So it was my 35th bday last night and my last name is Fuller so when I saw this at the BevMo I thought ‘That’s appropriate, a vintage Fuller’s for a vintage Fuller’.
It was very nice. All the dark fruit/caramely flavors you would expect from 3 year old strong ale but also this amazing sweet apple cider note in the nose and to a lesser extent in the flavor. It wasn’t the tart green apple flavor I associate with off flavors but a rich flavor like apples that are just about to go bad. Paired it with first course (Three bean parfait with plantain chips and crustini) and desert (Carrot cake with cream sheese frosting) and it went really well with both.
They were both delicioius. Main course was mushroom ‘Barlotto’ (Rissotto with barley in stead of rice) and Kuri squash ragou paired with Rare Vos. one of the best things about sharing my love of cooking with friends is that sometimes they share theirs back. A good buddy of mine did all the cooking and all I had to do was eat and drink! a happy birthday indeed!
Based on the 2008 I would say you could open it anytime. course you could also save it. Kind of philisophical choice. pleasure defered or immediate gratification? (immediate here being a bit of a misnomer)
I had a 2005 a few years ago and it was really good. I know they change the recipe for this every year so there was none of the apple flavor you got. Lots of complex malt and a surprising amount of hop character.
Uncapped my vintage 2004 last night. 7 years old and indescribably good. I can’t remember what it was like when it was fresh, but I have to say, this is a fantastic beer. Makes me want to brew an old ale and let it age. I would say this beer ages a lot more gracefully than, say, SN Bigfoot, which ages well but not with the richness of character (yeast and malt have to have a lot to do with this…versus hops, which is the Bigfoot specialty) that this one seems to develop.
Someday I’ll get round to my 2003 Thomas Hardy and Samichlaus, still stored down there, but not yet!
Fuller’s Vintage is one of those beers I feel gets completely overlooked in the mad dash to collect all the Celebrations, Bigfoots, Dark Lords, etc.
It is truly a shoe box beer.
And by that I mean, it feels like one of those beers where the recipe is stowed away in a closet in a shoebox for protection, but not only is it protecting the recipe from leaking out, it’s protecting the world from the recipe.