Thursday 11 July 2013

Beers Of London Series: 44. Tap East / Fullers - Higgs Boson 2.5%


Beers Of London Series
44. Tap East and Fullers - Higgs Boson 2.5%

I've not visited either Tap East or Fullers beers for a while in this series, they were numbers 17 and 1 respectively, so to be able to sample both in one glass (ok it's a collaboration brew, but you know what I mean).
Between 28th and 30th June Tap East held an 'Open Brewhouse Beer Festival'. This weekend was the culmination of various brewers having visited the brewery in the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, East London, to brew beer in using their equipment in collaboration with head brewer James Wilson. Members of the Tap East team had also been visiting other London breweries on their brew days and bringing them back for the festival. Brewery tours were conducted every two hours on the Saturday by James himself, as well as a Question and Answer session with some of those who had helped in brewing the beers.
Now, I'm sure you're assuming that I was able to attend this showcase of brewing, but sadly this was not to be. Work and other commitments meant I was unable to do so, however I was lucky enough to pay a visit to Tap East not long afterwards and fortunately for me they still had a couple left. One was a deliciously cloudy and tart collaboration with Howling Hops titled 'A Beer Called Framboise', and this fruity lower alcohol number brewed in conjunction with Fullers.
It pours an inviting pale lemony yellow with a thin white head and a faint aroma of lemon and lime which revels in its citrus subtlety. It slips beautifully over the tongue with a light malted milk biscuit quality before washing all this away with grapefruit, white pepper, bitter lemon and mandarin orange flavours. They're all quite subdued as you might expect for a beer of this abv but they all merge together beautifully to make a flavoursome beer that you could drink a couple of pints of without any real effect, and I'd rather this than an over-hopped bitter mess to be honest as the underlying biscuit malts give it a nicely balanced base. The finish has a fine trickle of lime and grapefruit coming through leaving you very satisfied and ready for another. This is a very accomplished 'light beer' than certainly isn't light on flavour. Having tasted the two beers that I did, I rather regret not being able to attend the festival. If you were able to do so and tasted some of the beers then why not leave your experience in the 'Comments' box below? I know that if they do it again I'll be booking the weekend out.

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