Tag Archives: fuller’s

GIB / Fullers Beer Exchange

Granville Island Brewing let us know last week that they will be taking part in an international beer exchange with London’s Fullers.  From January 25th to February 5th, Fullers London Pride will be available at the GIB Taproom and Lions Winter Ale will be available at the Iron Duke in London.  GIB will also be hosting a Taproom for the UK event, which is open to all comers, this Wednesday, January 27th at 6PM at the Taproom.  While I think this exchange is a cool idea, I have a feeling it has more to do with marketing than beer.  Consider the timing of the event and the participation by breweries in the next two Olympic cities. Notwithstanding that neither London Pride nor Lions Winter Ale can truly be considered world class beers, so we can’t say either brewery is really putting their best foot forward.  And while Fullers is a major international brewer and their beers are readily available in BC, I wonder if anyone in the UK has ever heard of GIB?  That isn’t a slight to GIB who are widely considered BC’s favorite brewery among non beer enthusiasts.

Granville island brewing logoFullers Brewery Logo

 

My biggest concern with the event is the quality of the beer itself.  While both Fullers London Pride and GIB Lions Winter Ale are both good beers at the best of times, the international travel these beers will undertake won’t favor the quality of the beer.  Consider that beer is best served fresh and, save for high alcohol beers stored under the right conditions, will only deteriorate over time.  Now consider that these beers were brewed 4708 miles away from each other.  The beers must each travel across a continent by truck or train), across an ocean by boat, and then be stored at a liquor distribution center until the appropriate paper work has been filed.  I’d guess the age of these beers to be at least three months since packaging, which means that they are probably starting to go stale.  I’ve experienced stale Fullers London Pride often, but, considering that I bought this beer at a BC Liquor Store, it could have been up to a year old.

I hope beyond hope that both beers were shipped expediently after they were brewed, stored in optimal conditions, and are both tasting great. What would be even better is if the beers were casked and conditioned (under optimal conditions) on the way, but that might be too hopeful.  Best of luck to both GIB and Fullers in this endeavor.  However, I’d suggest keeping future international exchanges local in the interest of freshness.  Washington and Oregon aren’t too far away.

Cheers,

Chris

Review: Fuller’s Vintage Ale 2008

This years 2008 Fuller’s Vintage Ale is the eleventh annual release of it’s limited edition bottle conditioned ale.  I’d seen them in stores and in Erik’s cellar before, but this is the first year that I bought one.  Being a bottle conditioned ale, yeast remains in the bottle in dwindling quantities, meaning the beer changes (gets better) over time.  Fuller’s states on the box (yeah, it comes in a cool box) that they can only legally recommend aging the beer for three years, insinuating that this delightfully crafted ale will last much longer and improve with advanced age.  I showed absolutely no patience or self control by opening mine last Tuesday.  How could I resist not opening my individually numbered bottle, one of only one hundred and forty four thousand, for any length of time?

It felt good to take a beer bottle out of a box and peel off a “limited edition 2008″ label to get at the cap.  It was also comforting to know that this level of snobbery is the exception and not the rule when it comes to beer.  Upon opening the box, I also noted that there was a pamphlet enclosed describing the previous ten vintage releases.  I thought that was pretty cool.  The beer itself had a lovely medium brown, amber color and produced minimal head.  What I noticed right away was the delightfully rich malty, fruity smell.  This is by far the best and most powerful smelling beer I have had the pleasure of sniffing.  The taste was similar to the smell, with a rich malty and fruity flavor.  What struck me about the taste was that the high alcohol content really came through.  I really enjoyed the taste at first, but after a few more sips all I could taste was the alcohol, which lessened my enjoyment of this beer.  Upon reading the enclosed pamphlet, I learned that the alcoholic taste would smooth out over time, like say a year or two of aging.

I can tell for certain that Fuller’s Vintage Ale 2008 will be much improved in 2010, which isn’t to say that it isn’t drinkable or enjoyable now.  Hopefully by then I will also have garnered the self control needed to save drinking a Vintage Ale for two years down the road.  Luckily for me, Erik bought me another one for Christmas.  I do believe I will abandon my childish ways and adopt his practice of buying each year’s Fuller’s Vintage Ale and saving it for two years before drinking.  Check out Beer Advocate’s tips on beer storage if you, like me, have also never had enough patience to save beer for any length of time.

Cheers,

Chris