Marble/Emelisse Earl Grey IPA

European Beer Bloggers Conference 2012
Top Tastings 2012

ABV: 6.8%
Origin: Manchester, England
Website: www.marblebeers.co.uk

Marble/Emelisse Earl Grey IPA. Pic: The Ormskirk Baron, www.theormskirkbaron.com.

A serious looking 750ml bottle from Manchester’s marvellous Marble brewery can usually be relied upon to contain something at least interesting, but they’ve excelled themselves with Marble Earl Grey IPA (6.8 per cent), a collaboration brew with Emelisse from the Netherlands. A robust US-style India pale ale with fresh and fruity Citra hops has been given extra layers of flavour by adding Earl Grey tea.

“It was like putting a giant teabag into the copper,” head brewer James Campbell told me at the 2012 European Beer Bloggers Conference in Leeds, where Earl Grey proved one of the hits of the live beer blogging session. I managed to persuade him to part with a leftover bottle, which drew equally enthusiastic reactions at a tasting I hosted a few weeks later at Mason & Taylor in London.

As tea aficionados will know, Earl Grey is a smoky black tea perfurmed with bergamot oil, derived from a highly fragrant citrus fruit (Citrus bergamia) used in perfumery as well as to flavour other products. It turns out to form a good match with this particular style of US-inspired IPA – tea and smoky flavours are not unknown in the beer flavour palate and the subtle hints of bergamot match well with the citrus fruit notes from the hops.

My samples poured a cloudy warm amber with a bit of foamy head. Bergamot was certainly detectable on the aroma alongside apricots and more familiar orange and lemon notes. The palate was very fruity – tropical fruits, apricot, a lemon tea-like character, some very subtle oily perfume from the bergamot and a pronounced but not excessive bitterness. The tasty finish had plenty of complexity, with a controlled and lingering bitterness, building tannins and a slightly boxy, musty note.

This was one of the most distinctive beers I’ve tasted all year, and though he planned it as a limited edition one-off, James hinted to me that as the reaction had been so strong he might consider brewing it again. Let’s hope so.