Ancient beer styles are being revived to great acclaim and, encouragingly, they are produced by large breweries that are prepared to add small batch ales to their regular brews.

Fuller’s and Greene King have launched new versions of a type of beer known as stock ale that has its origins in the early 18th century. The Fuller’s beer is Prize Old Ale while Strong Suffolk Ale comes from Greene King.

Last year, Fuller’s Dark Star brewery in Sussex produced a batch of Prize Old Ale that proved to be an overnight sensation. The entire run of 3,500 bottles sold out within 48 hours, and as a result, a new vintage was launched in November.

PoA, as it’s known, was first brewed in the 1920s by George Gale, based in Horndean, Hampshire. It was made in the manner of stock ales and was a blend of a well-matured beer and fresh, young ale.

The aged version was stored in oak vessels for a year or more where natural yeasts and bacteria trapped in the wood attacked and ate the malt sugars in the brew. The result was a beer with a pronounced acidic aroma and palate. At 9 per cent, it was also rich and fruity with spicy notes from English Fuggles and Goldings hops.

The blended beer was bottled with a small amount of fresh yeast to encourage a slow further fermentation, meaning the beer could be laid down for several years.

In 2005, Gale’s was bought by the major London brewer Fuller’s in Chiswick. It closed the Horndean plant a year later but before the shutters came down Fuller’s head brewer John Keeling had one final batch of the beer brewed there.

The beer was transferred to Chiswick where John aged it and then blended it with a fresh beer. Before he retired, he made just two batches of PoA and he ran into trouble with his marketing colleagues who, he says, hated the beer and were reluctant to promote it.

Some 50 barrels of the beer lay in a tank at Chiswick until a young brewer called Henry Kirk discovered it and was entranced by its aroma and flavour. In 2019 Fuller’s was bought by the giant Japanese brewer Asahi, and Henry was transferred to Dark Star.

He successfully moved the vat of PoA to Sussex and brewed a new batch to blend with it. The launch of the beer was delayed by Covid, and it wasn’t released until the autumn of 2022 when it proved to be the fastest-selling beer ever brewed at Dark Star.

It was also one of the last beers brewed there as Asahi closed the plant and moved all the beers to another subsidiary, Meantime in Greenwich.

In July this year, Meantime’s head brewer Sven Hartmann produced a new batch of the beer that he blended with aged beer in August. The blend was then allowed to mature for three months before it was bottled. It’s unfiltered and the natural yeast will enable the beer to age further.

It’s brewed with pale and black malts, a touch of wheat and brewing sugar and hopped with Fuggles and Goldings. The original Gale’s yeast is still used.

The 9 per cent beer is immensely complex. It’s dark russet in colour and has a slightly musty aroma from wild yeasts that brewers call “horse blanket”. There are notes of raisins and sultanas on the aroma and a palate with further touches of wholemeal biscuits, liquorice, butterscotch, bitter chocolate and espresso coffee, with spices and pepper from the hops. The finish is acidic, fruity and finally dry.

It can be bought online from www.darkstarbrewing.co.uk/products/prize-old-ale

Greene King’s Strong Suffolk also dates from the 1920s and is a potent link with the country ales brewed in the 18th century. In common with PoA, it’s a blend of an aged beer and a fresh, young one. A 12 per cent beer called Old 5X is aged for between one and two years in 100-barrel oak vats with wooden lids that have a coating of sandy gravel known as marl in the Suffolk dialect.

The gravel is used to stop wild yeasts and bacteria infecting the beer but, nevertheless, they will be found trapped in the oak and will add distinctive aromas and flavours while the beer ages, as the strong hints of iodine and acidity prove.

Old 5X is blended with 5 per cent BPA or Best Pale Ale to produce a bottled beer of 6 per cent. The beers are brewed with pale and crystal malts with brewing sugar. The hops are two English varieties, Northdown for bitterness and Target for aroma.

The resulting Strong Suffolk has a spicy, oaky and vinous aroma and palate, with powerful hints of dark fruits and a rich Dundee cake sweetness. The finish is sharp, acidic, fruity and spicy.

It’s available from https://shop.greeneking.co.uk/

This is the first batch of Strong Suffolk since 2018 and it’s been revived due to public demand. I hope the success of these beers will encourage other long-established brewers to delve into old recipe books and bring back styles that spotlight the rich heritage of brewing in Britain.