Beers Of London Series 74. Fourpure Brewing Co. - Oatmeal Stout

Beers Of London Series
74. Fourpure Brewing Co - Oatmeal Stout 5.1%

When it comes to deciding on what to call your brewery it can be a tough decision. Do you want to call it after the area you're brewing in, something with an historical reference, maybe your name or nickname is included in it, or perhaps you want to be esoteric and maybe sneak in a clever pun?
So when home-brewing brothers Daniel and Thomas Lowe formed  Foupure Brewing Co. in 2013 they thought about four basic ingredients: malt, hops, water and yeast, and maintaining an attention to detail, a commitment to exceptional brewing and  a purity of purpose, then the name came rather naturally to them.

Coming from a family with a passion for travel and discovery, holidays were spent travelling both at home and abroad visiting local breweries and sampling the local beers and although they find it hard to pick out specific beers and breweries as influences, Sierra Nevada (for quality, innovation and passion) and New Belgium (for it's commitment to employees and the environment) in the US, and Fullers (family brewers and supporters of the industry) in the UK are cited when pushed.

Based in South Bermondsey, which has a growing reputation due to the famed Bermondsey Beer Mile which is becoming a 'must visit' Saturday destination for lovers of good beer, there are two additional members of the team, Josie and John, and have a capacity of about 30 hectolitres which is just over 18 UK Barrels, or around 5280 Imperial Pints. The range consists of six core beers with various special, one-off beers available at the brewery most Saturdays although their Imperial Wit will, one of the latter will be available to a few selected accounts very soon. You will also be able to find some of their beers in cans from early May, everything except the Stout and the seasonals, ready for what promises to be a bumper Summer of canned offerings for lovers of good beer.

Their Oatmeal Stout pours a very dark brown, bordering on black, with its beige head flaring briefly before settling down into a thin covering on top. The chocolate and coffee aroma is quite sweet with the merest hint of black pepper and burnt toast lurking under the surface, emerging more fully as it warms in the hand. The bitterness is first felt at the back of the throat before moving majestically forward, and the beer has a decent body with that hint of creaminess you would expect with this style. Dark chocolate, burnt toast and to a lesser extent coffee are the dominant and clearly flavours in what is indeed a very clean tasting stout, but the carbonation carries a little cola with it and a pinch of dry peppery spiciness that nestles nicely in the centre of the tongue. The finish is dry and a touch oily, echoing the chocolate and coffee notes that follow this beer along the whole of its length, and feels rather satisfying for a good while after the glass is empty.

I have read reviews of this beer that have described it as rather thin and tasting a little of cold coffee so I took the precaution of allowing it to warm for about an hour after I took it from the fridge and was justly rewarded. The care taken to produce it is certainly evident, and while it's not a bruising heavy-weight of a beer it would sit perfectly at the beginning of an evening where a barrel-aged Imperial behemoth was the final chapter.