Marthas McGanns London Ale

Brewed by Marthas Exchange Restaurant and Brewing
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Nashua, New Hampshire USA

Serve in English pint

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On cask. Amber in color with a small white head. Aroma is bready,ttpasty,biscuity malt with a touch of floral hops and spice. Flavor is of moderately sweet malt balanced by bitter hops, finishing dry.

Thursday is cask night at Marthas, so this rating is from the cask. Pours a golden yellow with a full head of white frothy foam. Served in a pint glass. Aromas are malt, a mild hop aroma, some vanilla and wood. Light, dry, crisp palate without much carbonation. Taste is much the same as the nose. Sweet malty flavor as well as vanilla bean, mild hop, biscuit and wood. Pretty good.

on tap-pours a thin white head that bubbles and slightly hazy gold color. Aroma is sweet light malt, faint musty/citrus-orange peel hops. Taste is sweet light malt, musty/citrus-orange peel/metallic hops. Mild carbonation.

Bloody bloody hell. First Cambridge House offered us a weird ESB that was a superior beer and now Marthas. Hazy golden, great-looking. Lacey white film. I love the colour. Sharp and fresh, well defined biscuity flavours. Leafy, floral, orangey (blood orange), fleshy aromas. Very well extracted ingredients. Everything feels fresh and clean. Further study unveils leather and apricot notes. Plain refreshing, dry and sessionable. Precisely the kind of beer I’m striving for on a daily basis.

UPDATED: DEC 30, 2007 In short: An ESB with a diffenrent kind of hopping. One of the best ESB ever (if an ESB at all). Extraordinary session beer.
How: Tap at brewpub december 2007
The look: Almost clear dark-blonde body with a small white head
In long: Honey over lightly toasted malts with only a lick of caramel. Perfect balanced by an unusual hop profile. Fruity notes has orange skins and crisp dried fruits. The hop profile is hard to describe. Sometimes citrusy American hops sometimes dry noble hops. I don’t know how to put it into words but it was damn good. Simply an fantastic session ale that you cannot get tired of. I liked that beer with every ounce of my body. And being a true beer geek that means about 320 too many ounces.

UPDATED: JUN 30, 2009 My Bottom Line:
Citrusy herbal hops playfully sing through the honeyed biscuity malts of this creamy and highly personable session ale. A resinous and leafy hop dialogue concludes this flawless production, and a standing ovation lasts until the next pint is delivered.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A sheet of foam laces admirably around the hazy gold.
-The malts are beautifully extracted and the ensuing mouthfeel is cushiony and immensely drinkable.
-The reigning hop spiciness (all Glacier, I believe) is such a perfect fit for pillowy maltiness.
-Such balance of confident flavors in a well-sculpted body is so desirable to me.

On tap at the brewpub a few times.

on cask at the brewpub. Amber with a small head, little carbonation. Aroma: biscuity malt, floral hops. Taste is sweet malt, biscuit, bitter, with a floral bitter finish.

5 oz sampler at the brewpub in the company of ClarkVV GeuezeLord. Hazy-amber with a lasting little bit of head...fragrant floral-honey aroma with touches of lavender and light yeast at first had me thinking this was the tripel (waitress didn’t volunteer which beer was which, and I being haughty and confident figured I didn’t need help), but some dry woody/twiggy character creeps in and by the....mouthfeel I knew this was English-y, not Belgian-y though that didn’t really make me happy as the flavor profile couldn’t be more of a letdown after the lovely delicate aroma, it’s dry, harsh, astringent, almost fully attenuated, thinnish and fairly low in carbonation...I left it to warm hoping better things would occur, but it remained dry and bitter, fruit-less and unpalatable.