Honey beers are something I've been stung with before, so it was with trepidation I approached St. Peter's Honey Porter. This is a flat, deep red ale with a nose full of sweet honey perfume. The honey is there in the taste as well, running in parallel with sharp hops of the foundation porter. The two flavours don't really gel until the very end, when the chocolate notes come out and compliment the added sweetness quite beautifully. Before this, however, it's a bit of a discord. I remain sceptical about the place of honey in brewing.
St. Peter's Ruby Red Ale is very much in the Irish style, with warm caramel tempered by a sharp hoppy finish. Definitely one of the better examples of the genre but when I'm after this kind of thing I prefer to buy local -- Moling's or Porterhouse Red.
Last up from the Suffolk brewer is St. Peter's Strong Ale. Like all St. Peter's beers it has a powerful individual aroma. The taste is bitter at first but soon mellows to a fruity sweetness. At 5.1% it's not especially strong, but it does carry a bock-like gravity which imparts the character of a much heavier ale.
More quality stuff from St. Peter's, but I still maintain that stout is where they excel.
3 months ago
I'm a fan of St Peter's, though I wish they'd bottle condition their beers - or at least some of them - rather than exporting a filtered product. From the cask they're so much better.
ReplyDeleteCould it be to keep the alcohol (and therefore excise duty) down?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't think so - you would normally expect bottle conditioning to add much alcohol.
ReplyDelete