Fuller's, Vintage Ale 2013

Fuller's were one of those breweries that I didn't really pay attention to when I started taking beer seriously. To make an analogy to how I discovered new music (that's what you do in beer writing right? make an analogy between beer and music?) when I was a teenager: if it was band that everyone had heard of, you wouldn't bother checking them out, rather focusing on more obscure, newer bands. (This was why I never listened to Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Sabbath etc until into my 20s.) So when I began drinking flavoursome ales, I thought - why bother with Fuller's? There's a new Kernel/Partizan/Magic Rock/etc just out.

That was until I read somewhere {{citation needed}} that Fuller's ESB was an inspiration to a bunch of US brewers who thought it was the bees knees. Well, if the kings of hops and modern beer styles in the States thought that, then I bloody well ought to try it then eh? Obviously it's amazing, along with their London Porter and the bottle of their Imperial Stout I had last year.

I bought their Vintage Ale for a very reasonable £4 (I think) from Waitrose. Dates and raisins on the nose. Thick mouth texture, big hit of honey/treacle. Then it's orange shred marmalade and this massive wave of English hops, must be hopped like an IPA, but with English damp grass, leafy, straw-like Admiral and Sovereign. A heavy pint, a good heavy. Also boozy, but likewise, a good boozy.

Fuller's is good London beer and in lieu of an overtly beer focussed pub, I'll always choose a Fuller's one.