John Martin was an English business who settled in Belgium, starting a brewery in 1909 in the small town of Genval, south-east of Brussels in Walloon-Brabant. Today the brewery is managed by his grandson, Anthony Martin.
As well as a brewery in its own right, the company has purchased other breweries including Timmermans and Bourgogne des Flandres. It also has a history of importing beers from the UK and Ireland, being the oldest Guinness distributor in the world!
This beer is affectionately described as ‘the noblest of pale ales’ and has been a staple since 1909. Back in the day, this was a very unique beer thanks to the revolutionary technique of using whole Kent hop bells in the fermenter. Now dry-hopping is very common, but it was special back in the 1900’s.
A pale ale in the English style, our beer is the aroma is malty with an earthy hop character. In the taste the malt body offers a fruity sweetness that is joined by that early bitterness from the Kent hops. Slightly spicy on the aftertaste with that fruity malt character lasting all the way through.
The flavours are subtle by todays standard of pale ale, but beer has been around for well over a century so it must be doing something right.