Cooper

After making porter cake I was left with a spare half of porter. What shall I do with my left over beer I pondered? Maybe make another cake and half? Perhaps wash my hair in it (actually that would take considerably less than 300ml)? Then I remembered that as well as being used for cooking beer can also be drunk so I decided I'd give that a go.

But I didn't just swig it back, I had special use lined up for my left over. It was destined to be drunk as Cooper.

What with porter dying out and then being revived but indistinguishable from stout there's not much call for a porter/stout mix nowadays. But as I had a bottle of Harvey's Imperial Stout, a properly stout stout, in one of the beer cupboards I felt a cooper was called for. I think that Harvey's is the true successor to Courage Imperial Russian Stout, as when the Courage brand was revived by Wells & Young's they bottled it about with bottling with Brettanomyces. The Harvey's stout also has a taste that makes me grimace and go "Ye gods, what is that?", much like the Courage stout did back in the day. When diluted with another beer I find it an altogether much more pleasant experience than when drunk neat and the Harvey's stout and Fuller's porter made great combination.