Thanks to the handy local CAMRA magazine I picked up on our first day here in Chester, I found out about the Marlborough Arms in St John Street and their range of Stonehouse beers. These are all rather good, albeit the pub itself is not to my taste, the beers are well kept and four stocked pumps is not a bad thing at all.
Sunlander 3.7% abv was my first beer, if you like well hopped citrusy beers then you will love this one, it is very drinkable but for me it was a little bit too hoppy but still very enjoyable. My partner really liked this one and it would be a very nice pint to have in a sunny pub garden.
My partner on the other hand picked the one I was going to go for which was Off the Rails 4.8% abv, which turned out to be a rich almost chocolately strong bitter. This one was to my taste so I had to kept distracting my partner get a sip now and then, despite it's strength being under 5% it still packed a punch with flavour and was a half to enjoy and savour.
My next beer was Station Bitter 3.9% abv, this is the beer in the picture. Lovely golden carmel colour and was a lovely bitter which had rum overtones in the taste, certainly a beer for a session I felt, as it's finish was subtle and morish. The other beer in the round was Cumbrian Gold 4.2% abv, this was hoppy like the Sunlander before it but less punchy and more rounded with hops being more fruity then citrus.
All in all we were very impressed by Stonehouse and their beers, with four pumps we got to try most of their range. I will be keeping an eye out for their beers in the future.
