This year Fuller’s in West London celebrated its 180th anniversary. And to mark this most special of occasions the brewery released a number of new beers, and John Keeling was on hand to help toast this momentous birthday.

It’s been a long time – well 180 years in fact.

I’m just writing this latest article whilst sipping a Fuller’s 180^th Anniversary Porter. It is remarkably easy drinking for a 7% ABV beer.

Guy Stewart the current head brewer and his team have done a very good job indeed producing this excellent beer.

Some of you reading this will know I spent some time with Fuller’s (well some 38 years in fact), and I would have been very proud of this beer if I had been in the team that had brewed this.

I was given this beer by the brewery at the dinner to celebrate Fuller’s 180^th Birthday. This was a great occasion held at the famous Victoria Pub in Paddington.

In attendance were people from the brewery and also from the pub company. too. Afterall this was a joint celebration. In addition, a number of highly regarded beer writers were there.

Not only did the beer flow freely the conversation roamed over many topics but as the evening wore on, we kept returning to only one…..beer.

Guy presented us with several beers to try, starting with the Anniversary Pale Ale. At 4.7% was easy for me to drink a couple. To produce this Guy has used the export version of London Pride and dry-hopped it with First Gold (smart use of an existing recipe).

He then encouraged us to try the cask Vintage 2025.  Through my career, I have brewed many Vintages, but I must admit Guy and his team have really taken the idea of Vintage and brewed some excellent versions.

The hops this year are Pioneer, Phoenix, Most and Target and they add a unique flavour to this version. The cask matures quicker than the bottle and this version was superb but with plenty of potential to mature further.

We then tried the new Anniversary Porter made with 100% Fuggles and Pale, Brown and chocolate malt plus some Extra Dark Crystal.

This beer is so drinkable with chocolate and burnt sugar flavour plus some dark fruity flavours. Finally, Guy had decided to revive the Imperial Stout recipe, and this beer was stunning with chocolate cherry flavours, and I did detect some Turkish delight there too. This must have come from the rose petals which was originally suggested by my friend Melissa Cole.

I should also mention that the food at the Victoria was superb, and the staff could even deal with a bunch of beer writers and an old brewer. Anybody who goes to Paddington needs to visit this pub.

I left six months before Asahi took over the reins at the brewery, but I do keep a close eye of my old brewery as you can imagine.

All I can say in talking with the existing production staff they have received massive investment in the plant and the beer continues to be first class. I certainly have drunk enough of it.

I think it is incredibly important to the British brewing scene that brewers like Fuller’s can exist and thrive. 180 years is a long time, and it does impact the way you brew when you are there and in turn this influences the world of beer too.

Without Fuller’s and their like British Brewing Tradition and its influence would have died. I think this was reflected in the beers we drank that night.

Cheers John.