“A Märzen with soft malt, hints of honey and spice, a soft water profile and, umm… Look, to be honest, the beer is still fermenting but thanks to ~logistics~ we need to have a description for the can before we’ve tasted it, meaning anything we say here is a guess. Or a lie, really. Maybe you could review it and then, when we brew it again next year, we might use some of your descriptors?”

Glassware: Stein.

Appearance: Fully transparent bright amber with a rapidly vanishing head. All that’s left is a bubbling island in the middle. Scarce lace as we go.

Aroma: We’ll be honest, Marzen’s are one of those styles we’ve rarely gone for so we’ll keep it somewhat basic. Definitely malt driven…caramel, nutty, doughy/bready and a well balanced Noble hop spiciness. Picking up very delicate hints of black tea, honey, earthy apricot, grass/mildew and a soft floral bouquet. Pretty complex in the end!

Flavour: It comes on sweet and ultimately smooth. Again, malt driven with a delicate hop profile – caramel, honey, bready/toasty with earthy, spicy and floral hops taking the back seat. The malt sweetness kind of intensifies through the mid and moves to a semi sweet finish with delicate toasty malt and spice on the back end.

Mouthfeel: Smooth, a little sticky but really well rounded. Low-ish Co2. The 6% ABV is nicely disguised.

Overall: We thought it was so left field to see MC go from a Hazy, to NEIPA, to West Coast IPA to Stout and then….Lager. But in true MC fashion they’ve made a usually boring beer fun while still keeping it conventional. Big ups to MC they’re absolutely killing it.