Last year I posted a couple of times about a Fullers beer I’d come called Bengal Lancer. I didn’t like it on tap in a pub, preferred it in bottle form but concluded that it wasn’t near the top of my favourites. However, not checking back on my blog, I ordered some for the Christmas period when originally there was curry on the menu (later switched to Waterzooi, remembering our holiday in Brussels, and thus some Belgian beer was called for instead).

I’ve had the Bengal Lancer this week and this time I really enjoyed it. Last year I described it as “… sweeter than I like up front with an overpowering hop aftertaste”. This time, I’m more inclined to describe it as having malty sweetness and a floral afternote. Go figure!

Perhaps I’ll try it in 2017 and see what I think of it then. Right now though, I thought it was an excellent accompaniment for a hot curry (tonight’s meal); maybe the context of the food made all the difference? Looking back to my first set of notes, about the draught experience, I wrote that I found it “more like hopped wort than a properly finished brew”. I can see that but, against the right fodder, malty sweetness is an excellent accompaniment.