It only took me three trips here to write a blog about it. I was always out with co-workers and forgot or just didn't have time to take a pic or two. This time it was just me and a vendor, so I remembered and got the job done. When in Sioux City, I've always stayed at the hotel right across the street, so going to Marto was just a no-brainer.
This brewery is right downtown and easy to get to. There are a bunch of other eating and drinking establishments nearby, so the area is a good one for socializing. Marto doesn't say much about themselves on either their website or Facebook page, so no real background is given. They also do not even have a beer list available online. That's stunning. If you browse their sites, you cannot find a beer list unless you try to make an online order. Even then, they don't tell you anything about their beer. I believe they are in business to sell beer and are proud of it, but you'd never know. They call themselves an edgy artisan brewery and perhaps they are. They do brew on-site and have a restaurant as well. It has always been well attended when I've been there. Luckily, I snapped a photo of their beer list while at my table. Just one guy's opinion, but maybe you should tout your beer more....
It was pretty hot out, so I chose a couple of beers that I might not have drank otherwise. I started off with the Iowa Sunrise, which is a Vienna style lager. It's made with all German malts and hops and had that amber color I like so much. The beer was very good. It had a slight maltiness to it, but was very easy to drink with no bite at the end. Instead, it has a light sweetness to it. They say the beer is balanced and that is a good word to describe it. Vienna style beers are harder to brew than just about any other style. They require a longer period of "lagering" or fermenting and malt is the key rather than hops. As the story of how Vienna lagers came about goes, it was beer espionage that stole the day. Two burgeoning Austrian brewers went on a beer tour through Europe with most of their time being spent in England. It was the early 1800's and British brewing was all the rage. Anton Dreher owned a brewery already and his fellow brewer, Gabriel Sedlmayr, would actually use a hollowed out cane, to take beer samples back to the Spaten Brewery, where Sedlmayr's family worked and study the beer. What ended up happening was a new form of brewing. In 1841, Dreher , debuted his bottom-fermented beer, the Klein-Schwechater Lagerbier. It would become the Vienna style beer we know today. What set it apart was two things. At the time, it was the lightest beer made, which became quite popular almost immediately and the other thing, it's copper color. When you consider that beer had been served in stone, wooden or porcelain mugs until then, most drinkers never looked at their beer much. However, glassware had improved enough that now people could actually see their beer and the amber color was tantalizing. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this Vienna and I would recommend you try it.
My next choice was what my vendor had started off with, which was the Hella Yeah! A Helles Lager is another iteration of the Vienna. The beer is called simplistic and complicated at the same time. Most brewers would say that the ingredients and process are the most important thing in brewing a Helles, but then comes drinkability. The beer is to be the ultimate in balance between malt, hops and yeast. No one ingredient should dominate. Crisp maltiness, delicate hops and a clean yeast expression. Helles means pale in German and bright in English, so the beer should be a bright yellow in color. I also liked this beer more than expected. Most lighter beers leave me wanting, but this fulfilled its place. Very drinkable and tasty. So, Marto scores two out of two. I think you should try this brewery out when in Sioux City as they appear to craft good beers with great ingredients. I didn't have anything to eat any of the times I was there as we went down the street for some superb steaks, but they do have a wood fired pizza oven on site and a full compliment of other food to try. Now, if I could get you to brag about and explain your beers a little better on your social media platforms, that would be good.
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