Tasting Notes: St Peter’s Organic Ale
Brewery: St Peter's
Origin: Bungay, Suffolk, England
ABV: 4.5%
Version: 500ml bottle
Source: Sainsbury's
Happily continuing the Organic theme re-started by Ed with his Oxford Gold post yesterday, we now come to the St. Peter's Brewery's organic variant.
The first thing you notice about the St. Peter's is the retro-styling of the elegant, demi-lozenge shaped bottle. Clearly setting out to make a statement there, although my cynical side fears an emphasis on style might betray a lack of substance, a taste of the brew itself is more than enough to dispel that particular worry.
Pouring a golden amber colour with a very thin head, this ale has a wonderfully complex flavour to it: peppery, nutty and chocolatey all at once. The rich texture of the beer gives it a very pleasant mouth-feel and its overall character is sharp, dry and bitter with lingering hoppiness. All in all: very good stuff indeed. Definite thumbs-up from me.
For a while, I naively thought this was perhaps the only beer in the St Peter's range, having only ever seen this one example in the stores (until I encountered the Amarillo in my Sainsbury's haul the other day). But a quick glance at their online store reveals a much wider range, including an organic bitter, two different porters and a stout, a bottled mild and a gluten-free pilsner-style.
A mixed case for £22.00, y'say? Where did I put my credit card?
Related posts:
I have tried the St Peters Organic Bitter. I also blogged about it here (The Beer Diary).
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Hello theculinarybrewer! Thanks for dropping by, I'm a big fan of the beer diary. Reading your review of the Organic Bitter, it makes me even more determined to try it, just to test the whole 'no hangovers from drinking organic beer' theory, if nothing else. And I do like a good malt-driven beer, although I'm learning to love the hops a bit more as I taste a few different, hoppier ales.
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You should be able to pick up some more from the St Peter's range next week. The Vineyard usually has a few bottles of their Old Style Porter and Cream Stout lying about.
And they've changed the bottle - it's still the same colour with that rippled effect at the bottom, but it's now round.
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Yeah, I spotted the round bottles on their website, which seem to be available alongside the lozenge-shaped ones. Maybe they take up less space on retailer's shelves, or something..?
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Having now sampled this myself I can add I found it a subtley flavoured ale, the hoppy bitterness well controlled to give a light fruity flavour, with just a hint of lemon in the background. Didn't pick up the peppery notes though. A well crafted ale, but then I'd expect nothing less from St Peter's.
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Lemon, y'say? Hmmm. Didn't pick up on that, which sounds like an excuse to re-visit and try again, to me... although I've promised the missus I'll sample (and write-up) some of the 40-odd bottles in the cupboard before I buy any more, especially repeats.
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