Past Masters XX Strong Ale (Fuller's)

A new release from Fuller's as part of their Past Master's range, a series of beers brewed using recipes from their brewers log dating back to 1845. This one comes from 1891.

Pours with a devious fizz, perfectly bottle conditioned, not as dark as I expected, a lovely Amber brown. Fruity and floral aroma, sweet nosed.

Big dry malt takes charge on the initial sip, followed big fruit ripe flavours, plum, and also marmalade orange. The hopping is noticeably generous, but giving a lovely bitterness intertwined with the fruity middle, rather than a bold IPA style finish.

A lively spicy finish, of cloves and pepper, wrapped on a delicious mellow lingering sweetness. Reminiscent of, but different to ESB.

8/10 A beautifully matured, fruity ale, clearly of a different era. One to try.
The Past Master's range is available to buy from the Fuller's shop here

Seafarer's Ale (Fullers)

Brewing stalwarts Fuller's have taken this 4.2% abv George Gale branded beer under their wing, and will donate a percentage of sale proceeds to the Seafarers UK charity.

It's well carbonated and pours with a fizzy tumult. The drink is crisply golden and sports a hearty white head, which loiters for a while.

The nose is a light hoppy puff with a smidge of tobacco. First sip is fairly yeasty, lots of bread in a rather Wadworth-esque taste. It's very drinkable though, some nice clippings of grass through the length to end zestily, with fine employment of (aptly) Admiral Hops to level out with bitterness.

It comes across as a sort of IPA-lite, but for me could perhaps benefit from having a touch more bitterness in the tail. Still, a fine drink as you'd expect from one welcomed into the Fuller's stable.

7/10 - Very good beer, a sensible buy even without the donation to a fine cause.

- The Broadside

London Porter Christmas Pudding

Its the time of year when I start to get excited by Christmas, part of the ritual is the making of the homemade Christmas pudding. They really are worlds apart from the dry horribe things you pay a fortune for in supermarket.

The couldn't be any easier to make, and really are suited to an extra special beer inside them. Personally I think Porter or stout is perfect, and I'm hoping the complex flavours of Fullers London Porter will really shine through.

Here is my recipe adapted from Delia's old classic (I've used it the last 3 years and its great!)

London Porter Christmas Pudding
Makes 2 large 2 Pint puddings
225g Shredded Suet (in the baking isle)
110g Self raising Flour
450g Soft Brown Sugar
225g Breadcrumbs
1 heaped teaspoon of Cinnamon and another of Nutmeg
1kg Mixed Currants, Raisins and Sultanas
50g Mixed Candied Peel
75g Almonds
One apple peeled and chopped
4 Eggs (free range please)
A measure of Rum, and another of Whiskey
1 bottle of Fullers London Porter (400ml ish) (or your favorite dark beer)

Mix the all the dry ingredients together well. Beat the eggs and add the beer (holding back 100ml to add if required), then mix with the dry ingredients stiring well. It should be a good dropping consistency that it falls of the spoon with a firm tap. Add a touch more flour or liquid to get this right, its not a precise science.

Leave covered over night for the flavours to blend. Grease your 2 pudding bowls, then fill to the top with the mixture, cut a sheet of greaseproof paper to fit the top, put a clean cloth or cut pillow case on the top and tie tightly around the rim.

Steam over boiling water in a pan for 4 hours, careful not to boil dry. Leave to stand and keep in a cool place until Christmas.

Heat on the day by steaming over boiling water once again for 2 hours.

Enjoy! With good company and lashings of brandy.

Bunker Summit no. 2

Bunker Summit Two was again a fine event. As well as myself and Ed, Glenn was on hand to voice his tasting judgements in a blind tasting session. We all bought four ales to try.

Home cooked food was once more provided by the master skills of Commandant Ed. This time a legendary Fuller's Porter steak and ale stew (Recipe here!) with garden vegetables provided the perfect interim energy boost.

The evening kicked off with an auspicious curtain raiser - a review session of Brewdog's AB:04, which isn't released until later this week, but was kindly sent to us for pre-launch review. You can read the full review on this site.

We then moved on to the main tasting event. The scores we gave were completely blind and are averaged below - we had no idea what the product was until the reveal.

Bright (Otter) 4.3%ABV - Summery blond with a tiny ping of spice, a bit uninteresting. (4)

Old Henry (Hobson's) 5.2% - Fireside amber, complex and peachy (7)

First Gold (Hopcloser) 4.6% - Ed's homebrew! (Full details of how that was made here) Rated very highly, sweet and tasty in the US style (7)

Banks's Bitter (Marstons) 3.8% - Short and malty, no finish, a bit budget (4)

Entire Stout (Hopback) 4.5% - Creamy but light stout. Refreshing for a black drink (6)

American IPA (Adnams) 6.8% - Very nice (Ed loves it) extremely citrussy, some tea and depth. Took the evening's Bronze Medal (8)

Organic Old Ruby Ale (Dutchy Originals) 5% - Inoffensive, probably nice with lamb (6)

Humpty's Fuddle (Kingstone) 5.8% - Floral and malty, not much hop for an IPA (7)

ESB (Fuller's) 5.9% - Delicious and the evening's Silver Medal Drink. Perfect balance (8)

Betty Stogs (Skinners) 4% - A bit unbalanced but some nice flavours (7)

Ipswich Pale Ale (St Judes) 4% - Bloody awful, "sewage in a bottle". We can only hope this one was off for the brewery's sake - our first (0)

London Porter (Fullers) 5.4% - Delicious and superbly balanced, a textbook fine porter. The evening's Gold Medal Drink (9)

Poacher's Choice (Badger) 5.7% - Loads of gamey flavours but polarised opinion, a marmite-reaction drink (4)

Vienna broadcast the goodnight national anthem very shortly after this one. Much fun.

Gold Medal - Fuller's Porter
Silver - Fuller's ESB
Bronze - Adnams American Style IPA

- The Broadside

London Porter (Fuller’s) 5.4% abv

A dark porter with glimpses of amber at the edges. Invigorating smells of dark chocolate and fresh espresso powder. Beautiful big bubbles sit in a creamy cappuccino foam.

Initial sweetness, hints of toffee is followed by a biscuity middle, that famous Fuller’s yeasty crunch is there. The finish is one of rich dark chocolate, like bitter cocoa, in turn followed by coffee notes, and some noticeable but gentle hop bittering.

9/10 The benchmark of porters, a superb example of full complex flavours in perfect balance.

A huge thanks to Fullers for sending this one through. The Fuller's online shop is now open, with full online beer sales coming soon. Until then check out your local Waitrose or Occado who stock the full range.

Thanks Fuller's!

Thanks to Fuller's for sending this through to review. I've never tried this before so can't wait to give it a go.

The extended Fuller's online shop is now open, with full online beer sales coming soon. Until then you can get Fuller's beers almost anywhere, or check out your local Waitrose or Occado who stock the full range.

Bengal Lancer (Fuller’s)

Light copper almost amber in colour, the smell is not heavy dry hops, its fresh but very malty and sweet on the nose.

The initial flavour is full and malty, caramel taste, similar to the warming nature of an ESB. But just when you are expecting further sweetness and spice it hits you with a powerful hop punch. Dry lingering hops remain in the mouth up until the next sip. That famous Fullers yeast bite is as present as ever.

8/10 A great beer, more malty than most IPAs, reminds me of a US style IPA or strong Pale Ale.

The Fuller's online shop is now open, with full online beer sales coming soon. Until then check out your local Waitrose or Occado who stock the full range.

Beer Tasting at 40,000 Feet

As long haul flights go this was as good as it gets. A whole row of 3 seats just to myself, Chicken Tikka Massala for dinner, and unlimited cans of London Pride to drink!

Ok so its nowhere near as good as draught, but until British Airways perfects their on board keg system I'll be happy with this.

Anyone ever drunk a better beer on a plane?

London Pride (Fullers)

Pours a perfect light brown colour almost Tea colour, to me this is the colour of beer.

A full and beautiful malty taste washes through, filled with sweetness and a lovely hint of caramel. It finishes with a strong bitter finish that is well disguised within a smooth creaminess.

On draught this is the ultimate session beer for me, but the bottle is an entirely different beast, it lacks the creamy subtle and delicate flavours, instead providing abrupt punches of malt and bitterness that lack the class and flair of the pub pint.

4/10 On draught a thing of beauty, sadly the bottle disappoints.

Check out the full range here

ESB (Fullers)

Unleashes a wonderful array of aroma’s on pouring, perfect carbonation leaves this looking like a beautiful draught pint.

Like a rich fruitcake filled with dried fruits and exotic spices this beer fills the mouth providing a diverse explosion of sweet fruity flavours. Hints of brandy and juicy sultanas add luxury to an already decadent beer, the finish conjures up tastes of a spicy Christmas chutney or a luxury marmalade.

8/10 Pure luxury, as if Delia Smith herself was adding cake mixture at the brewery.

Check out the full range here

Discovery (Fullers)

Not sure where to place this one, it has a lovely unexpected fresh fruitiness to the start, with hints of sweetness. The finish is not hop packed, but a more delicate, gentle, refreshing dry finish.

Where to enjoy : This is definitely one for outside, slight chilled with the sun on your face.

7/10 Iif you're sat in the sun, with it slightly chilled it might fare better