Conjuring up classic London ales

Fuller's and Meantime are recreating historic ale recipes to give a glimpse of London's glorious brewing past.

London's great brewing past is being recreated, restoring the capital to the pre-eminent role that was lost to Burton-on-Trent in the 19th century.

London's fame was built on such dark beers as porter, stout and mild ale and last year Sambrook's in Battersea, which is filling part of the large hole left by Young's, launched a fine interpretation of a London porter.

Now Fuller's of Chiswick, the capital's major brewer with a history dating back 350 years, and the fast-expanding Meantime in Greenwich, have delved into ancient recipe books to call back yesterday.

Fuller's head brewer John Keeling and brewing manager Derek Prentice showed me battered, leather-bound tomes containing recipes in copper-plate writing from the 19th century.

They are working with brewing historian Ron Pattinson to create a series of beers called Past Masters, based on Fuller's recipes from a century or more ago. Prentice brings great passion to the work as he started his brewing career with Truman's in east London, one of the great London mild and porter brewers, and he is keen to put the capital's brewing legacy under the spotlight.

The first Fuller's beer is XX Strong Ale, 7.5% ABV, which comes bottle-conditioned and is available online or from the brewery shop as well as Fuller's pubs.

The ale is based on beers from the Fuller's portfolio of 1893: Prentice produced a price list from that year that includes Strong Old Ale, XX Ale, India Pale Ale, XK Bitter Pale Ale, AK Light Bitter Ale, X Amber Mild Ale, Double Stout, Single Stout and Porter. The weakest beer was around 5.6% ABV, the strongest 8.2% ABV, indicating how much stronger beers were in those days.

Keeling and Prentice are keen, wherever possible, to use the ingredients available when the beers were first brewed. For XX Strong Ale they have used Plumage Archer malting barley, which has been grown organically on the Prince of Wales's estate in the West Country. Plumage Archer was once the main variety of malting barley used in England, but has long been replaced by modern "high yielding" varieties. Fortunately, seeds of Plumage Archer have been kept and it was possible to grow a batch of 20 tonnes.

The hops are Fuggles and Goldings, still widely used today and in the 19th century the main varieties used by most brewers. Beers in the 19th century used a high level of "invert" sugar, which was necessary to create the levels of alcohol demanded by drinkers. XX Strong Ale is brewed with both invert sugar and crystal malt alongside pale malt. The result is a beer with an amber colour and a typical Fuller's marmalade fruitiness from the house yeast, with notes of peppery hops and butterscotch.

Beers in the 19th century were vatted for long periods. In this case, Keeling and Prentice matured the beer for three months before it was bottled. Future beers in the range will include stout and Old Burton Extra. The Burton will be of especial interest as the original beer was replaced in the 1960s by Winter Ale that eventually became the multi-ward-winning Extra Special Bitter.

Meantime Brewery in Greenwich has delved even further back with Imperial Russian Stout, a style from the 18th century made famous by such London brewers as Barclays and Courage. Meantime has two breweries in south London and is recreating old beers in its specialist micro-plant in the Old Naval College at Greenwich.

Russian Stout has been created by master brewer Alastair Hook and Meantime's resident historian Peter Haydon. The style was developed, as the name suggests, for export to Russia and the Baltic States, where it was popular at the court of Catherine the Great. Thrale's brewery in Southwark and Courage nearby at Horsleydown were the main producers.

Thrale's, on the site of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, became Barclay Perkins and eventually merged with Courage. Both have long gone from London and their Russian Stouts disappeared, so all praise to Hook and Haydon for recreating the style.

They have had to use "educated guesswork" in brewing the beer. There is a lot of brown malt, while hop bitterness comes from a single variety, the Fuggle.

The beer is a literally stunning 13.4% ABV — these beers had to withstand an arduous sea journey to the Baltic — and were vatted or stored for two months prior to bottling. The Meantime version has 10 months in cask and Hook uses an old rum cask that gives a sweet and oaky note to the finished beer. It pours jet black, with little head, and drinks like Port wine or dark sherry with a gentle underpinning of spicy hops. Fruit — blackberries and redcurrants, to name but two — build in the mouth with a balancing dryness from dark malts and hops.

You can only try it if you join Meantime's College Beer Club (www.collegebeerclub.com). As famous writer Dr Samuel Johnson, a shareholder in Thrales's Brewery, might have said: "I most earnestly entreat you to do so."