Teignworthy Martha's Mild

ABV: 5.3%
Origin: Newton Abbot, Devon, England
Website: www.tuckersonline.co.uk

Originally published in BEER May 2007. For more bottled milds see previous post

Teignworthy Martha's Mild

Tucker’s Maltings of Newton Abbot is one of Britain’s few surviving specialist maltings. The building is now a major tourist attraction as well as a working maltings, and hosts both its own beer shop and a brewery.

The Teignworthy Brewery is independently run by former Oakhill brewer John Lawton but maintains a close working relationship with its host including using Tucker’s malts. A wide range of real ales in a bottle includes a number of beers in historic styles.

Martha’s Mild was named to celebrate the birth baby Martha in 2002, but it’s also filled a gap left on the shelves of the maltings beer shop by the disappearance of bottled Dark Ruby. It’s brewed from pale, crystal, amber and chocolate malts, wheat malt and Fuggles and Goldings hops.

The deep reddish brown beer has a restrained malt, fruit and cola aroma with a hint of cough candy. The palate is dryish but with a good dose of fruit that turns slightly tropical, with notes of liquorice, roast malt, minerals and hops.

The finish has cola, melon, roast coffee and a firm dry chocolate bite – perhaps a little stern for a mild and certainly not as sweet as the label claims, but with plenty of quality and distinction. Martha should feel duly honoured.

This beer also featured in a shorter review in BEER March 2009, as one of several milds for May. For the previous mild in this piece, see Vale Black Swan.

Teignworthy Martha’s Mild (5.5 per cent) from Tuckers Maltings, Newton Abbot, Devon, is another ratebeer top 10 entry. Launched in 2002 to celebrate the birth of the brewer’s daughter Martha, this is a dark red-brown beer with notes of cough candy, liquorice, cola and melon, with a rather stern and ashy coffee finish.

The next mild featured in this piece is Hoggleys Mill Lane Mild.

Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/teignworthy-marthas-mild/22001/