Fuller’s London Pride: A Variable, Veritable Classic

An oldie but goodie.

 

VERY interesting to see how much the recipe has changed over the years.

 

But it's still one of the best.

 

Absolutely. Just curious if people noticed a difference over that period of time.

 

Chocolate malt in Pride? Never would have thought.

Interesting about that dropping system @patto1ro What was the theory behind that start-to-finish process?

I've always been a big fan of the Fuller's beers -- probably no real reason, maybe the ESB, but they're a solid favorite. Need to look for some fresh Pride.

 

I'm very lucky that my "local" pub has it on as a staple tap and that they go through it rather quickly.

 

Do they ever get casks for tapping?

 

Although they have an awesome cask beer/real ale program, (best in the area, maybe even the state) I haven't seen it on the beer engine. At least in recent memory. Would love to see more traditional offerings in their rotation, but I guess you have to take what you can get, and local breweries are their best option.

 

I'm wondering if the availability of highly modified malt is what brought on the eventual elimination of the sugars from the recipe.

 

Yup, same here. Same bar that has the best imported Oktoberfest tap list in the area every fall.

I don't mind a recipe change here and there as long as they never brew a "New England Pride".

 

IOW- I assume the og and fg remained the same throughout most of the changes.

 

Those old enough to notice are also be old enough to suffer from memory loss.

 

The double drop system leaves the trub behind, and give the yeast a little more aeration. It is still used by some British breweries, the Brakspear beers use it.

Edit - at 0.25% of the grist, the chocolate malt would be for a color adjustment. The previous recipe had color added from the #3 invert sugar, so the chocolate malt was added to keep the color similar.

 

That gave me a chuckle.

 

1. Thanks again to Ron Pattinson for putting everything in an article that I'm interested in but too lazy to find out for myself.
2. LP isn't one of my favorite cask beers, but is indeed one I tell visitors to London to try (Landlord is the other one). I'd rather drink Fuller's London Porter or 1845 any day, but it is a classic.

 

No, they just wanted to make their beers all malt.

 

Dropping was another method of cleansing - removing excess yeast from fermenting beer.

 

Excellent article and a beer I buy fairly often!

 

Reading Ron's blog occasionally, I've been surprised that so many English pub beers, 19th and 20th centuries, have contained both sugars and maize. Corn is practically verboten in modern American craft beers, and except for some particular styles, boosting with sugar is uncommon too.