Fuller's Brewer's Reserve

The niche market of oak-aged beers has received a major boost with the launch of Fuller's Brewer's Reserve. The size and reach of the Chiswick-based family brewer will give the new sector greater recognition and appreciation by beer connoisseurs.

Brewer's Reserve is the result of more than four years' work by Fuller's head brewer John Keeling (shown right, in front of the ex-whisky casks), following a joint tasting session with colleagues in the whisky industry. The result is a 7.7% beer that has been matured for more than 500 days in casks previously used to store 30 year-old Scottish single malt whisky.

John Keeling said: "Innis & Gunn have made a big splash with their oak-aged beer and I was also doing some work on Fuller's Vintage Ale to see how they aged over several years. I visited Scotland and found that whisky distillers there were throwing away whisky casks when they'd finished maturing malt for 30 years. I thought that whisky and a barley wine-type beer would work well together."

As a result, John obtained whisky casks that had originally held sherry, port or American bourbon whiskey. He filled the three types of cask and left the beer for three to four months. He found that the beer aged in sherry and port casks had gone sour but the beer in bourbon casks was developing well.

He consulted Revenue & Customs, which levies duty on beer. He was told there should be no duty problems with a beer aged in whisky casks as long as any increase in strength was not more than one to two per cent and was the result of secondary fermentation, not from residual spirit left in the casks. Encouraged by this information, John Keeling bought 35 whisky casks from Scotland but then received a bombshell from the excise officers at Revenue & Customs, who told him they had discovered a law from 1835 outlawing "grogging". This refers to a practice of allowing a residue of spirit left in a cask to increase the strength of beer placed in the cask. The excise officers said that if the beer brewed by Fuller's increased by just 0.1% the brewery would have to pay spirit duty on the beer. This posed a real problem as 8.5% Golden Pride aged in the whisky casks had increased to 12%.

John said Fuller's were prepared to buy a spirit licence and was told by the excise that a company could only have a spirit licence if it owned a still. "How much is a still?" John asked. "Sorry," the excise officers replied, "it's illegal for a brewery to own a spirit still!"

It seemed the project was dead in the water but John Keeling and his colleagues worked out a new strategy. They devised a recipe for the beer that involved their 1845, ESB Export and Golden Pride being blended in cask with an alcohol level of 10%. They then proposed to reduce it to 7.7% with the addition of fresh ESB. John ran this proposal past the excise officers who said they were satisfied and at last Fuller's were able to go ahead with the new beer.

Brewer's Reserve, which will retail at 4.99 for a 500ml bottle in an attractive box, is a deep bronze colour with a rich orange fruit aroma - typical of Fuller's stronger beers - with pronounced whisky notes as the beer warms in the glass. Bitter hops burst through in the mouth with tart fruit and whisky. The finish is long and complex, bittersweet to start but becoming dry, warming, with fruit, hops and whisky characteristics.

Fuller's Managing Director John Roberts said the brewery's strong bottle-conditioned ales - Vintage Ale and Gale's Prize Old Ale - were selling well in both domestic and export markets. Brewer's Reserve, which is also bottle conditioned, would go on sale in Denmark, Sweden and the United States as well as Britain. He added that he wanted to develop a "fine beer sector" for the beer market along the lines of the fine wine sector.

The first beer is called Brewer's Reserve No 1 as there will be further batches brewed. Fuller's may look at other containers as well as whisky casks to age the beer.

The beer will be available in Fuller's pubs, selected retailers and to members of Fuller's Fine Ale Club, which numbers 1,500 connoisseurs. See