![\"\"](\"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/chiswick_bitter_815-1.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nChiswick was first produced in 1930, named after the location of the brewery. A light session beer with a lingering bitterness and a lacing of malt, it is counterpointed with Northdown and Challenger hops for added fruitiness, along with a residual spiciness from the addition of Goldings hops, which are added to the brew after fermentation to add flavour and aroma, a practice known as dry hopping. The late Martyn Cornell once described Chiswick Bitter as a modern take on the lost art of light mild. Mild, he notes, is merely a description rather than a style. There are many sub-varieties, ranging from mild porter, light bitter, scotch mild, Burton mild and extra-strong mild to mild stout, which eventually evolved into milk stout. Its close association with the lower ABV dark mild has erroneously been applied since the mid-20th century. Historically, mild was a term for beer that was only conditioned for a short period before distribution, so any beer variety that was produced this way could be classified as a form of mild, whether heavily or lightly hopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chiswick Bitter falls into this category since it was conditioned for a short duration, despite it often being mistakenly dubbed as a bitter. The prevalence of light mild dwindled after the 1950s as the popularity of bitter overtook it, yet Fuller\u2019s continued to produce this beer regardless. When former brewing director John Keeling joined the brewery in 1981 as a junior brewer, Fuller\u2019s brewed three main brands, Chiswick Bitter, ESB and London Pride. While the latter two were sold in barrels, kilderkins, and firkins, Chiswick Bitter was distributed in kilderkins and firkins only. We could assume this was due its shorter shelf life but its lack of popularity among publicans could also have been a reason. All three beers were sold at most of the 120 tied pubs within their estate at the time, though some only sold two and it\u2019s easy to guess which one was omitted. Chiswick Bitter won the standard bitters category in the Champion Beer of Britain competition in 1989 and then, despite competition from the likes of Old Peculier (5.6% ABV) and Landlord (4.3% ABV), took the coveted prize of Supreme Champion brewery refined its production of Chiswick Bitter so that it Beer of Britain. Its success was considered a surprise, given the lack of pubs that sold the beer at the time. In 1999, the settled more compactly in order to produce a more consistent and better tasting product and, by this time, the beer was also being sold in bottle along with their other core-range products.<\/p>\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThe beer continued to win awards, including at the Battersea Beer Festival and the runner up prize at the Castle Rock beer awards in 2015. Following a successful first run in the USA in 2014, it was distributed and sold in draught across the country (alongside ESB and London Pride), with the brewery\u2019s US brand manager, Charles Stanley, reporting that this was due to the increasing popularity of full flavoured session beers. Despite these plaudits, cask sales of Chiswick Bitter were falling as customers shied away and a number of publicans reported having to dispose of large quantities of unsold beer. Eventually things came to a head and in October 2015 Fuller\u2019s announced that the beer would be pulled from their core range and would now be a seasonal beer only. The brewery claimed at the time that this was due to the increasing popularity of Seafarers Ale (3.6% ABV), a former Gale\u2019s brand that they had acquired along with the brewery. In reality its demise was due to the lack of turnover and the restructuring of their production line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chiswick Bitter eventually quietly disappeared from circulation entirely. With the increasing popularity of lower ABV beers, in the summer of 2024 the brewery released Griffin Gold (3.5% ABV). This was promoted as having a crisp bitterness, complemented by a burst of citrus and pine, making it the ideal beer for summer days. Roger Protz described it at the time as being a modern revision of Chiswick Bitter; however, it is brewed with American Cascade, Citra and Hallertau Tradition hops and so it is closer to the hop-forward beers pumped full of tropical citrussy flavours that currently dominate the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the demand for the revival of Chiswick Bitter gathered pace as fans of the beer instigated a social media campaign calling for its return. Eventually, Fuller’s relented and, in May 2024, they announced that the beer would be returning in bottled form for a limited period. After a successful relaunch in December that year the brewery decided to return Chiswick Bitter to its core range, albeit in bottle only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent years the demand for lower strength beer has been gaining momentum, as health-conscious punters increasingly shun stronger beers for session strength alternatives. Markedly, low and non-alcohol beers have become the fastest growing beer-category. Given that Fuller’s already has an established brand in the form of Chiswick Bitter, perhaps the time is right for them to once again release it in cask form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mike Goldwater<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fuller\u2019s brewery has the admirable record of winning CAMRA\u2019s Supreme Champion Beer of Britain award for three different beers, a feat unsurpassed by any other brewery. ESB (5.5% ABV) first… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6473,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6470\/revisions\/6473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}