Fullers London Porter (Bottle/Keg)

Brewed by Fullers
Style: Porter
London, England

Wonderful elements. The head was enchanting, like a thick ice cream float, and the feel in the mouth an excellent combination of richness and subtle carbonation. Long finish. The taste is the usual suspects: coffee, chocolate, roasted nuts. The aroma is a bit understated. In the end, I think I prefer Fullers 1845. //Re-rate, June 2004. My wife bought a bottle to use in making an onion gravy, since she recalled that the recipe called for some kind of alcohol (it actually called for a sweet wine!). But the gravy turned out great (with sausage and over wide noodles), and there was over half a bottle left for me to enjoy, and it was much more than I had originally remembered.

I thought this was overall a very good porter. A little flat and dry, with slightly choclately undertones, did not leave a bad aftertaste.

Bottle; nose of coffee and chocolaye; clear brown with a small beige head;flavor of roastiness, coffee, chocolate, and nuts. Enjoyable Porter!

Heavy aroma of coffee, but not much of a head. Very smooth with a wonderful dark roasted coffee flavor. Like french roast as a beer.

The aroma is chocolate and coffee along with deeply roasted malt and hops. The appearance is a dark reddish brown with a nice head. The flavor is also full of deeply roasted malt and coffee. The bitterness in the aftertaste is just right. Smooth palate. Its pretty good.

(Keg at White Horse, Parson’s Green, London, 26 April 2008) Dark brown colour, almost black, with frothy pale brown head. Roasted, malty nose with notes of chocolate. Roasted, malty taste with chocolate, coffee and a nice coffee bitterness in the finish. A classic example of the style. Slightly less complex and fruity than the cask conditioned version, but in great balance. Very nice beer.

50 cl bottle. No yeast at the bottom. Dark allmost black colour with a great large head. Great aroma of smooth coffee, chocolate and hints of roastedness. Wonderfull smooth flavour of roasted malt, coffee and hints of chocolate and liquorice. Ends smooth bitter with a very long aftertaste. This one is a really great traditional porter.

10-Apr-06 (18.6 oz bottle: $2.89 at Holiday Wine Cellar in Escondido, CA) Best before 03-Apr-05. Having just sampled an aged Arcadia London Porter, I just had to put it up against a similarly-aged Fuller’s London Porter, even if it isn’t bottle conditioned. It’s still sweet and wonderfully malty, but I noted a significant amount of chocolate when I tried this previously, and while still quite chocolaty, this is more raisiny and more earthy here, a plus in my book. Roast isn’t dominating and bitterness is fairly mild actually, so this just really allows other flavors to shine. I really love that the smokiness emerges in the finish rather than just staying consistent right from the sip; adds complexity and more intrigue to the flavor this way. Sweet, fruity, malty, chocolaty, smoky aroma is excellent. Medium-full bodied and gently carbonated for an incredibly smooth and luxurious mouthfeel. Medium ruddy-brown with some transparency through the center of the glass. A full inch of creamy, light-tan head shows solid retention, taking several minutes to settle to a filmy layer. Considerable patchy and ringed lacing decorates the glass. This has to be one of the best porters available in the USA, and pasteurized or not, it’s permanently in my top ten for the style.

06-Oct-04 (18.6 oz bottle) Very hearty and robust porter that boasts a strong chocolate flavor, lightly sweet, moderately roasted with a fair amount of bitterness and some smokiness in the finish. Big, chocolate nose makes for a grand introduction for this beer. Full bodied, with a creamy and smooth palate. Dark ruddy brown in color. Light tan head has good size after the pour and demonstrates excellent head retention with some modest lacing. (8, 4, 8, 5, 16 = 4.1)