Marstons – Pedigree Pale Ale

Marstons - Pedigree Pale Ale

When doing a ‘blind’ shop for beer it is often the label that sticks out. This is, ultimately, the intention of the label, the bottle design the whole aesthetic of the bottle or can, to tell you what the beverage is all about and to maybe catch your eye, to get you to buy. In the case of Marstons Pedigree Pale Ale the retro label and bottle design just called out. Fabulous.

*Updated 2012-05-17* – see below

Marstons – Pedigree Pale Ale; 5% vol

Aroma: moderately malty, lightly breaded aromas combine with generous helpings of light hopiness

Appearance: clear, light copper, plenty of bubbles rising up; off white, foamy white head

Taste & Palate: moderate bitterness, some hops; dry finish with an average bitterness; plenty of malts quite lively.

Oh dear. Its a bit of a shame, not the best beer I’ve had for some time (this is also far from being the worst), but really the bottled version does not do this beer justice. This would make a better cask beer with a little softening up, less lively. The taste is good, the liveliness swallows this up. Fabulous bottle and label which was what drew me in.

*Updated 2012-05-17* – Not much of an update, but I’ve used jpegmini to compress the beer photo. I’m quite impressed with the compression since it has reduced the size of the image without any noticeable change in quality – okay, I really can’t see ANY differences