Day 124, Beer 124 - St. Peter's "Honey Porter"

Today's Beer

Name – Honey Porter

Brewer – St. Peter's

Classification – Porter (Or 'honey porter', if you want to get all fussy about it)

Strength – 4.5% ABV

Verdict - At A Glance

On the eye – The devil's red. Dark, ominous, and a bit sexy.

On the nose – Rich caramel, abundant honey and rampant cocoa. Quite something.

On the tongue – Fudge, licorice, dark berries, cinnamon. Huge levels of cocoa bitterness, huge levels of honey sweetness, and even greater amounts of puzzled head scratching. (Read on...)

On the subject – I'm finally coming towards the end of my St. Peter's batch, and it's been a fascinating journey. They pretty much brew everything, often doing so twice what with the many organic alternatives. The range really is enormous, and with the brewery's emphasis being very much on their bottled output, that sense of 'specialism' really does find it's way into the glass.

On the market – St. Peter's beers are ubiquitous these days, this particular one may be a little more tricky to find, but worry not, as the brewery has it's own online store.

On the whole – ?/10 (Look, I honestly don't know... You'd better read on...)

Full Review

My poor head.

I was shaking it, scratching it, very nearly bashing it against walls – and all of this from the very first sip of today's beer.

Even now (and quite uniquely for this project) I simply do not know what I think about it.

As hard as it may be to believe, and as much as it may sound like a lazy cop-out, I am literally unable to decide whether I even like this beer or not.

It's a strange and rather alarming situation to be in.

One thing is for sure, though. Drinking this beer is not a dull experience.

Not one little bit.

This ale is so mind-bendingly extraordinary that I'd say it needs it's very own website, with entire sections dedicated to each of its abundant features, facets, and characteristics. One review could never hope to dig close enough to the core of this beer.

But long before I could work out what was going on within the beer, I failed to work out what I felt about it.

I kept asking myself the same question – whether the experience of drinking it was an enjoyable one or not – but my opinion was forever lurching for one extreme reaction to another.

“Delicious!”

“Disturbing.”

“It's so endlessly complex!”

“It's too much.”

“This is leaping straight into the top ten without a shadow of a doubt!”

“I can't drink it.”

“Yummy!”

“Yucky.”

“Awesome!”

“Meh.”

At the halfway stage, I knew I had a real dilemma on my hands. I had a beer that I liked and disliked equally and simultaneously – which I had to sit down and write a coherent review about.

However, for this dilemma alone, the beer deserves some serious credit. Because to be so abundantly packed with so many thought-provoking features makes for an enjoyable event in itself – even if you do eventually wind up never answering even the most fundamental questions, like whether you actually enjoyed the stuff or not.

To properly describe this drink is a real challenge. And, believe me, it's a challenge that I'm not about to overcome in any great style, so don't go getting yourself all excited.

I'm going to try to describe it – but I'm also going to fail in that attempt. So, you have been warned, and here goes.

It's an Irish coffee. It's an ancient, multi-purpose herbal remedy. It's a rich, creamy, but also rather austere chocolate gateaux. It's a warm oven filled with dark berries and winter spices. It's an abandoned beehive in sack of fresh coffee beans. It's perfumed charcoal fruitcake. It's a cauldron of molten candy and tarmacadam.

It's conjoined twins, each with split personalities. It's a tortured genius. A role model and a rogue. 

It's an unending, unnerving, unsolvable mystery to me.

I think what I really should be saying - is that this is one of those beers which you just need to try for yourself.

You might fall in love with it, and that love might last forever. Or you could argue like hell with it and never see it again. But either way, this beer will make an impact on you, and you will not forget it in a hurry.

Few beers have ever left me so bewildered about my own reaction to them. Few beers have forced me think about them so intensely, and for so long.

It's been an odd pleasure, drinking this one. It will be interesting to visit it again some time, and go through this peculiar process all over again.

Maybe not for a while though.

I mean, it's going to be several weeks before I can even think straight after this ride.

As for a score out ten?

Wow...

One?

Ten?

Something in between?

They all sound just about right.

In the interests of continuity, let's call it a 'tentative 7/10' and be done with it.

Day 88, Beer 88 - St. Peter's "Organic Best Bitter"

Today's Beer






Name - Organic Best Bitter

Brewer - St. Peter's

Classification - Please don't make me write 'organic best bitter'! Please!

Strength - 4.1% ABV


Verdict - At A Glance

On the eye - Rich, elegant amber.

On the nose - Gloriously sumptuous malts. Smooth but vivacious hops.

On the tongue - Ultra dry, ultra bitter, ultra good.

On the subject - St. Peter's pay more attention to the 'organic' end of the market than many breweries. The fact that they brew the same style of beer in both ways makes for some great opportunities for comparison. There are two 'Best Bitters' for example. Both are very different drinks but, sadly, they brew both versions a little too well for there to be any clear winner.

On the market - Pretty decent national coverage. Larger supermarkets are almost guaranteed to stock this. Try the brewery's own online store.

On the whole - 8/10


Full Review

This is a dry beer.

Let me say that again.

This is a dry beer.

Believe me, one mention of this simple fact would have been entirely inadequate.

The immediacy of the super dryness is as breathtaking as it is delightful, with the bitter citrus hops wasting no time in launching their delicious assault on the mouth with ruthless efficiency.

Almost as immediate - is a sense of this beer's freshness, but the 'organic' status of this drink doesn't leave it lacking in refinement or elegance. In fact, this is a very polished and composed drink experience.

The precise source of that citrus thwack remains somewhat elusive, but grapefruit, gooseberry and wonderfully peppery celery each take a punt at winning your affections - to ceaselessly enjoyable effect.

There are faint hints of sweetness, which wash in and out of focus in split second bursts like a dream sequence from some sixties art house movie. It's a very clever, playful brew in that respect.

But mostly it's a full-on brute of a beer, with that dry bitterness dominating proceedings in the most thrillingly relentless fashion.

As regular readers will have noticed, I don't make a habit of suggesting foods to accompany the beers I sample. Mostly, I do like to give my beers some space all of their own, untainted by such horrors as chewable matter. But this beer - more than any that I've yet stumbled upon - made me long for a roast dinner, with parsnips, roasted sweet potatoes, buttered vegetables and a huge leg of Welsh lamb. The toasted caramel sweetness of slow roasted grub would compliment this beer astonishingly well.

Any beer which makes you want to eat a Sunday roast just has to be a decent one, and this one is quite a bit more than decent.

But there's one thing that St. Peter's Organic Best Bitter is more than anything else...

This is a dry beer.

It was easily worth saying that for a third time.

Day 77, Beer 77 - St. Peter's "Suffolk Gold"

Today's Beer





Name - Suffolk Gold

Brewer - St. Peter's

Classification - Premium golden ale

Strength - 4.9% ABV


Verdict - At a glance

On the eye - A warm, apricot gold. Quite unique.

On the nose - Bold, rich, sumptuous malts. Very nice.

On the tongue - Dry, sharp, aggressive, and pretty darn marvellous.

On the subject - The extensive range of St. Peter's ales gets more impressive with every new example I try. Their rapid and unfaltering climb toward market dominance is making ever greater sense to me.

On the market - These days in the UK, there's very little problem finding something from the St. Peter's stable, though this one is perhaps a little rarer than certain others. Try the brewery's own online store.

On the whole - 8/10


Full Review

The first words I wrote for this review are not the words you are reading now.

Those first words have been moved up to the 'On the tongue' section above, because after I wrote them I realised they were in fact a perfect summary of the beer.

But what then struck me - was that the fact that this beer had been the very first here on The Year which had made the full breadth of it's character so instantaneously apparent. But, then again - it's really not difficult to explain why that is.

Basically, this beer is monumentally direct in it's approach to the human mouth.

It's staggering dryness - which transforms the very idea of 'dry liquid' into an entirely new concept - is so impossibly potent that you almost become aware of it even before the fluid touches your lips, meaning that all the tongue eventually does is provide conformation of it at a later stage.

The brutally sharp hop bitterness takes exactly the same approach - grabbing and gripping the taste buds with levels of aggression I have rarely encountered in almost any aspect of life - let alone within a glass of ale.

This feels more like a weapon than a beer, and I'm specifically referring to the sort of weapon that is designed to kill rather than merely maim.

I do hope I'm getting somewhere near to properly describing the impact of this drink. It really does feel exactly as I'm suggesting.

There's complexity here too, though, with an array of minor flavours - both floral and citrus in nature - teasing you with faint suggestions of an entirely separate drink experience that you might be having if only the main, power-house salty dryness weren't so utterly dominant.

But utterly dominant it is. It marches forth and tramples over all other features and qualities, it makes absolutely no apology for it's apocalyptic leadership techniques and, by and large, that is something we should all very be thankful for.

Ultimately, I couldn't decide whether I liked this beer or loved it. It's certainly one of the two, but I can't help thinking my affection is based more on the sheer 'event' of consuming this stuff - rather than for the brew itself.

At the end of the day, I don't suppose it matters why you enjoy something - proving that you do.

That rather puts me in mind of all the varied types of thrill-seeking that we often go in search of - situations wherein we essentially pursue happiness via the risking of our lives.

And perhaps that's exactly why I'm drawn to this beer. Because it scares me half to death.

I guess that's the thing to stress most here. The rush.

If thrill-seeking is your thing - you really do need to take a ride on this beast.

I've little doubt it will impress you immeasurably.

Day 66, Beer 66 - St Peter's "Organic Ale"

Today's Beer







Name – Organic Ale

Brewer – St Peter's

Classification – Well, how can I put this?... It's an Organic Ale.

Strength – 4.5% ABV


Verdict - At A Glance

On the eye – Elegant, understated straw. 'Eau natural.'

On the nose – Deep, rich fruit cake. Delightful.

On the tongue – Fresh, zesty and smooth, with a sharp, full-on bitterness.

On the subject – Suffolk based St Peter's combine a traditional ethos with a willingness to try something a little contemporary or quirky. They marry all these concepts pretty nicely with this beer.

On the market – Not the most widely available label of the range, but with the St Peter's brand becoming more ubiquitous by the second - the options are always growing. Those options are everywhere from supermarkets, specialist stores and online. Try the brewery's own web shop.

On the whole - 7/10


Full Review

In the modern world of rampant consumerism, an ultimate definition for the word 'organic' can prove pretty tricky to agree on.

Aside from the issue of what the word actually means, there's the even hazier issue of what it implies.

For me at least, the sight of the word 'organic' implies freshness, authenticity, a distinct absence of extraneous chemicals and processes, and a distinct presence of overriding moral and ethical ideals.

Much of that sounds very lovely, but what 'organic' tells me almost nothing about - is the taste, type, and character of a beer. As a consequence, I tend to find the word a little bewildering and uninspiring when I see it written on any bottle's label.

However, it turns out that I've been getting my priorities in a muddle - because having sampled St Peter's 'Organic Ale' I was very swiftly reminded that 'freshness', 'authenticity' and 'a distinct absence of extraneous chemicals and processes' - when assembled together as a code of brewing practice - are pretty much guaranteed to result in the most marvellous of ales.

Ales like this one.

(You may have noticed that I omitted to mention any similar revelations regarding the other supposed benefit of 'organic' produce - the moral/ethical ingredient - but then I sense it's better to leave all of you hopelessly decent individuals to judge that aspect of 'organic' produce for yourselves.)

Just for the record, I'm not being flippant here. This beer really does feel fresh, it does feel authentic, it absolutely does feel unmolested by undesirable man-made potions, and in some small way (to lend some small credence to the issue of morality) it did leave me with an odd sense that I was 'doing the right thing.'

In spite of all this, though, I did find myself wondering what a claim of 'organic' status had required this beer to go without. This was chiefly because however fresh, authentic, or ethically sound the drink experience was - I couldn't help thinking that the brew could have done with a little extra 'something' to really allow it to fulfil it's vast potential.

But what did I think that missing 'something' was?

Was it a touch more of that delicious biscuit sweetness to help balance those magnificent grapefruit/peach hops?

I doubt it - it felt extremely well judged by the end.

Was it a need of a fraction more from those roasted nuts to better complement the delicately zesty hops?

Equally unlikely, for similar reasons.

Was the salty sharpness in the finish allowed too much room to dominate the lingering floral theme?

Not on your nelly! That was probably the highlight of the whole thing.

What was it then?

Well, finally, as I sank the last of the liquid from the glass (mournfully, I should add) I think I managed to work it out.

When a beer is so unrelentingly 'correct' in every sense - it crosses a line and becomes everything a beer should never be.

Saintly, straight-laced, prim and proper, conscientious - and perhaps even just a little bit sober.

In short - I think this ale could do with a dark side to really ignite it and bring it alive.

It needn't even be too dark, I'm really not talking about 'evil'. The merest of mischievous grins would be more than enough. Just something to remind us that, underneath all that glowing exterior of high standards and respectability - it's still just a little bit naughty.

Beer just doesn't feel quite right when it's trying to be angelic. It always needs at least a hint of the devil inside it. Otherwise it's just an extremely pleasant alcoholic soft drink.

Remarkable freshness and a fully-functioning moral compass are all very well, but I think I'd be just a little disappointed if all beers tried this hard to be this well behaved.

That said - this particular angel is welcome to keep watch over me for as long as it damn well pleases.

Amen.

Day 52, Beer 52 - St. Peter's "Best Bitter"

Today's Beer

Name – Best Bitter.

Brewer – St. Peter's.

Classification – Bitter. (Marvel at the irony!)

Strength – 3.7% ABV.

Verdict - At A Glance

On the eye – Fine, ancient teak furniture. Lovely.

On the nose – Tantalising fruity malts.

On the tongue – Elegant, unfussy hops and malts - surprisingly robust hops for its strength.

On the subject – Suffolk based St Peter's are well known for their highly distinctive bottles, and they also happen to produce some highly distinctive ales. 90% of those ales are shipped in bottles. These then, are bottled beer specialists.

On the market – Ever increasing national presence. Retailers large and small are joining in – but where better than the brewery's online shop.

On the whole – 8/10

Full Review

'Hopping' is an art.

Or rather, it is one artistic part of a much greater artistic whole – the brewing of good beer.

In theory, all art requires artists to bring it into being, and it is fair to say - on the evidence contained in this bottle - that the folks at St. Peter's are certainly artists, and they have 'brought into being' a bitter which has been hopped with considerable artistic flair.

There is a sense of modest superiority to the bitterness of this beer, and its carefully balanced relationship with some rich, buttery malts makes for an intensely satisfying drink experience.

It's not overly complex, relying instead on the two mainstays of contemporary ale – those very same hops and malts – but these have all been selected, gathered and assembled with such skill that they leave no real need of further character points.

It is of 'session' strength, too – meaning many of these can be enjoyed back to back and, my word, how that notion appeals.

But this beer's strength also makes me wonder if the term 'Best' might have started to lose it's way a little. I feel sure that Best used to signify higher strength than 'Ordinary Bitter' or just plain old 'Bitter' - but 3.7% would appear to leave little room for a yet weaker bitter to appear in the range. So, shouldn't that really make this 'St. Peter's Bitter'?

Having said that, when a brew tastes as good as this - what better name is there than 'Best.'

There are more from the St Peter's range to come here on The Year, but as a first impression – this brew has laid down an extremely strong marker.

This really is bitter at its best.

This really is best bitter.

Greet the St. Peter's!

Suffolk-based St. Peter's have sent this array of unmistakable glassware over to The Bottled Beer Year.

A 'saintly' deed indeed, say I!

From left to right we see twin-sets of their -

Suffolk Gold 

Organic Ale 

Mild 

Honey Porter 

Organic Best Bitter

Best Bitter

The bottles themselves are almost satisfying enough on their own, but over the course of the next few weeks - it's their contents that will be the real focus!

Stay tuned.