Fuller's Vintage Ale in Sainsbury

This is becoming less of a beer blog, more of a public service message board! Anyway, it is worth alerting you that I visited my local Sainsbury branch at lunchtime to do my weekend shop and was surprised to see Fuller's Vintage Ale 2010. This particular branch didn't stock the ale when it was first issued in late autumn. So it may be that further stocks have been supplied to the branches.

 £3.44 a bottle is not bad - it costs more in Fuller's own shop. Sainsbury stock the Meantime 75cl botte conditioned ales in many branches so if you find the Vitnage Ale as well you've got a couple of classy beers.

Gale's Ales

Less of a blog today more of a photo gallery. Gale’s of Horndean marketed their wonderful Prize Old Ale in ultra traditional shouldered bottles with the brewery name embossed on the reverse. The effect was very pleasing on the eye. During the 80s and 90s they extended the concept to on a number of commemorative brews which sported a variety of attractive labels.

I’ve displayed here the classic POA bottle form the mid 70s. There was no indication of strength on  the label. The O.G. was added some time towards the end of that decade. At this time POA was also sold in crown corked nips.

The label was completely re-designed for the 80s. The gravity was indicated on the right hand side. A bit garish for me. Red and green should never be seen?

The 90s saw the introduction of a stylish new label with the year of production on the reverse. A photo of the brewery was displayed which, ironically, was still used once Fuller's had closed the brewery.

 

Here I’ve shown a few of the commemorative bottlings for your interest. The Silver Jubilee Ale of 1977 is very rare in corked form. It was mostly produced in crown corked nips. The others are an eclectic bunch produced for other royal, national and local anniversaries. It should be noted that these special brews were not re-badged prize Old Ale.

The gravities ranged from a paltry 4.6% for Peter & Julia’s Wedding (who?) from 1989 to a whopping 12% for the Golden Jubilee Ale of 1982. They can sometimes can be picked up on eBay at a cheap price and may be worth a punt, especially the stronger examples which should have matured nicely.

To view a full list of these and other commemorative brews up to 1999 see the excellent Association of Bottled Beer Collectors (ABBC) reference at Bottled beer list

 

Fuller's Vintage Ale

Fuller's have gained a deserved reputation in recent years for high quality, bottled conditioned beers. They include 1845, Brewer's Reserve and the new Past Masters range. Eagerly awaited each autumn is Vintage Ale now in its 14th year.

This year's brewing notes state "Crafted with the highest quality Tipple malted barley, this ale's main hop character is derived from traditional Golding and Fuggle hops and further enhanced with dry hopping, using a blend of the choicest Golding and Target hops. Coupled with the unique Fuller's yeast strain we expect this beer to mature into another 'Classic' Vintage!"

Would you like to see the production figures? Of course you would!

1997                 85,000

1998                 85,000

1999                 85,000

2000                 85,000

2001                 30,000

2002                 50,000

2003                 50,000

2004                 95,000

2005                 95,000

 2006                 100,000

 2007                 150,000

 2008                 145,000

 2009                 160,000

 2010                 125,000

Why the sharp drop in production in 2001? I'd like to know. What is evident is that demand has been bouyant in the latter part of the last decade. It is certainly a beer that I make an effort to seek out, difficult as that task can be up here in the frozen wastelands of the North. I suggest you do likewise.

Going to the National Winter Ales Festival?

By the time you read this, the National Winter Ales Festival will be underway.  I was invited to the Trade session (honest!) but the thought of getting up for work tomorrow put me off so I'll be there from early afternoon on Friday.


The name always seems wrong to me. The first time I went I was thinking how can Thwaites' Mild be classed as a Winter Ale? Shouldn't the name be changed to the more accurate National Ales Festival in Winter? That would really trip off the tongue.

Also, I haven't fathomed out how the beers are chosen. There are a number of mediocre beers from mediocre breweries and some very good breweries are not invited - in my opinion, and that's the one I respect. Grouse over, the new venue The Sheridan Suite is much better than the impersonal 70's office block that was the venue for a number of years. I'm sure that I'll enjoy it and I'll be making a beeline for XX from the Fuller's new Past Masters range hoping there is some left.

Thomas Hardy's Ale

The more observant amongst you will have noticed that I have a passion for Thomas Hardy's Ale.

At the birth of CAMRA there were four classic bottled conditioned beers in the U.K.

Hardy’s Ale was one, the others being Gale’s Prize Old Ale, Courage Imperial Russian Stout and Guinness.

Russian Stout disappeared in 1993 and Guinness has not been bottle-conditioned for donkeys’ years. The name Prize Old Ale lives on but Gales’ has closed and new owners Fuller's brew it at Chiswick sans the iconic corked bottles. Hardy’s Ale limped on until 1999. Eldridge Pope couldn’t even be bothered producing a vintage for the Millennium.

The final vintage from Eldridge Pope

Thomas Hardy’s Ale was brewed to an impressive 12% strength. This robustness explains why it is still sought after today, over 10 years after the last bottles were filled.  More of a barley wine than an ale, (that isn’t a cue for an argument please), I’ve tasted examples from the mid 70s which had matured beautifully like vintage port. I suspect that corners were cut in the final years which don’t have the same depth of flavours. Note though, that I’ve rarely had a bad bottle no matter how decrepit or faded the label may look.

The prime reason that Hardy’s Ale was never a commercial success was poor marketing. The original commemorative vintage from 1968 had a sticker on the bottle stating ‘DO NOT OPEN BEFORE JULY 1969’. When the ale was revived as a regular brew in 1974 the sticker said ‘DO NOT OPEN BEFORE JUNE 1978’ and by 1979 it stated DO NOT OPEN UNTIL 1989. Yes, you were told not to drink it for a whole ten years!! What terrible fate would befall anyone who ignored this doom-laden warning is unclear, but it meant that Thomas Hardy’s Ale was a museum piece from the start. Many people bought a bottle or two to stash away as a souvenir for a future event but few people actually drank the stuff. I know that this is true because I’ve still got two bottles purchased in a London branch of Waitrose in 1988. Of course, this has become a blessing in disguise for a new generation of drinkers because there are still numerous bottles hidden away in nooks and crannies and which are regularly advertised for sale on eBay. I’ve learned that brewery employees were given cases of the ale in the 90s as gifts, presumably because they weren’t selling in the pubs and off licenses. A lot of these cases are still intact lurking in pantries and garages.  By various means I’ve managed to amass a collection of about 200 bottles which will keep me going for some time yet.

In the 80s the brewery presumably saw the error of its ways and merely advised that the ale would keep for 25 years. However, the damage had been done and the perception remained that the ale shouldn’t be drunk too young. Sales in Britain were rarely exceptional and it was the export market, in particular to the U.S. that allowed production to continue as long as it did.




My sort of party ¹

  The demise of Eldridge Pope saw the right to the Thomas Hardy’s Ale name purchased by the American company Phoenix Imports. There was much rejoicing when they commissioned O'Hanlon's with a brief to re-create the ale as faithfully as possible. This they did with details that included the much-loved neck medallions and individual bottle numbers which had both been lost as Eldridge Pope cut costs. However, the joy was short-lived as the new ale lasted only 4 years before O’Hanlon’s pulled the plug citing the expense of producing a specialist ale in small quantities. It is believed that they were pushed into this decision by advisors after taking part in a reality-type TV programme.

Given the increased interest in unusual and rare brews mostly of high alcoholic strength it is to be hoped that Phoenix will resurrect Hardy’s Ale for a second time in the none too distant future.

Photo courtesy of Stan Hieronymus

What's in a name?

Since the first wave of guest microbrewery beers surfaced ever more exotic names have appeared on pump clips and bottles.

Hilarious names have abounded such as Dog’s Bollocks and Old Fart. Hilarious if you have an I.Q. of under 80 that is or went to a public school. Or both. Puns like 'Quacker Jack' or 'Hung, Drawn 'n' Portered'. Forgive me while I split my sides.

As brewers endeavoured to produce ever more special and interesting brews, i.e stronger and more expensive, they have attempted to come up with names with suitable gravitas. No, I wasn’t thinking of Brewdog. Fuller’s Vintage Ale and Brewers Reserve spring to mind. Some are given obscure names to add an aura of mystery. Ola Dubh may not be obscure to Gaelic speakers but it's all Greek to the rest of us.

I was thinking of beer names earlier this week while enjoying numerous excellent pints in the Marble Arch, Manchester. Marble have gained a reputation for high quality draught beers and a range of classy brews presented in 75cl champagne corked bottles. So why the name Utility Special 2010? Dominic Driscoll told me that Marble's original end of year 2010 special ended in failure when the Duvel yeast expired part way through the brew. So they quickly commenced brewing a replacement, presumably using a pre-existing recipe. This utility beer is now on sale in draught form and in bottles. Simple!