Mixing Fuller’s porter

I like most of the beers produced by Fuller Smith & Turner, my nearest big brewer, but I’ve never got on with their London Porter. I know, from recent comments on Stonch’s blog that it has some big fans, but I’m not one. Too sweet, too often: not just too sweet for the style (though I’d believe someone who told me it’s from an authentic recipe: there are hints porter became quite a sweet beer in the 20th century) but too sweet per se.

Some sweet beers can work very well: Cain’s, for example, produced a Bonfire Night beer a few years ago that was hugely caramelly and quite delicious. But sweetness in beer needs careful balancing, and to me Fuller’s porter, certainly when new, doesn’t have the balance. And I don’t like that much chocolate front and centre, either.

Give it a little time in cask and it gets better: I went into the Fuller’s pub close to the Tower of London, the Hung Drawn and Quartered, early in November, when the London Porter arrived, and confirmed to myself, as I sat surrounded by homeward-bound bankers, that it was just as sweet as I remembered it. However, on a return visit last week the sweetness had died down and a pleasing hint of tartness was coming through. All the same, it still fell far short of knocking me out.

My visit was actually to see what the London Porter tasted like as a mixed drink. Despite what you will read elsewhere, porter itself was not born as a mixed beer. However, way back in the 1830s it was common to mix ale (pale, strong and “mild”, that is, unaged and quite sweet) with porter as a “half and half”. I wondered what a “half and half” of porter with other Fuller’s beers might be like.

The trick, as I’ve said before, is to order three halves of different beers, in this case London Porter, Discovery and ESB. Drink half of one of the beers to be mixed into, and top that glass up with the mixer beer. Then top the mixer beer glass up with the third beer. You now have two different glasses of mixed beer to contrast and compare.

The ESB and porter wasn’t as immediately excellent as the ESB on its own, but the fruit of the ESB was still in the front, backed now by the roasty character from the porter, any remaining sweetness masked by the bitter substratum of the ale. A long and complex finish said this was a mixture worth trying again.

Discovery and porter, however, was a disaster I couldn’t finish: more like lemon-flavoured Coke than beer. Discovery itself is a fine brew, nicely balanced, but this confirmed my prejudice against putting citrus-flavoured American hops into dark beers: don’t do it.

0 thoughts on “Mixing Fuller’s porter

  1. Interesting experiment. I think my conclusions would be the same with the same materials.

    I once had some Guinness FES that had been in bottle for some 3 years and showed considerable tartness and some acid. I blended this with some porter that was similar to Fuller’s, and got a very good result.

    I was trying to come up with something that resembled an 1800’s porter as sent out by some breweries which blended mild and vatted porter.

    Great blog, thanks for the chance to add these comments.

    Gary

  2. I have tried it by blending Rodenbach with Greene King Strong Suffolk. Interesting mix.

    I have never had the pleasure of sampling Fullers Porter ‘real’ however from the bottle and keg I think its an outstanding drop. It in fact inspired me recently to start adding some brown malt into my porter recipe and its worked wonders.

  3. Interesting stuff. As a huge fan of London Porter, I probably wouldn’t try it myself. I’m just fascinated by how the taste changes noticeably as it has more time in the barrel.

    Our local Fuller’s pub had some porter left well into the new year, which tasted absolutely amazing.

  4. […] Mixing Fuller’s Porter – I came across this a while back and hadn’t shared it.  A lot of times I have bellied up to the bar and ordered a black and tan.  I have also ordered a half & half, snakebite, blarney stone and even a trailer park f**ks**t (Miller High Life and Guinness).  I had never really considered mixing other beers to create good taste until I saw that Leinenkugels actually has recipes for doing this with some of their offerings.  Then I saw this article…great stuff and well worth considering. […]

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