Beer Review: Birra COOP

Living in Rome is no cheap feat.  To do so, I have to make some concessions every now and then.  And unfortunately, my love of full bodied, dark colored, maximum flavored craft ales is one of those concessions.  

What I knew in the United States as Craft Brew- small scale production with high quality product, as well as a little larger scale production but still defined for high quality product, Micro Brew, is known in Italy as Artisan Beer.  Birre Artigianale.

The artisan beer scene in Italy, though steadily growing and still in my eyes at a young age, is also unfortunately a costly one.  I’m still trying to figure out why that may be.  And though I don’t know the reasons behind their somewhat absurd expense, whether they are due to taxation, import tariffs, or other reasons such as higher production costs earlier in the oh-so-wonderful chain of manufacturing being passed on to consumer, I still reminisce on the cheaper days in the US when I could get a quality pint of craft brew for $5.00 or about 3.50 EURO for my European friends to understand the conversion a little better.

Because I have no such luxury out here (as of yet), I am willing to put on a different hat.  The hat that tests the less costly beers. 

So today, I will be reviewing BIRRA COOP.  It’s a 4.9% lager.  The label says it’s a Blonde.  I bought it for 0.75 Euro, or about $1.00 U.S.  And it’s 66 centiliters.  That’s a 22 ounce bottle back in the States.  So that’s a good deal. Plenty of ”bang for the buck” as you might hear someone say.

What’s the catch?  Well, La Birra di COOP is in English, the beer of COOP. 

If you are still confused, COOP is not some cool guy from Oakland, California who used to play for the NBA but now is a substitute teacher/gym coach.  COOP is a major brand out here.  That’s the brand name of the pasta I buy, or the sauce I buy, or the cereal I buy, or the cookies, or the crackers.  You know the term.  Say it with me now… OFF-BRAND. 

La Birra di COOP

Also Known As – grocery store brand beer.

And apparently, it’s the brand of beer I buy!  Why?  Because I insist on trying new things.  And it’s no big deal that they slapped a COOP name on the bottle, in my eyes.  So many off-brands use the same manufacturers as name brands and just slap a different label on the package.  This is stuff I learned in Marketing 101 people.  Sometimes, the name brand stuff isn’t actually better, it's just more expensive.  And by the way, I emphasize the word “sometimes”.  If you don’t believe me, just read labels, folks. If the ingredients list is a match, and if the container looks similar, it’s safe to assume the food was manufactured in the same facility.

So I opened the bottle, poured it into my mini-mug and out came the golden liquid.  The head, a nice off-white color and the head retained itself for about a minute.    

The aroma makes me think they only used a single hop variety but with an amateur nose like mine, you never really know just by smelling.  Time for the taste.  The liquid is a little sweet sitting on the tongue.  Then the hops make their way to your palette, bringing out the bitterness in the beer, but not overly.  It’s not amazing beer, in fact, it definitely reminds me of the taste of the typical commercial lagers out there, but I do like that the body is good for a lager.  Not too heavy (my opinion of Yuengling and Brooklyn Brew Co Lagers), not too watery (my opinion of many very large commercial company’s lagers). Taking a break from the drink to see how my mouth reacts to the flavors, I can’t stop thinking that I have one of those ultimate “turn offs” – the dreaded “Beer Breath”.  

I just breathed on some guy.  Oops.  Hey buddy, you might need a towel to clean up.... that.

Source

Besides having face-melting acid breath, I went back for more.   I noticed the carbonation is right on, but my home brewing experience told me easily this is a forced carbonation by CO2 rather than a natural one by letting yeast work their magic.  That is expected considering the commercial nature of this brand.  However, not everyone knows this information about beer, thus, it should be shared.

And by the way, any beer with carbonation created by the yeast alone gains extra VASGO points in my book because it’s letting nature do its thing.  

Another fun fact:  Many Belgian beers have natural carbonation in the way I have just described. 

Third fun fact: Nature = awesome.

Final thoughts:

Birra COOP Lager is just OK.  Cheap purchase, decent flavor, not gross, but not great either.  Just an average experience.