Fuller's London Porter and Mort Subite Framboise

[metawidget]

Fuller's London Porter is a dark beer in a bottle whose label suggests it as a digestif, so I had it after supper, in a pint glass, cool, with some leftover baby shower cake. It is, as advertised, rich and dark. It has only a little bit of head, and not much carbonation. It comes on smooth with coffee and toffee tastes, and gets bitter after a few sips. There's a bit of a sweet aroma, but the taste is not too sweet and the beer is velvety and pleasantly heavy. Later in the glass, there is a bit of unroasted-grain taste — despite being dessert, it is still a beer. It is very much like St. Ambroise Noire (which I also like a lot), but smoother, a little less opaque, and with a bit of a time delay on the bitter taste.

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I figured Mort Subite Framboise, a Belgian lambic with raspberry juice blended in, would sit somewhere close to wine (and probably sweet, fruity wine like the inexpensive Shiraz of my late university days) in taste, and despite my old roommate's quizzical "wine and pizza, c'est quoi ça?" remarks of old, I thought I'd pair it with steamed greens and tomato pizza (made with no name cheese pizza topped with yesterdays leftovers and a sliced tomato). The beer comes in a bottle with a cork wired down, and it opened with a satisfying pop. The pizza sort of disintegrated — the instructions say to cook it directly on the rack, but the extra moisture in the bonus toppings caused it to seep partway through the rack. Spooning pizza onto my plate, I tried the pink, slightly cloudy, bubbly beer with a moderate, creamy head. It is sweet, like good raspberry cocktail or sangria, with a little tartness — not at all like beer, with no discernible hops or grain. This is a tasty drink, but I find it hard to call it beer.

Comments

[popelaksmi]

I love, love, Mort Subite. But yeah, I have a hard time calling it a beer as well. :D

[phrawzty.livejournal.com]

Lambics are sort of hard to call beers in general, at least, in the way that we think of beers today. That said, historically speaking, lambics are in fact the oldest type of beer, though as with all things, they have evolved over time.

[metawidget]

I love the idea of wild yeast beers, but I think I've had beerier ones than Mort Subite :)

[tygrbabe.livejournal.com]

mmm i haven't had Mort Subite in ages, did you know that in Belgium, they're equivalent to drinking those cheap coolers here? or so Pete was told when asking about them there :)

[metawidget]

I can sort of believe it — and am amused that the Belgian equivalent coolers have nine times the alcohol that our barely spiked wine coolers have over here :)

[xipetotec.livejournal.com]

Fullers products in general are really great examples of british ales. I love them all