Marks & Spencer Craft Beer Tasting
- Chris Lee
- Nov 23, 2015
- 2 min read
What would it be like if your local grocery store had a vested interest in Craft Beer? What if your local grocery store had it's very own line of in-house craft beers? This may sound like a bit of a pipe dream to my fellow Canadians, but it is a reality for UK grocery store chain Marks & Spencer. I decided to take the plunge and try out three of their nearly 20 varieties of in house craft beers. The thing that I really like about their approach is that these beers are far from your regular run of the mill styles like pale ales, blondes or IPAs. Marks & Spencer has an interesting selection of trendy beers styles that run a wide gamut.
Today I've chosen Smoked Ruby Red Ale, Sorachi Saison, & Maritime Salted Caramel Porter. Here are my tasting notes on the three beers.
Sorachi Saison:
Appearance: Golden honey yellow, high clarity, light and delicate foam
Aroma: Lemon peel, white pepper, corriander, light marmalade
Profile: Crushed white peppercorn, lemon peel, highly effervescent, light and refreshing, lightly floral, dry finish
This beer is right on the money style wise and flavour. It delivers exactly what you would expect from a sorachi infused saison. It is not an outgoing and distinct beer, yet it offers a nice alternative to the run of the mill Saison.
Sorachi Saison: C+
Smoked Ruby:
Appearance: dark mohagony red, ruby red
Aroma: Bacon (for reals), burnt wood, meaty BBQ, dark cherries
Profile: lightly bready, malty, light maple bacony aftertaste, hint of brown sugar, underlying molassis tone, smoky bacon.
For a grocery store smoked beer, this is decent. Just like the Sorachi Saison, it hits all the right points you would expect. I don't think that this is a beer that I would buy again in any hurry. Now don't get me wrong, its good. This simply is not a beer that fits with everything. Definitely a specialty beer. It would be an obvious choice pairing with red meats like steak. Something keeps making me think of accompanying this with a grilled london broil. I find this beer moderately flavourful but not overpowering.
Smoked Ruby: C
Maritime Salted Caramel Porter
Appearance: Burnt toffee brown, Rusted iron, medium clarity
Aroma: Burnt toffee, brown sugar, pumpernickel bread crust
Palette: Medium effervescence, kraft caramel squares,fairly light body, toffee, light amount of coffee, fresh pumpernickel bread loaf, slightly woody & Oaky, hint of molasses, leaves a sticky coating on your mouth.
This was by far the most interesting of the bunch. I started out quite skeptical, however, the first taste really turned my head. Maritime Saled Caramel Porter is not an over the top stunning beer, yet it has a certain uniqueness and character that make it a hidden gem. It has a good balance of salty and sweet that does not lean heavily in either direction. Pair this bad boy with something sweet on the dessert menu like apple pie, sundaes, or donuts.
Maritime Salted Caramel Porter: B
