How does 12 year old beer taste?

A pyramid of tasty Vintage Ales

I've been collecting Fullers Vintage Ales since my house-mates bought me the 2006 edition. The one I have now isn't that original however as some bastards broke into my house and stole that (alongside other things). Interestingly they left the 2005 which is unboxed...perhaps a handy tip to those that live in dodgy areas...

Anyway, this Saturday (10/12/11) myself, Reuben (Tale of Ale) and Alan (no blog yet but I'm working on him) assembled in my Cookstown home to do a vertical tasting of Fuller's Vintage Ales from 1999-2011  

Unfortunately I haven't been able to source the 2001 and 2003 editions so if anyone has any spares... ;)

There are plenty of reviews already out there and I know there was recently a tasting at the brewery. Here are some other blog posts that may interest you: Des De Moor, Adrian Tierney-Jones,  Sid Boggle and Mark Dredge.

Going with conventional wisdom I decided we should drink them in reverse chronological order; so read on for our take on the beers! (The notes in italics are Fullers own tasting notes gleaned from a card in the 2011 box).

2011: "The malt grist includes a proportion produced by Warminster maltings, from  organic barley grown by Sir James Fuller on the Neston Park Estate. This will be married with choicest Goldings, Organic First Gold and award winning Sovereign hops, to produce a beer with a firm malt base, marmalade notes and a satisfying bitter finish."

Steve: Honey nose with subtle malts and sweet peach

Reuben: I can see that this beer would age pretty well

2010: "125,000 bottles were produced of this year's Vintage Ale, once again brewed using Tipple malt and boasting fruity hop character, first from a blend of Goldings and Fuggles hops in the boil, then from dry-hopped Goldings and Target varieties."

Steve: Quite rich fruit nose with good level of condition, fairly boozy with a malted milk biscuit finish.

We had tasty baked camembert with walnut loaf to accompany the first few bottles.

2009: "The 2009 Vintage featuring Kent Grown Golding hops and East Anglian tipple malted barley has an initial aroma of rich muscavado sugar followed by a brandied caramelised orange palate and finishes with a creamy vanilla warmth"

Steve: Darker amber with caramel and a briefer, marzipan finish than previous 2.

Alan: Similar to 2010 but better with dessert wine and grape skin character.

2008: "Our 12th Vintage features two of our favourite English hop varieties Northdown and Challenger. These, combined with floor malted Maris Otter malt, produce a rich fruit aroma laced with dark orange hop notes. A full luxurious mouth feel is finished off with a satisfying alcohol warmth."

We think there was something wrong with this beer, though rate beer doesn't seem to have noted any similar problems.

Reuben: Overwhelming pear juice, this doesn't smell right.

Steve: Pear skin and prickly carbonation and sharp with solvent notes.

Reuben: Its like a poor quality pear cider.

2007: "To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Vintage Ale, this classic edition was produced with the finest Fuggles, Target, Super Styrian hops for rich, spicy hop notes leading to a full sweet palate."

Steve: Lighter amber with a fluffy white head. Sherry aromas with slight cherry and a chalky peppermint, dry finish

Reuben: This is the best so far

Alan: More grapeskins but more subtle than 2009.

At this point it seems I got a little more sporadic with my photo taking...

2006: "100,000 bottles of Vintage Ale were produced thus year marking the 10th in the series. Super Styrian hops and floor malted barley were used to give this beer a rich, fruity character and long mellow after-taste."

Reuben: I'm getting prune juice from this one.

Steve: Dark ruby red with dry fruit nose. Bitter finish with orange pith and a hint of acridity and toffee.

Alan: Its not as balanced as the others.

2005: "The combination of floor malted Optic malt along with Fuggles hops makes this Vintage a wonderfully well-balanced beer, full of biscuity malt flavours that soften the spicy, citrus notes."

Steve: Sultanas, fairly dry bodied and well balanced but consequently seems one-dimensioanl.

Alan: Agreed, this one needs a few more years.

Feeling peckish but not wanting to ruin our palates with the burritos which were to come later we had some mature cheddar and rustic oatcakes. These worked perfectly with the beer.

2004: "This Vintage was brewed to a traditional recipe using Goldings hops and Maris Otter Malt. The result is a distinctive beer with cherry notes and a warming finish that mellows with age"

Steve: Cherry red with sherry nose and a hint of pineapple esters. Balanced and warming alcohol with a hint of cocoa in the finish. My favourite so far.

2002: "As year of the Queens Golden Jubilee, the golden theme was applied to this special commemorative vintage Ale. Goldings hops and Golden Promise malt were used to produce this copper coloured ale with a  fruity, orange peel aroma and a spicy taste."

Steve. Sherry and muscavado sugar nose though over-boozy and some melon-rind.

Alan: Its a bit herbal too.

2000:"85,000 bottles of vintage Ale were produced with an organic theme, using champion optic malt and Organic Target hops. A fresh hop aroma, with notes of honey and toffee, leads to a slightly sweeter taste and burnt, bitter after-taste."

Steve: Very dark with plenty of carbonation and rich dried fruits...i think this is how 2011 could end up

Reuben: Its held up surprisingly well in 11 years

Alan: The beers have been different to how I anticipated

Sensing the final furlong we moved onto the final one...

1999: "The Champion theme was used once again for this classic Vintage Ale with Champion Fuggles and Champion optic malt. Slightly redder in appearance, this ale is full of body with a sherry-like flavour."

Steve: Slightly murky with yeast esters, vanilla and plenty of carbonation again and really thick bodied.

Reuben: Its between this and the 2007 for me.

Bonus Review!

Would have liked a whole bottle!

With the night still young we decided to also try the Fullers Brewers Reserve #3. I missed out on a chance to try this at GBBF this year as I didn't have my glass with me when I wandered past the Fullers bar. 

It was unexpectedly the star of the show due to some brett character presumably picked up in the barrel. Ginger and dusty cobwebs on the nose. The flavours are a complex interplay of brett and whisky with a long boozy finish. Should have kept this all for myself!

After the Fuller's onslaught we decided to move onto some sour beers, but that's for another day!

The Aftermath!

 

Beer Tasting at Belfast Beer Fest

Earlier in the week I posted about my weekend working at Belfast Beer Festival 2011 and promised a later post about the tutored tasting sessions. Well here it is!

It was organised by branch chairman Phil Hernberg and jointly hosted with Rab Cowan from across the water (in that there Scotland) with tidbits of interest interjected by my good self. The beer lineup had to be tweaked slightly each day as casks ran out or others came into condition. The basic lineup was as follows:

Phil in full flow whilst Adrian and Rab discuss in the background

Lager

Mild

Bitter

Wheat beer

Speciality

Best Bitter

Porter

Stout

 Lager: we started off with Williams Ceildah but later switched to using Ossett Silver King. Its a shame we had no Schiehallion but the lagers we did have were nice enough. The assembled tasters were asked if they knew the difference between lager and "ale" amd some did know of the yeast differences. People said that they would have preferred it a few degrees colder. Alas the logistics which make it nigh on impossible for coolers. We have to resort to the "wet tea-towel" method.

Mild: B&T Black Dragon Mild was used first, then Ilkley Black, one of my own favourites. This one found a lot of favour with the female participants. Described as a beer that can range in colour and strength and named for its usually* low hopping rate. I suggested that it would pear well with good carby dishes as would be consumed by those after a hard day down t'mines.

mmm this mild has chocolate

Bitter: We had some good examples of bitter's on in the festival but in the end settled for O'hanlons firefly as it was well balanced between malt and hops and for its good mid-brown colour halfway between the lager and mild. Highlighted that the UK is great at making flavourful "session" beers.

Weisse: Little Valley Hebden's wheat: This is a bit of an odd one, uses a german weisse yeast but has corriander seed and lemon peel added. It has the wheatbeer haziness which alowed us to talk about other forms of haze/cloudiness to look out for in a beer.

Witbier: Hilden Barney's Brew. This was a real marmite beer. For some people it was the standout, for others only a sip was tried before declaring it foul. Spicy beers are just not some people's cup of tea.

Golden Ale: We switched best bitter for a golden ale when the dark star American Pale Ale ran out on the second day and the speciality beer became a witbier. Then hophead ran out and we had to use Oakleaf hole hearted. Talked about how American hop varieties had become more prolific in English brewing and how Golden Ale as a style is a fairly recent invention.

Porter: Did my best to dispel porter myths but I can't promise that some didn't get through when I was out of the room. We used Elland 1872 porter for a while but as it overpowered the stouts switched it for Coachhouse blunderbus [sic] old porter, which claims an "authentic" recipe. It certainly contrasted well to the stout.

Tasters start to feel it after 8 thirds

Stout: Talked about how not much separates stout and porter as styles these days, with stronger and lower ABV versions of both. We used Acorn Gorlovka stout so I was able to recount the tale of the rise of Imperial Russian Stouts, Baltic Porters and the recent great Baltic Adventure. There were inevitable comparisons to the ubiquitous black stuff from down south, but hopefully peopel's eyes were opened to the range of different stouts available.

The sessions finished with a final chance to ask questions and the three of us offering suggestions for what beers to try next. Was slightly embarassed when one tasting session gave a round of applause but it felt good to be appreciated.

I was pleased that the majority of sessions were oversubscribed (though this made my job a nightmare with only one hour between sessions trying to get 120 glasses and 8 jugs through the potwash and cool enough in time for the next session!). There was also a good mix of old and young, male and female, 2 Catalans and 2 Japanese visitors. Some people were pretty knowledgable and others just starting out in their beery journeys. I was surprised to meet a few peopel who had also travelled to the festival from Cookstown and hope to taste some beers with them later in the year.

I enjoyed helping out with the tasting sessions, maybe I'll be allowed to do one by myself next year, I reckon cheese** and beer would go down well as a talk ;)

*See R.Pattinsons research.

**Any Excuse eh?

Belfast Beer Festival Reminder

Just a quick post to remind everyone that Belfast Beer Festival is just ten days away. Easyjet now flys from Manchester; so its even more easy to get here if you're a Northern beer drinker type. 

The list as it currently stands can be found here. I'll be working the whole of it. Come and try the new Northern Ireland beer and local ciders. Hope to see you there!

Rubies and Pearls

Most people will be aware by now that CAMRA reached the venerable age of forty this year, though its a much smaller group who are privy to another anniversary, namely CAMRA Northern Ireland's 30th. Thirty years ago to the day (17th October 1981) English ex-pats Cherry and Adrian Saunders were attending Hilden brewery's first brew-day and decided that Northern Ireland needed a branch to campaign for ale availability of what was (and still is to a large extent) a Diageo dominated pub landscape.

Since then five other breweries have opened their doors (the most recent being Ards brewing co earlier this month) and the branch membership has reached 270 members. This is still small fry compared with some of the branches on "the mainland" but we see a bigger proportion of our members at events, Saturday's anniversary bash showing interest in real ale in Northern Ireland is alive and well with almost 20% turn-out and some new faces. Many beers were supped by all (myself included, look out for my Wetherspoon beer festival round-up after next weekend's beerstravaganza) and an ample buffet provided.

Another event that sees a lot of our members congregating in one spot falls one month from today: Belfast Beer Festival 2011 will be gracing the inside of the Ulster Hall yet again and the beer and cider lists are now live on the website. Obviously the usual disclaimers apply that beers are subject to delivery but it looks like we have a good selection this year with a good showing from both local brewers and cider producers. I've reproduced the list below with links to tasting notes from the brewer's websites where possible, or ratebeer if not. Hopefully some of you can make it across, for Northern types Easyjet has just started a flight from Manchester and tickets are pretty cheap at the time of writing.

NI BEERS

Ards Brewing	Ballyblack	4.8%
College Green	Headless Dog	4.2%
Clanconnel	McGrath’s Irish Black	4.3%
Clanconnel	Weaver’s Gold Blonde Ale	4.5%
Hilden	Hilden Ale	3.7%
Hilden	Scullion’s Irish	4.6%
Hilden	Barney’s Brew	5.0%
Whitewater	Belfast Ale	4.5%
Whitewater	Belfast Black	4.2%
Whitewater	Clotworthy Dobbin	5.0%
Whitewater	Copperhead	3.7%

Other beers

ACORN	Gorlovka Stout	6.0%
ALLGATES	Twitter & Busted	4.0%
ARUNDEL	Autumn Old Ale	4.6%
ARUNDEL	Black Stallion	3.7%
ATLAS	Latitude	3.6%
B&T	Black Dragon Mild	4.3%
B&T	Two Brewers Bitter	3.6%
BANK TOP	Bank Top Dark Mild	4.0%
BANK TOP	Gold Digger	4.0%
BATEMANS	XXXB	4.5%
BEARTOWN	Bear Ass	4.0%
BLUE MONKEY	99 Red Baboons	4.2%
BLUE MONKEY	BG Sips	4.0%
BOWMAN	Elderado	3.5%
BOX STEAM	Dark & Handsome Stout	5.0%
BRADFIELD	Farmers Blonde	4.0%
BRECON BREWING	Broomstick	4.7%
BRECON BREWING	Pale beacons	3.9%
BURTON BRIDGE	Thomas Sykes	10.0%
BUSHY'S	Old Bushy Tail	4.5%
CAIRNGORM	Cairngorm Gold	4.5%
COACH HOUSE	Blunderbus Old Porter	5.5%
COACH HOUSE	Innkeepers Special Reserve	4.5%
CONWY	Autumn Red	4.5%
CONWY	Welsh Pride	4.0%
CORVEDALE	Dark & Delicious	4.6%
CORVEDALE	Norman’s Pride	4.3%
DARK STAR	American Pale Ale	4.7%
DARK STAR	Hophead	3.8%
DERVENTIO	Cleopatra	5.0%
ELLAND	1872 Porter	6.5%
FUZZY DUCK	Tangerine Duck	4.4%
GREAT ORME	Celtica	4.5%
GREEN JACK	Orange Wheat Beer	4.2%
GREEN JACK	Ripper Tripel	8.5%
HADRIAN & BORDER	Ginger Beer	4.0%
HAMBLETON	Stallion	4.2%
HAWKSHEAD	Hawkshead Red	4.2%
HOPBACK	Entire Stout	4.5%
HORNBEAM	Lemon Blossom	3.7%
HOUSTON	Killellan	3.7%
HOUSTON	Peter’s Well	4.2%
HUMPTY DUMPTY	Little Sharpie	3.8%
ILKLEY	Ilkley Black	3.7%
KIRKBY LONSDALE	Jubilee Stout	5.5%
LEEDS	Midnight Bell	4.8%
LITTLE VALLEY	Hebden’s Wheat [Cloudy]	4.5%
MAULDONS	Black Adder	5.3%
MAULDONS	Micawbers Mild	3.5%
MILE STONE	IPA	4.8%
MORDUE	Newcastle Coffee Porter	5.1%
NAYLORS	Pinnacle Porter	4.8%
NETHERGATE	Umbel Ale	3.8%
NORTHUMBERLAND	Bucking Fastard	4.0%
OAKLEAF	Hole Hearted	4.7%
O’HANLON	Firefly	3.7%
O’HANLON	O’Hanlons Port Stout	4.2%
OLD MILL	Yorkshire Porter	4.4%
ORKNEY	Skullsplitter	8.5%
OSSETT	Silver King	4.3%
OTLEY	Oxymoron	5.5%
OTLEY	O8	8.0%
OUTSTANDING	Standing Out	5.5%
PEERLESS	Dark Arts	4.1%
PHOENIX	Arizona	4.1%
PURPLE MOOSE	Madog’s Ale	3.7%
RCH RUDGATE	Pitchfork Rudgate Ruby Mild	4.3% 4.4%
SALOPIAN	Golden Thread	5.0%
SALTAIRE SKINNERS	Raspberry Blonde Ginger Tosser	4.0% 3.8%
SKINNERS	Keel Over	4.2%
SUMMER WINE	Barista Espresso Stout	4.8%
SUMMER WINE	Diablo IPA	6.6%
THREE B’S	Bee Blonde	4.0%
THREE B'S TITANIC	Tackler's Tipple Captain Smiths	4.3% 5.2%
TITANIC	Iceberg	4.1%
TRYST	Carronade IPA	4.2%
VILLAGE	Old Raby Ale	4.8%
WELLS & YOUNGS	Young’s Bitter	3.7%
WELLS & YOUNGS	Bombardier	4.1%
WILLIAMS	Ceilidh Lage	4.7%
WILLIAMS	Fraoch Heather Ale	4.1%
WILLIAMS	Midnight Sun Porter	5.6%
WOLF	Golden Jackal	3.7%
WOLF	Norfolk Lavender Honey	3.7%
YORK	Centurion’s Ghost	5.4%

We also have a much improved cider line-up planned for this year, so much so that it will be on its own separate stillage away from the main bar.

Biddenden Cider	Bushells cider	6.0%
Biddenden Cider	Biddendens Kentish Medium Cider	8.0%
Mr Whitehead’s	Equinox	4.5%
Mr Whitehead’s	Midnight Special Perry	5.0%
Moles	Black Rat Cider	6.0%
Thatchers Cider	Heritage Cider	4.9%
Thatchers Cider	Cheddar Valley Cider	6.0%
Gwynt y Ddraig	Two Trees Perry	4.5%
Gwynt y Ddraig	Haymaker	6.5%
Toby’s	Dry cider	6.0%
DJ’s	Medium cider	6.0%
Broadoak	Perry	4.5%
Westons Cider	Bounds Brand Scrumpy	4.8%
Westons Cider	Herefordshire Country Perry	4.5%
Westons Cider	Traditional Scrumpy	6.0%
Westons Cider	Old Rosie Scrumpy	7.3%
Westons Cider	Marcle Hill	5.0%
Westons Cider	Organic Vintage Cider	7.3%