Origin: England
Type: English pale ale
Color: Copper
Alcohol content: 4.7%
Recommended serving temperature: 10ºC/50ºF
Brewery: Fuller Smith & Turner
I have decided
to dedicate today’s post to one of my go-to beers when I am in England, the
very tasty Fuller’s London Pride.
My
relationship with this beer actually started largely coincidentally.
I had traveled
to London on business with my boss and another member of my company for a
series of meetings. However, when it came time to leave, an abrupt snow-storm
started. This caused most of the flights coming out of Heathrow to be delayed
or cancelled, the former in my case. Lucky for me, I was stuck in the business
lounge. I decided right there and then that my work-day was over and it was now
beer o’clock. As my boss went for a coke, I opened the neighboring beer fridge,
filled with Grolsch, Heineken and Fuller’s, chose by elimination, and as I soon
discovered, with a stroke of fool’s luck.
This English
pale ale is tan reddish in color and develops a big head of soapy cream colored
foam when you pour it, which disappears in a few minutes leaving a thin layer
which keeps until you finish it off.
Its smell is a
mix of several things. The thing that hits you first is the sweetness of the
malts and the bitterness of the hops. You can get toffee or caramel smells
coming from the malts and a bit of citric fruits from the hops. Both these
smells are pretty intense, especially at the beginning, and are quite nicely
intertwined.
After a little
bit however they tend to die down and give way to some strong floral odors
which begin to dominate the smell of this beer.
This holds
true as well for the taste where, despite not being totally absent, the
bitterness does not really make you think of citric fruit and the sweetness of
the malt but especially the floral hops remain at the forefront.
Quite frankly,
from the smell I expected this beer to be much more bitter. However, upon
taking my first swig I actually saw that the malts softened up the
bitterness and the beer was almost more sweet than bitter.
This combined
with a distinctly floral flavor and a smooth finish made this beer very easy to drink. Horribly so
as, despite having declared myself done for the day, I was still in front of my
boss and could not therefore go straight for the second one once the first one
finished, as I would have done otherwise.
I do have to
mention in any case a faint metallic taste at the end, which until this day I
have not yet been able to determine if it is due to the can or is in the beer
itself, given that I have not yet had it from a bottle or draft. Nevertheless,
as I have mentioned, the taste is quite faint and does not manage to ruin the
experience.
All in all
this is a very good surprise in terms of the beers that you can find in
virtually any supermarket. A floral and sweet English pale ale with just a
slight amount of bitterness, which will probably be found enjoyable by anyone.
Drink it with any kind of roasted meat and you are surely in for a nice treat.
I can see why it would be London’s Pride.
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