Fullers 1845

Brewed by Fullers
Style: English Strong Ale
London, England

Very nice appearance, red w/ a murky brown middle, tan head. Caramel is in full effect in the nose. Not thick, but bubbly. Has some raisins maybe at the beginning. A nice consistent graininess flavor throughout. Really a nice ale.

Beautiful ruby-amber colour with a thick & lacey off-white head. Aroma is sweet, treacly, malty & warm. Soft, luscious mouthfeel. Flavour is big and malty to start, leading into dried fruit and spice notes, and a well bittered finish. Fantastic stuff - if it’s this good out of the bottle, I can only imagine how amazing the cask version must be!

500ml Bottle pours brown with a short creamy offwhite head. Aromas of caramle, roasted malts, and a bit of raisins. Flavor is nice caramel sweetness, raisins, roasted malts, a little bit of nutty, and earthy flavor as well. Palate is medium bodied and creamy smooth. Somewhat dry on the finish with a small amount of hops. Easy to drink and pretty tasty.

Powerful full complex malty woody taste. Aftertaste keeps going for a long time. The bottle that I had on 12/17/01 had a best before date of 5/12/02.

Yummmmmm... sweet, slick, and smooth down the throat. This is a treat for any lover of good English beer.

Best By Date July 2009; Sampled February 2008
Pours with a frothy, three finger thick, light tan colored head that leaves a light, layered lace pattern as it slowly recedes. The beer is a dark amber color, but shows a brilliantly clear, ruby-amber color when held up to the light. Slightly earthy hop notes, ample marmalade aromatics, with a deep, rich, yet secondary to the hop, malt character. The hop notes get a touch metallic towards the end, but if you dig around a bit a substantial malt character kicks in that contributes aromas of fresh baked soda crackers, hearty bread notes and toasty grain aromatics. Running throughout is a sweet, caramelized malt backbone that provides aroma of toffee and some berry notes. The last being accented by the hop notes as well. This has a really nice mix of malt and hop character, while it is initially hop dominated, the malt character is substantial and at times even overtakes the hop character in its depth.

Sweet and then frothy, the beer is a bit too carbonated, but this is a much better thing than being under carbonated as a quick swirl releases the excess. Equal matched notes of mixed berries and marmalade provide a fruity start and middle to this beer that is offset by sharp, lightly herbal hop notes, a touch of sweet spice and a mild, though contributing, balance-necessary, bitterness. The finish has both this hop character as well as a dry, toasty grain note and a fresh baked, yet well fermented bread flavor. Wow, as this warms up a bit, it starts to pick up some significantly darkened grain notes, certainly not roasted, but it is significantly toasted in its flavor. The amber malt, really distinctly adds to the finish of this beer; it dries the finish out and provides an amped up, well browned, bread crust flavor to this brew.

This has a really nice hop character to it; this seems to be an evolution of the Fuller’s ESB. I like that the hop character is a mix of marmalade and fruit notes coupled with a nice green, herbal note, all the while accented by sweet grain and ultimately offset by hop bitterness and interesting, substantial toasted malt notes in the finish. While not as strong as I was thinking it would be, this is certainly quite drinkable, which more than makes up for that.

Purchased: <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp? Liquors, Tucson AZ

Bottle conditioned. Rich decadent aroma. Prunes and dates soaked in rum and port, biscuits, toasted almonds and nail polish. Sweet body with some alcohol but not much bitterness. Slightly rough carbonation. Complex strong ale with perhaps a bit too much going on. (8 4 7 3 17) Re-rate. BCA. Fairly even balance of flavours. Some marmalade. (6 4 6 3 13) (Average of two ratings)

Copper to Ruby Coloring? Spice, fruit. Malt and Hops. Fullers is not my favorite by personal taste, but they make an excellent effort here...worth keeping some around to age.