St Peter’s: Organic Ale (England: Bitter: 4.5% ABV)
Visual: Clear pale gold. Moderate, just off white, creamy head. Leaves lace rings.
Nose: Lemon. Crisp hops. Creamy. Biscuits.
Body: Smooth. Hop oils and bitterness. Pine cones. Light creamy lime. Light nut oils. Light apples and apricot.
Finish: Clean. Hop oils. Lime touch. Nut oils. Apples. Light cinnamon.
Conclusion: Why do so many British bottled ales smell almost skunked from the bottle, but fine when you pour them into a glass? I’ve seen (ok, well, smelled) this phenomenon a number of times now.
Anyway…
This is another easy going beer with a lot of charm, and also a useful example of now the more melded together flavours of the more traditional ale style can be used to great effect. The feel is lightly creamy and you mainly just get that, hop oils and nut oils. Very easy drinking and soothing but not exactly exciting. However, even in this early state I wasn’t complaining, it still used the feel to make it a satisfying ale, and one to kick back with.
Over time though those melded flavours I mentioned before came out, meshed together apple and apricot elements rose, integrated with the base to back each other up for a decent extra level of complexity. I think I have said before that this is the strength of the more tradition ales when compared to craft ale. Craft ales tend to have sharp, well defined flavours – while traditional ales tend to overlay each other and mix together, to my eyes at least. Both are perfectly good methods, but for this, something very easy to drink, that mellow mixed complexity works well.
Not overly a beer to examine despite that, but a very easy drink with a good chunk of character. Huh. I just found a good beer with “Organic” in the name. Will wonders never cease?
Background: Been a while since I had a St Peter’s beer. For any long time drinkers in the audience, is it just me or did these used to look more hip flask like? They still have a bit of that look but seem to have rounded out a bit since I first encountered the. Could just be the vagarities of memory. I like the idea of organic beers, but so many have been crap over the years that I have come to fear the word “organic” in a beers name. Anyway, this was part of a set of three ales given to me as a present from a workmate. Many thanks.
