Fuller Summer Flavour! (Fullers Summer Ale)

Member Name: tange

Product:	Fullers Summer Ale
Date:	08/06/02 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Summer is here!, Lovely flavour

Disadvantages: Might not get the summer weather!

It's now the “summer ale” time of year once again. This got me remembering the lovely brew we tried last year while visiting my brother in London. Now I’ve returned from holiday feeling relaxed, tanned and happy, I can think about summer again. Consequently I can think about those lovely summer ales once again. One such brew is Fuller’s summer Ale!

Fullers are London’s oldest brewery; it’s stood on the same site for over 350 years. The company we know today was set up in 1845 and, surprisingly enough, the founding families are still involved in the present process. Fullers try to maintain traditional methods and have been really successful in producing some great beers (there aren’t many breweries that have won CAMRA Beer of the Year on 5 occasions).

Their seasonal beers include Red Fox (4.3% ABV), Honeydew (4.3% ABV) and the rather interesting Jack Frost (4.5% ABV); a winter beer made with blackberries! The regular beers you may have heard of include London Pride (4.1% ABV) and ESB (5.5% ABV).Fullers have 217 pubs; they supply their beer to them along with nearly 1,000 other outlets – plenty of opportunities to find them then! They make beer both on draught and in bottled form too; so check them out down at the supermarket too.

Fuller’s Summer Ale weighs in at 3.9% ABV and is a typical summer ale. It’s only available from April to September …so snap it up while you can. You can either get it on draught or in standard 500ml bottles. (You will recognise it by the summery looking yellow/orange label with the name and a picture of a sundial.)

Looks wise it is a lovely golden colour. It is pale and crisp and has exactly the look I would expect from a summer beer. It has a frothy head, not unlike the top you would find on a lager. The smell is quite hoppy and I could detect a faint hint of vanilla. It’s the perfect choice for a refreshing drink during a hot
summer’s day or evening; whether you choose to drink it in the pub, or in a bottle on your patio is entirely up to you. It’s not too strong either, so is a nice option for a session ale too!

Taste wise it isn’t overly complex, but it does have a lot more flavour than some of the summer beers on the market. It may resemble a lager in colour, but the malted wheat and Czechoslovakian Saaz hops, give it a nice flavour. It is quite dry with a hoppy flavour which is well balanced by the maltiness. The aftertaste is slightly bitter, but it is very refreshing, especially if served nice and cold. It is pretty light, as you would expect from a summer drink, and has a crisp, clean finish with a slight element of fruit. I find it to be a pleasant, unchallenging and generally smooth drink.

It’s not quite in the same league as Hop Back Summer Lightening, but not much is! It’s a creditable and excellent quality brew all the same. I would recommend it to a cross section of beer drinkers…in fact anyone who enjoys a refreshing drink (alcoholic of course…it’s not for the non-drinkers). It also stands up well to the bottling process, and loses very little of its appeal when enjoyed poured out nicely chilled into a glass.

Price wise it costs around £1.60 for a bottle from a variety of supermarkets and off licenses. I have to admit I really can’t remember how much it cost us for a pint last year. No, I hadn’t drunk THAT much and didn’t know what I was paying! .... It was one of those rare occasions when my brother bought the beer. It doesn’t happen very often, so it was a combination of shock and being too polite to ask how much he paid for the drinks. Judging by what we paid for our pint of London Pride on a previous occasion, I would put it around the £1.60 to £2.00 a pint mark…but I prepare to stand corrected.

I would advise you to look out for it next time you are do
wn the supermarket or at your local hostelry. I am travelling down to London a couple of times this summer and will certainly be seeking out a couple of pints…only to find out the price for research purposes of course! What do you mean you don’t believe me?!? Go on, give it a try…now that summer is hopefully here, it will be nice to taste fuller’s Summer Ale once again. Why don’t you join me?

~~~Brewery Details:

FULLER, SMITH & TURNER P.L.C., Griffin Brewery, Chiswick Lane South, Chiswick, London W4 2QB.

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8996 2000 Fax: +44 (0) 20 8995 0230

http://www.fullers.co.uk/frames.phtml

Summary: