Marston's Pedigree - Review.

Marston’s Pedigree, as suggested by name is being brewed in Marston's Brewery, located in Burton on Trent. Bottle conditioned version of Pedigree was launched in November 2016 as an Amber Ale, however in my opinion Bitter matches it better when it comes to style. This slight difference in style is not a big issue, as English styles tend to be rather flexible. Ingredients are rather typical for that type of beer: water from Burton, Maris Otter barley, Fuggles and Goldings hops. Unfortunately, I was not able to determine what kind of yeasts were used.

Pedigree is brewed in a process known as Burton Union System, which is used around Burton since mid 19th century. Marston’s is the last British brewery that still utilizes this process, therefore it is quite a rarity. Burton system consists of 24 to 60 wooden barrels that contain around 150 imperial gallons, which is roughly 7 hectolitres. Each barrel has a separate valve at the bottom and a cooling coil inside, to control fermentation temperature. All of the barrels are connected by pipes so already fermenting liquid can be evenly dispersed among them. What is more, each barrel on the top has a special pipe, known as a ,,swan neck” that discharges foam from the barrels during fermentation. After 6 days in burton system, the liquid is ready to be transferred to final fermentation vessel for maturation and after that, it can be poured into bottles and casks.

Marston’s Pedigree is amber in colour, with thick foam, but there is very little of it, due to the fact that in England, beer is usually poured to the rim, therefore very little space is left for the head. Pedigree has rather sweet, slightly fruity aroma. When it comes to taste it’s mostly caramel, which is quite typical for the style, and malt with a bit of hoppy bitterness. At the end, there is a little bit of fruits but only a little. Generally speaking, beer is rather pleasurable, perfect for everyday pint due to mild taste and low alcohol content of 4.5% I rate this beer at 3.5/5