Marathon Lager

Brewed by: Athenian Brewery

Style: American Adjunct Lager

ABV: 5%

IBU: 17.5

On a lonely street in Anderson, Indiana sits a Mediterranean restaurant called, “The Nile.” You might assume it is an Egyptian restaurant from the name and the Egyptian decorations that adorn the entire inside of the restaurant (see picture); however, it is primarily a Greek restaurant. So I of course had to find a Greek beer to review while eating Greek food. Marathon was my choice.

The Athenian Brewery has been brewing Marathon Lager since 1971. I won’t go into why it’s called Marathon because that’s an obvious association. So lets jump right into the beer itself.

Look – Pours a translucent golden color with about a half finger width of white foamy head that dissipated rather quickly. It was clearly very carbonated because there were a ton of bubbles coming up from the bottom of the glass.

Smell – It amazes me how similar the smells are when you have two beers that are the same style. This fits right in with most other American adjunct lagers but does present a slightly fruity smell as well. From just the smell alone, it doesn’t appear that hops will be very present in the taste.

Taste – The initial taste of the beer was somewhat surprising. It had a high malt taste that was very smooth and sweet. It also tasted very yeasty on the front end. It’s a very easily drinkable beer as you would expect because of the very light body that comes along with this style. I was eating Saganaki while first drinking this beer and was surprised at how little the beer taste actually changed with such a complex food taste. The malt and yeast is kind of pushed out but the beer keeps the same character. Interestingly, while I was enjoying a Falafel, the malt and yeast taste reappeared and remained prevalent through the glass. My conclusion on pairing this with food is that the beer remains pretty steady through different kinds of food so don’t be afraid to have this beer with whatever is for dinner.

Conclusion – As far as Adjunct Lagers go, I enjoy this one. The malt flavor is sweet and creates a very smooth feeling in the mouth. Unfortunately, it is still an adjunct lager and well below par of what I would consider a “good” beer. I look forward to trying other foreign attempts at American adjunct lagers and seeing if all of them are better than cheap American beers!

I am going to give this beer a C-

On a very important side note: Beer and olives DO NOT go well together. If you know of a beer that does, please fill me in because this one didn’t work. Also, if you happen to read Greek: http://www.athenianbrewery.gr/

I have to go play Fallout 3 now.

Happy Drinking!