Czar's P2 Stout, Heritage Brewing Co

Czar’s P2 Stout 8%

Burton-on-Trent is renowned as the home of the pale ales and IPAs fashioned in the 19^th century – beers that transformed brewing on a world scale and influenced the early producers of golden lager.

But the Burton brewers also made dark beers and Bass, the leading brewer in the town, had a range of stouts labelled P1 to P5 – the letter P standing for Porter.

It was famous for its P2, an export stout that made the long and arduous voyages to Russia and the Baltic States. The beer became popular at the court of the Czar in St Petersburg.

Bass left brewing in 2000 but many of its historic beer styles were recreated by the Heritage Brewery based in the Burton Brewery Centre. When Molson Coors, who inherited the old Bass breweries and concentrated on Carling lager, closed the centre in 2022, Heritage joined forces with the Burton Bridge Brewery based behind the Burton Bridge Inn.

Emma Cole is the brewery manager with Al Wall as head brewer. Al is Burton born and bred and passionately continues the Bass heritage.

His version of P2 Stout is not branded Bass as he has tweaked the recipe. It’s brewed with Golden Promise pale malt, a barley much prized by Scottish whisky distillers. It’s joined by Black and Vienna malts and is hopped with Fuggles and Progress English varieties.

The bottle-conditioned black beer has a thick creamy head of foam with a massive aroma of roasted grain, dark burnt fruits, peeled nuts, spicy hops and bitter chocolate. Roasted and dark malts dominate the palate with espresso coffee, chocolate, caramel and spicy hops. The finish bittersweet with continuing notes of roast, coffee and hops.

P2 is available at £4.50 a bottle or £54.00 for 12 from Burton Bridge Brewery Ltd and Heritage Brewing Company.