Marstons Firestoker

Brewed by Marstons (Marstons plc)
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Burton-on-Trent, England

Serve in English pint

5.0% gold colour with a good head, malt and vanilla aroma, vanilla and hop taste, nice beer.

23rd May 2008. Very smooth ale - has an almost silky feel. The slight hoppyness is nicely offset by the distinct vanilla streak. Dry finish with a touch of hop bitterness.

Biggish offwhite lasting head. Coppery body with light carbonation. Sugary perfumy vanilla fudge aroma, vaguely artificial, with spicy notes. Dry caramel and intense artificial vanilla taste with roasty metallic notes. Unfresh, artificial palate. Mid-bodied. Buttery mouthfeel. Dry metallic roasty wooden aftertaste. Interesting but flawed because unbalanced and artificial. (0.5l bottle, Tesco, London.)

Borostyánszínű, enyhén opálos, tölgyfahordóban érlelt, 5% alkoholtartalmú ale a Burton upon Trent-i Marston’s Brewery-ből. Ízében először mintha egy kis vadmeggy is feltűnne, majd egy igen határozott, de lágy, bársonyos vaníliás-szegfűszeges íz kerül előtérbe. Végezetül igen határozott keserűséggel búcsúzik. És mindez egy kortyon belül! A sörészet egyik (kisebb) csodája.

Bottle. Pours a pale golden colour with thick white head. The Aroma is all vanilla, the taste is bitter with a very heavy taste of vanilla. The finish is bitter with a lot of citrus.

Fake red amber, white rim. Aromas caramel, sweet red berry fruit, backround leafiness,faint peardrop, enticing oak. Sweet but drying on the palate. Mostly caramelised redness, battenburg, bread. Nibble of bitterness finish moving into sweet vanilla, oaky biscuit afters. Aromatically malty. Heresy, but reminds me a bit of De Koninck. Murdered and filtered, and without that living yeasty bite, of course. Enjoyable, and so decent for a dead Marstons effort Id almost consider drinking it again.

UPDATED: OCT 1, 2008 Not sure how much I like the mixture of Vanilla and Oak. Different in taste to a lot of bitters, does not work for me though.

Bottled. Golden colour, fast diminishing head. Sugary nose and no maltiness. As afful in flavour with no maltiness. Papery bitter. No malt, no hops. Just adjuncts. It seems.