Marstons Merrie Monk

Cask in the Waters Green Tavern, Macclesfield. Medium brown with thick off white / pale brown head, good lace. Not much aroma at all, little fruit packed in a carrier bag with a pair of those crap black pumps they used to wear in the 80’s at school. Probably still do. Bit of caramel, bitter finish. Not great.

A Mes rate. Cask handpull at Baker Street ‘Sporks.
Mid brown colour with a thin light beige head. Faintly eggy aroma with very little else happening. The flavour is all apple and bread with a hit of caramel malt. Who woulda thunk it? Substandard? Marstons? Never.

Cask-conditioned at the Crosse Keys (JDW), London 09/06/09. Slightly hazy amber in colour with a moderate, off-white head. Burnt toffee dominated this one, at the exclusion of all else except some dodgy sulphur and a hint of spicy hops in the finish. The first pint in a long time that I couldn’t finish. Poor.

Cask at the Monks Retreat (JDW), Reading. Amber gold with a thin cream head; fruity aroma; fruity flavours - plum, cherry, raspberry - but rather thin; dry fruity finish, rather lacking in bitterness.

Cask handpull at The Pheasant, Ashford. Served with a sparkler. Clear chestnut colour with a thin lassting beige head. Some Marston house yeast on aorma. Bit of toffee too. Advertised as a mild. It’s alright, some character, bit of dryness on finish. It’s just a bit better than average.

JDW, Rochester. "A mild". A fairly bland, well attenuated but moderately sweet, low hopped session pale ale with a copper tone and the infamous "Burton snatch". The brewer calls it a mild though there is a distinct hop finish, and the product is fairly dry, pale and of a strength more associated with an ordinary bitter. There’s none of the features normally associated with a mild. I suspect this has been revived in order to take advantage of CAMRA’s May is Mild Month marketing campaign.

Hand pulled at JDW Watford. Mid brown in colour, though I’m sure it used to be much darker back in the late 70s when I first tried it. Unmistakable Marstons house characture. Sulphuric smell and fruity tast. Not much hop characture as you’d expect with a mild, but still quite a harsh bitterness. Not too impressed.

Nuneaton ’Spoons, in the midst of a terrifying alcopop and rusty nail lager crawl around Treacletown. Octo made me do it. Red. Smells of dog. Stinkbomb, caramel, wet dunked biscuit, watery apple fruit. OK. 636312 UPDATE En Burbage. Sulphurous dead mush soggy with biscuit and aniseed sprinkles. Zzzz.