Marble revamps its Belgian-inspired wheat beer Double White

Without the proper attention, even a classic can grow stale over time.

That was the message recently on the Marble Brewery Instagram account, when co-owner Bert Boyce acknowledged the concerns customers have expressed about the decline in quality of one of the establishment’s flagship beers, the Double White.

In recent times, the beer has been unflatteringly described as “hot dog water” (including in the comments under the aforementioned post) by more than a few patrons. Since Boyce and Jarrett Babincsak assumed ownership of Marble at the beginning of the year, they’ve been well aware of the grumbling.

“We’ve seen the memes. We’ve read the comments. That’s what you’re talking about and we know it,” Boyce said. “So we think we’ve addressed it.”

Over the course of the past year, the Marble team has been working diligently to improve the process with which its beer is produced, while keeping popular recipes intact. And really, these changes aren’t just for Double White. They have been made throughout the brewery’s beer lineup.

“I think it’s important for me as a brewer — a recipe is at least as much process as it is ingredients,” Boyce said. “And so we’ve really been working on the process for the last year. We’ve done a lot of work to clean up the brewery, done a lot of maintenance that had been kind of put off for a while, really improved our processes, quality control, the way we manage fermentations.

“All of those things have really ultimately led to improvements in every beer across the portfolio. We just use Double White as the one to kind of get everyone’s attention to, ‘Hey, we’ve been listening. We’ve been working our asses off. Give us another shot. Let us know what you think.’ It’s really kind of what we’re going for.”

According to Boyce, Double White remains the beer Marble produces in the greatest quantity, so it made sense to put it front and center for this new era. Those who may have gravitated away from the beer can expect a more pleasant flavor in the current iteration.

“A good wheat beer has a really soft kind of silky, fluffy mouthfeel — and a fruit-forward banana and orange peel, maybe a little bit of bubblegum character with spice kind of in the background,” Boyce said. “The Belgian strain that we use for Double White is both fruity and spicy.

“We want it to be fruit-forward, a little bit of spice. We want it to be fluffy and smooth in the mid-palate. And we want it to finish really clean and light and drinkable.”

Consistency is key in that regard.

“We were finding that it wasn’t the same every time,” Boyce added. “So first thing’s first, you have to decide what you want it to smell and taste like. And then you have to actively go about making sure it tastes that way every time.”

To complete the new-and-improved vibe, Double White now comes in a redesigned can, which should also prove to be an attention getter in the months to come.

“That’s also our way of saying, ‘Hey, we’re different. The beer inside this can is different,’” Boyce said. “You can scream into the void as much as you want. You can make posts all day on social media. But the most effective way to communicate to drinkers in the retail space is to put a new can design out there.”

Thus far, returns have been positive. As Marble begins Year 2 under the new regime, Boyce wants to make the accessibility that drove these changes a consistent feature of the brewery’s brand.

“We’re asking for feedback actively and we’re acting on that and we’re very accessible,” he said. “I’m trying to make beers more drinkable, no shame to anyone in how they approach making beer, but I’m not an artist. I said that at the beginning. We’re just people trying to make the most accessible beer that people want to buy every day.”