Fuller's still fizzing with passion - says Roger Protz

A few years ago I was waiting fairly patiently for a pint in one of my favourite pubs, the Square & Compass in Worth Matravers, Dorset. There's...

A few years ago I was waiting fairly patiently for a pint in one of my favourite pubs, the Square & Compass in Worth Matravers, Dorset.

There's no bar - beer is served straight from the cask and my only challenge was choosing between the delights of Badger and Ringwood.

But we thirsty customers were held up by a ponytailed buffoon who deliberated over every decision: varieties of soft drinks for the kids, types of wine for his wife and a final crucial choice of beer for himself. Eventually, we had a result: lager and blackcurrant.

I had an intense desire to grab him by his ponytail and tell him: "This is a great, historic alehouse, which you insult to its very fabric by ordering such a noxious concoction. Begone ...and never darken its doorstep again!"

Fortunately, I bit my tongue by convincing myself about the value of choice. If people want to drink lager and black or American Riceweiser, so be it, as long as I'm permitted to stick to cask beer or Czech and German lager.

But it is tragic that so many miss out on the joys of truly great beer. Mr Ponytail was clearly a well-educated cove who probably reads an intelligent newspaper. But in a pub, his brain turns to jelly and he orders rubbish.

If only he could have come along last week to one of the most fascinating beer events I have ever attended. He would have enjoyed esteemed company, for just about every professional beer writer in the country could be found in Fuller's Brewery Hock Cellar in west London to celebrate 10 years of the brewery's Vintage Ale. As its name indicates, Vintage is brewed in small annual batches. Bottle-fermented, it matures, improves, deepens and develops character over time.

Vintage Ale was the brainchild of Reg Dury, Fuller's revered and now retired head brewer. John Keeling, his successor, fizzes with such excitement at all aspects of beer-making that I suspect he will may eventually launch himself into space and pass over Chiswick twice a day.

At 8.5% abv, Vintage Ale commands a certain level of respect. The difference between Vintage Ale and, say, a wine vintage is that its brewers Reg and John have varied its raw materials every year, apart from the yeast, which is always Fuller's house culture.

Back in 1997, Reg Dury fashioned the first Vintage Ale using pale malts from Suffolk and the north east of England, along with

Challenger and Northdown hops. The malt varieties have included Alexis, Maris Otter and Optic, while the chosen hops have ranged from Challenger through Fuggles, First Gold and Goldings to Styrians from Slovenia.

As head brewer, John Keeling started brewing the 2006 vintage in April and May and bottled it in late June. This young beer will mellow and even now has a spicy hop aroma, tastes fruity and bitter in the mouth and becomes dry in the finish, with good, lasting hop character. It is darker than 1997 and red-bronze with aroma of liquorice, vanilla, cherries, honey and tangy hops, followed by sweet malt in the mouth and vinous fruit, vanilla and good hop bitterness in the finish.

The 1998 version had herbal, minty and oak notes, 1999 had pronounced raisin and sultana fruitiness, 2000 was tart with orange citrus fruit, 2001 had surprising winey sourness, 2002 had chocolate, smoke and apple notes, 2003 was peppery and tangy from Challenger hops, 2004 had spicy, cough-candy and crème caramel notes, while 2005 had over-ripe banana, sweet malt and spicy hops.

Fuller's doesn't have to make a beer that requires expensive materials and packaging. But for the company it expresses a great passion for good beer.

Without the blackcurrant.