Fullers 1845

Brewed by Fullers
Style: English Strong Ale
London, England

The best thing about this beer is the finish; dry hoppiness and a slight, malty sweetness. Great appearance and smooth going down the old gullet. Good stuff.

(Bottle, Spaniard’s Inn, Hampstead, London, 6 Aug 2007) Clear reddish brown colour with firm creamy brownish yellow head. Malty, fruity nose with dried fruit, chocolate, generous amounts of earthy hops and notes of fruitcake. Malty taste with dark fruit, raisins and earthy hops in a long bitter finish. Balanced sweetness, medium to full body. Nice balance between malt and hops. Great beer.

(500 ml bottle: $3.99 at BevMo in La Jolla, CA) I’ve let this age in my darkened, cool bedroom for many months, long enough that I’ve exceeded the supposed Best By date of 06-Jan-06 by four months. No matter, this flavorful English ale is delicious. Malty, roasty, chocolaty, and lightly smoky, but balanced by a moderate hop bitterness that makes its presence known in the crisp finish and then remains on the palate for the rest of the session. For an English beer that’s seen this much aging, I’m pretty impressed by how much bite the hops has retained. While the malty and chocolaty nose is reasonably aromatic, it really doesn’t compare to the flavor, not even in enjoyment. Medium-full bodied with a nice, round mouthfeel and playful carbonation. Dark amber in color and fairly cloudy, but there is still a good amount of muddy sediment remaining in the bottle. The tall, beige head shows exceptional retention, never dipping below a quarter inch, and it deposits a thick, dense blanket of foamy lace on the glass. There used to be a time when I didn’t care for this beer (okay, it was relatively soon after I started drinking "good" beer), so I haven’t bought any since then. I’ve really been missing out because this is an excellent beer. Glad to have rediscovered it.

I was impressed with this ale. Nice brown/orange color with an off-white creamy head. Immense malt character with chocolate flavor and a peppery element. Has notes of bitter fruits. The strong hop finish balances the extreme malt charcter. Very enjoyable ale.

Delicious, british hops aroma. Very floral and well rounded. Flavor started off bitter but finished with very nice, mild malt balance. Very enjoyable.

Deep garnet in color, the head is creamy and beige, the lace covers the glass well. Nose is malt, caramel, slightly sweet. Start is malt sweet, the middle is medium to full, the finish is ’Hop heaven’, dry, acidic and moderate carbonation tops off this ’Most Excellent’ strong English Ale.

Stellar, almost perfect. The only thing that I've liked better was Thames Welsh ESB, which is chewier. Slightly smokey, raisin and prune, Maris Otter malt aroma which gives way to some toffee and vanilla as it warms. Ruddy brown beer, great bottle, seafoam-consistancy tan head. Finely bittered -- this is the way to do hops, so that it compliments the beer without tasting like hop tea. Satin mouthfeel. Raisin, cream, bock/barleywine and ale flavors which leave toffee sweetness on your lips.

Bottle: Deep amber, coppery tone, moderate off-white frothy head, fairly nice lacing, slight carbonation.   Musty malt aroma, slight cereal or biscuit.   Quite biscuity, malty, with a slight astringent or medicinal tinge.   Moderate body and mouthfeel.   Needs to be bigger, thicker.   This one was dated Best before Jan 6 of 2006.   Malty finish, slight hop emergence, again biscuity, but overall it seems fairly light for an English Strong Ale.   This one seemed to be lacking in all the fruit cake or spices.   Decent, but not what I was expecting.   May revisit again.