Tuesday 13 July 2010

Fuller's IPA - 1998


Way before blogging was possible, there was this thing called Usenet. It still exists. I used to contribute to it, including this rather lack lustre beer review. Look at the price of the bottle. You probably wouldn't pay much more now.

It was posted on May 27th 1998. I've been around I have:

Fullers IPA Bottled 500 ml - Bought Leeds UK £1.49 abv 4.8%
Best before 05/01/99


Golden brown / amber in colour with a thin loose head which rapidly falls away. Aroma is of flowery hops, possibly Fuggles, with crystal malt and caramel.

Beer starts with a deep bitter Goldings flourish. Body is quite light and malt is subdued throughout. Carbonation is just on the high side of medium through which the abiding impression is of hoppy bitterness. Finish is short and bitter leaving a pleasant hoppiness and some caramel.

Conclusion

Overall the beer is on the thin side and drank below it's strength. IMO the pasteurisation shows through too much. This beer would improve as a BCA. Nonetheless pleasant and drinkable but unremarkable.

The label claims "Fullers have faithfully recreated the traditional characteristics of this historical product"

God was I was crap at beer reviewing then! In this instance at least.

9 comments:

Leigh said...

er..my reviews read like that now!!

Ed said...

It was excellent on draught and I'm glad to see the new version has gone down well. Hopefully we'll see it more often!

Sat In A Pub said...

I remember the review the first time around!

the comfy gill said...

In the late nineties I used an ISP called "Breworld" It was a service portal for home brewers/ beer drinkers all beer topics were covered. Does this ring a bell with anyone?
As Leigh said:er..my reviews read like that now!!

ZakAvery said...

Did you used to drink more bottled beer back then?

Tandleman said...

I did, though as a relatively minor adjunct to my pub going.

I started reviewing British beers on what was a mainly American newsgroup, as the Yanks reviewed a lot of beers there and I, along with Mike McGuigan and one or two others I can't remember, were the token Brits. It's how I met my Yank chums, including Lew Bryson.

It was a very vigorous forum with a lot of flaming, but I learned a lot and it was fun. Especially making such good friends as I have. I first posted there in early 1998, but the group goes back four years or so earlier. These were good days.

Then of course came the Oxford Bottled Beer Database, where I used to be a major reviewer, though I haven't done anything there for years.

I suppose that's why I sometimes feel "been there, done that". As I said in my blog, I've been around. Might add some of this to my CV on my blog actually.

Sat In A Pub said...

"I suppose that's why I sometimes feel "been there, done that."

You mean you're old...

Erlangernick said...

Speaking of English IPA, one of the absolute standouts of the past week+ spent mostly in NW Wales was Marston's Old Empire at the Bridge Inn in Menai Bridge, Anglesey. I believe it's the best such beer I've ever had. Perfect conditioning helped, of course.

I had two halves simultaneously: with and without sparkling. Still not sure about this. There are advantages to both, I say.

Fantastic food too.

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