History Repeated

As I have oft mentioned before, Fullers Brewery is one which I have a soft spot for. They have a great number of beers in their portfolio, the majority of which are bang on the money in my opinion. Better still are their one-off special releases such as historical recreations "Past Masters" and annual vintage ales.

So I was excited to hear that John Keeling had opened the history books again to brew the recreation of a Burton Ale. This is one of the great styles that has fallen by the wayside in recent years or absorbed into the ubiquitous "barley wine" category that anything that is above 7% and  isn't obviously an IPA or stout tends to be sucked in to. Martyn Cornell speaks much more eloquently on beer styles and history and in a lot more detail than I could hope to achieve; so I'll defer to him on this occasion. Boak & Bailey also did good work identifying extant-examples of Burtons in the UK. I'm here to comment on the actual beer.

I had the forethought to keep a bottle of each of the preceding Past Masters releases to do a side-by-side comparison. Not that there should be anything in similar other than the Fuller's yeast strain but I find a single bottle tasting to be more than a bit dull. I had Reuben @taleofale, Daisy and my CAMRA friend Julie to provide further thoughts and drinking comradeship.

Old Burton Extra 7.3%  10/9/1931

It pours a deep chestnut brown with with slight cream head with dark fruit, burnt sugar and a medium body. Its very easy drinking but could perhaps become cloying after more than half a bottle (hence the  sharing). I actually prefer the Fullers 1845 (First brewed 1995!)  though, its got more lighter fruit marmalade notes to lift up the heavier malt sugars and at about half the price for a bottle and bottle conditioned to boot its a better bet.

XX Strong Ale 7.5%  2/9/1891

Pouring chestnut-orange its reminiscent of some West Coast IPAs with esters and higher alcohols on the nose of a strong Belgian effort. Its sweet with pineapples and honey. Medium carbonation and more than a bit of alcohol burn. There's something to it that minds me of what I'm not keen on in a dubbel and for that reason I struggled to finish my 1/3 bottle. Others rhapsodised over it.

Double Stout 7.4%  4/8/1893

Darkest brown with fluffy cola head. Tobacco, dates and sultanas on the nose. Thick, rich, toffee, redcurrant, toast, chocolate, gentle carbonation, long roast coffee finish. This one is fantastic and vindicates the whole endeavour. I'd love to see this in regular production and reminds me a lot of some of The Kernel's recreations.

I'm pleased to have been able to try these beers of yesteryear and hope that John finds many more recipes lurking in the archives. He's by no means the only brewer doing it but as the quantities involved are much bigger its certainly the most accessible. Whether or not I enjoyed them is somewhat irrelevant!

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?