| |
Double Stout is the second in Fuller�s recreations of beers from the past. Top brewers John Keeling and Derek Prentice found a recipe dated 4 August 1893 in Fuller�s brewing books and have
recreated a Victorian beer with loving care, at a time when the term stout meant strong.
Keeling and Prentice worked with the leading maltsters, Simpsons, to grow Plumage Archer barley, first grown in 1903. It was malted in drum maltings, as opposed to floor maltings, but drums were available in 1893. As the batch of malt was specifically malted for Double Stout, Simpsons was asked to use a special kilning or roasting programme to produce a premium malt with a darker colour similar to the Porter malts commercially available to Victorian brewers. Specialist sugars from Ragus Sugars were also available to brewers in 1893.
The malt grist is: Plumage Archer dark ale malt, brown malt and chocolate malt. The sugars are No 3 invert and black treacle syrup. The hops are Fuggles and Goldings at the start of the copper boil, with Goldings as a late copper hop and also for dry hopping in cask. Double Stout has an original gravity of 1075.
Derek Prentice says: "We followed a similar mashing and sparging routine as used in 1893. Fuller's had the previous year installed mashers rather than using the mashing rakes installed
in their mash tuns. We fermented using the Fuller's yeast strain, trying to match as close as we could the fermentation profile of the original brew."
The beer is intended for keeping and was dry hopped in the conditioning vessel. It had 10 weeks of storage prior to processing for a bottle-conditioned beer.
The final beer is dark - more than 200 units of colour.
Fullers, Past Masters Double Stout (England) 
The beer is black/brown in colour with a ruby edge and a fine collar of barley white foam. The rich and complex aroma offers pungent cappuccino coffee, chocolate, creamy �milk drops� maltiness and peppery hops. Bitter hops break through in the mouth but are balanced by creamy malt, burnt fruit and bitter chocolate, with the chocolate coating the tongue. The finish is full, long and lingering with powerful notes of spicy hops, dark fruit, chocolate, coffee and creamy malt. It�s a superb beer and a powerful reminder of how different London stouts were in the late 19th century to the �dry Irish� style.
Malt: high. Fruit: high. Hops: high
7.4% ABV, 50cl, �4.00, brewery website.  |  |
go to beer of the moment archives
|
|
