Beer of the month at Vic’s: Marble Brewery

We here at KnoxBeerSnobs are working with our friends at Vic’s Package Store to bring you a beer of the month with benefits! This month, we’re looking at more than just one beer, but a handful, all from one brewery.

Those of us who consider ourselves local beer snobs are very familiar with Marble Brewery after the last few weeks. If not, you can check out our posts here and here. A month ago we had never heard of this beer. Two weeks ago, we wouldn’t have touched this beer. Today, we’re drinking this beer and we’re glad we are!

Marble Brewery Red Ale This beer has an orangish-red color and pours with a fair amount of head. On the nose, you immediately smell the hops (simcoe, crystal and cascade), which we were a little surprised about for a red ale. However, we also detect scents of the woods. On the tongue, you get the malts which is immediately followed by the hops and leaves a bitter finish. As this beer opens up in the glass, the malt sweetness comes through on the finish. Neither of us care for red ales too often but because of the forward hop profile, we really like this red ale. There is a muted sweetness to this beer that neither of us can quite put our finger on. Overall this is a very drinkable red ale that we both really like.

Marble Brewery Wildflower Wheat DISCLAIMER: DON DOES NOT LIKE WHEAT BEERS but he’s taking one for the team here. I, on the other hand, do like wheat beers. Alright, on this bear we’ve got an unfiltered cloudy color with a little head, but not much. Also, we noted on the bottle that this contains local wildflower honey (not K-town local, but New Mexico local). On the nose we get the typical wheat beer aroma but the floral notes are very present as well as a sweetness that can be attributed to the honey. On the tongue, the wheat is very heavy and you can tell there is a fair amount of carbonation in the beer. Of the wheat beer that I’ve had, this one seems much more robust and there seems to be more going on in the flavor profile – a lot of fruit (Don swears there is an apricot flavor here, I’m not getting it), banana, there’s definitely a grainy flavor to this beer. The honey is there, but it’s subtle. We’d classify this as a great summer time beer, what I like to call a dock beer!

Marble Brewery Amber Ale This beer pours very clear with a yellow-orange tint. On the nose we’re getting a slight malty profile with hints of citrus in the background. On the tongue, you immediately get a sweet malt profile. You also get notes of caramel, nut and towards the end, a bit of apple. There doesn’t seem to be any real hop characteristics but there is a slight to medium bitterness in the finish. There is a very good balance between the initial sweetness and the finishing bitterness. This is a very drinkable beer, perhaps deceptively so. I would venture to say if someone kept filling my glass, I could drink a lot of this in a short amount of time. This is a pretty nice amber ale.

Marble Brewery India Pale Ale DISCLAIMER: WE BOTH REALLY LIKE IPAs – that said, we’ve already had this beer but we’re going to review it now anyway. I will say, it’s one we both enjoyed. So, this beer pours clear with a golden color with great head. On the nose you get the hops, some orange, some pear and good alcohol nose. On the tongue, this is a very SMOOTH IPA with a great bitter finish, perhaps a bit dry even. There is a little more sweetness than you’d expect from an IPA which is very complimentary to the huge hop profile. Also, Don’s two favorite hops are in this brew: Columbus and Centennial. We’d be lying if we said this wasn’t a great IPA – we both really enjoyed it.

The Marble Brewery lineup is currently the KnoxBeerSnobs beer of the month at Vic’s Package Store in North Knoxville. If you mention this post to the guys there, they’ll knock off 5% on these brews.

Cheers!