Fuller's - London Pride/ESB Two-fer

This review has been on the back burner for a while, might as well knock it out on a lazy Monday. Beer has been brewed on the site of the Fuller's brewery for over 350 years, although the partnership of Fuller, Smith, & Turner was only formed in 1845 by three guys named, eerily enough, Fuller, Smith, & Turner. There are still members of the Fuller and Turner families working in the business and all three of the families are still strongly represented by their shareholdings. They brew a number of regular beers - Fuller's is in fact the only brewery to have three beers named the "Champion Beer of Britain," which, while impressive sounding, would likely sound more impressive still if I was British. Many of these beers are available in Charlottesville - I've seen four or five of 'em at various locales around town. Today, I'll be reviewing the London Pride, which I had on tap at the Horse and Hound Gastropub (along with a roasted vegetable sandwich), and the ESB, which I actually picked up from Total Wine in Chantilly, Virginia after a long flight into Dulles.

The English Pale ale is a style that can trace its history all the way back to Burton-upon-Trent, a fairly large town on the River Trent in the east of Staffordshire, England. Its proximity to the river made the water in Trent rather hard, and the Trentonites discovered - eureka! - that the minerals in this water not only imparted a unique flavor on the beer, but also improved clarity and enhanced the strength of the alpha acids imparted by the hops.

Water is something people often forget about when they're talking about beer - everyone knows about the malt bill and the hop schedule and the metabolic yeast byproducts, but you really can't overlook the water. I guess it's easy to do - it's sort of the main constituent. However, the mineral content of beer has a huge effect on pH and enzyme activity and on the aforementioned clarity and hop perception. A failure to remove chlorine from your water can result in harsh medicinal flavors in your beer, and too much sulfur or iron in your water can have a similar effect. On the other hand, you have to have certain minerals in your beer - salts, calcium, carbonates, sulfates, zinc, etc. - in order for the yeast to survive (this is why you can't brew with distilled water). Some of the more famous waters of the world include Pilzen (renowned for its unbelievably low ~7 mg/L of calcium, the softest water on earth), Dortmund (calcium levels second only to BoT), Vienna (which has water very similar to the water around Mexico City, a region where Vienna lagers have thrived in popularity), and of course, London.

Fuller’s London Pride is an English Pale Ale, a 4.7% brew hopped with Target, Challenger and Northdown. It's the leading casked ale in London, has twice won the Best Bitter award at the CAMRA Beer Festival, and also won the aforementioned Champion Beer of Britain in 1979.

Appearance: A robust amber with a light, fuzzy head and minimal carbonation, but plenty of fizzy, bright carbonation. 4.0/5.0.

Aroma: Pure, unadulterated caramel, light leafy hops, and a creamy, buttery note that pervades throughout. It's not pungent, but you wouldn't expect it to be. Pleasant. 4.0/5.0.

Taste: Caramel and biscuit/grainy maltiness, buttery diacetyl, grassy hops and a pleasant, mild bitterness. A few stray esters, as well. The whole thing is very well balanced in typical English PA style. Very hardy. 4.0/5.0.

Mouthfeel: Light, but with a full mouthfeel. Spotty carbonation and head profile, thin in spots. Layered, but not layered too well, in my opinion. 3.5/5.0.

Drinkability: Great. Low in alcohol, perfectly balanced, what's not to love? 4.0/5.0.

Overall: 3.95/5.00. A solid beer you really can't go wrong with. Might be a little strange to beer drinkers used to American pale ales - this beer is most definitely English.

So I actually had the London Pride a little while ago, but decided a review of it alone would be sorta silly, so I popped open my Fuller's ESB today so that I could write up a two-fer. The ESB was first brewed in 1971 as Fuller's winter seasonal, and (if you can believe it) was at the time one of the strongest regularly brewed draught beers in the country at 5.5% abv. How things have changed. It first won CAMRA's Beer of the Year award in 1978, and has now won seven separate CAMRA superlatives, more than any other beer. Another cool thing about the ESB - the bottle is absolutely rock solid.

Appearance: A bright orange, malty-looking body with sparse carbonation (incredibly slow, sparse carbonation at that), a one-finger head that fades into a frothy foam. Thin, almost non-existent rings of lace are present. 4.0/5.0.

Aroma: Soft, buttery caramelized sugars and rough spicy hops, both in equal proportions. Expertly balanced. Some light fruity esters, too. The whole thing is very soft and mellow, but very pleasant. 4.0/5.0.

Taste: Interesting. There's plenty of what's in the nose here, too - the buttery caramel malts (with a little bit of a toasted presence on the front http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifend), the light fruity notes (almost-neutral pear), and the leafy, herbal hops. But there are also lots of mineral flavors from the water which lend a unique, rounded flavor to the whole thing. It's not bitter, but it's not sweet either. Very unique. 4.0/5.0.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied and medium-bubbled, but very even, and therefore very smooth. Leaves a great hop aftertaste/feel. 4.0/5.0.

Drinkability: A solid 5.9% abv. There are lots of unique flavors in this brew imparted by the water, but if these don't bother you, this is a hardy, solid, sessionable beer that I could easily put a few of away. 4.5/5.0.

Overall: 4.05/5.00. My score gives my pause. This is the ESB - it's the world standard, and the fact that I've only rated it a 4.05 makes me think I'm not "rating to style" well enough. Introspection is in order. But as far as the beer goes, yeah, what I said before - this is the original ESB. Interestingly enough, the Beer Judge Style Guide tells you not to rate other ESBs with the Fuller's in mind, because "Fuller’s ESB is a unique beer with a very large, complex malt profile not found in other examples; most strong bitters are fruitier and hoppier. Judges should not judge all beers in this style as if they were Fuller’s ESB clones." So go easy on those other ESBs, will 'ya?