Marston's Single Malt

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Nice bronze color. Not much foam. Aroma is rather good, a little bit sweetish and citrus, graint taste. Aftertaste is nice smooth. Really nice thing to drink, especially cold.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Bottled. Dark orange golden colour, minor head. Strong breadish malty aroma. Breadish malty flavour with long, dry hayish finish. Also some sligt bitterness in the finish. Malty aftertaste.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 7

One of the very few bottled beers that I picked up while in Cornwall (vice waiting until hitting The Bottle Shop in London later that same week). Popped this open while trying not to fall asleep from boredom watching the Pro Bowl on the BBC. Or maybe it was this rather boring beer that was putting me into a daze?

Clear 500 mL bottle, with a single, rather simplistic label. Karen made the comment that it looked more like whiskey than beer in appearence -- a comparison that I found myself agreeing with over time.

Quite assertive in the nose -- some hardcore esters coming off of the beer when you first pop it open! Might turn off some folks, who might confuse the initial semi-rotten egg-ish aroma with the beer being skunked. Have a little paitence -- the sulphur calms down *a lot* once this beer is poured into a glass and allowed to breathe a bit.

But unfortunately, the appearence and the aroma is all this beer really has going for it. When it comes right down to the flavor profile, it all seems rather simple and one-dimensional. Not bitter enough to really call itself an English Pale Ale, IMHO -- and not interesting enough in the mouthfeel and malt bill to slide into the English Bitter or ESB categories. Just doesn't seem to have much to say for itself really....

Adequate overall drinkability, and went down well with some aged English Farmhouse Cheddar. But by itself, this doesn't have enough things going on the flavor profile to really thrill me one way or the other...
//TB