Following a tip-off from Stonch’s blog, I convinced some colleagues that, if we must go for an after work drink on a Tuesday night, we should do it at a Fuller’s pub, so I could try cask-conditioned London Porter.
It’s one of our very favourite beers — there’s a very short list of about four beers that both Boak and I agree are bang on — but I’d never had it on tap.
As is often the case, it was a very different beer than the bottled version. It had a lighter body for one thing and possibly also a lighter colour (transparent red). Unlike the bottled version, it maintained a lovely head all the way down. It was incredibly fruity, with a little less of the sourness or coffee flavour I’m used to from the bottle.
I probably ever so slightly prefer the bottled version, but nonetheless, it would be nice if this stayed on tap in Fuller’s pubs all year round. As it is, they often have both Honey Dew and Discovery, which are similar-tasting light, lagery ales, and HSB and London Pride, which are similar tasting brown bitters, and nothing like a dark mild/stout/porter except Guinness.
In fact, all pubs should make it their business to have one lightish beer, one brown beer, and one black beer. Then there would always be something to suit my mood.
4 replies on “Fuller’s London Porter”
How can you prefer the pasteurised, filtered and artifically carbonated bottled version to the real deal? Argh!
Sorry to have made you cry in anguish, but I’m not going to say I prefer one to the other when I don’t on the basis of cask-ale dogma. And I’m always careful to say “I prefer it” rather than “it’s better”. After all, what do I know about anything?
I wholeheartedly agree about wishing pubs would have more variety in their cask offerings. Wouldn’t it be great to back to the situation as it was around the time of WW I when a typical London pub had these beers on draught?
Mild
Bitter
Stout
Burton
Ron — the really frustrating thing for me is that so many pubs still have beautiful livery outside advertising porters, stouts and sparkling Burton pale ales which only serve to underline how disappointing the selection inside really is. CAMRA seem to have made some progress getting mild back into pubs, but I rarely see any stout other than Guinness, even in pretty decent places.