.

All six remained in good nick and even the oldest seemed fresh under the toffee-like flavours.

Murray's Angry Man Pale Ale

330ml, 4-pack $15

Murray's website calls it a cross between the mild English pale ale style and the massively malty-hoppy American style. That's a fair call based on the bottle we enjoyed down the South Coast recently - not as fresh as the draft version tasted in Newcastle last April, but still lovely to the last drop nevertheless.

Samuel Smith's Old Brewery Pale Ale

550ml, $8.50

Brewed in old, shallow square stone vats at Tadcaster, England, Smith's entices with a warm, sweet, fruity-malty aroma, seasoned with herbal hops. The smooth, rich palate matches the aroma and because it's only lightly carbonated, the luxurious malt flavour, with its subtle, bitter, hops edge, remains at centre stage. A cool-weather beer.