St. Peters
Brewed by St. Peter’s Brewery
Style: Honey Porter
Bungay, England
St. Peter’s Brewery founded, in 1996, by entrepreneur and branding expert John Murphy, who saw a gap in the market for a modern-day craft artisanal brewery set in the beautiful English countryside.
The area he choose for his enterprise was to be in the village of St. Peter South Elmham, near Bungay, in former traditional agricultural buildings alongside the moated St. Peter’s Hall, deep in the picturesque Suffolk countryside, East Anglia, on the east coast of England. The location is ideal for its excellent water quality used in the brewing process – all beers brewed at St. Peter’s Brewery use water filtered through chalk deep beneath the brewery, obtained from their own deep bore-hole.
Other than their range of ‘traditional’ ales, such as Best Bitter and Gatekeeper Golden Ale, St Peters also produce some more unusual beers, such as Honey Porter, Plum Porter and Citrus Beer, that replicate the traditional pre-nineteenth century practice of adding honey and fruit to create special seasonal brews. Also more recent developments are contemporary session ales such as Stateside Pale Ale, Revival Pilsner and White Raven. And of course for the non alcoholic drinker they created a range of true 0.0% alcohol free beers. St Peter’s Brewery beers are thriving both at home and further afield, exporting to more than 20 countries around the world.
The famous logo of the black bird and the key can be explained with history. The bird is infact a raven and is a symbol of the Vikings, marauders of the North Sea. St Peters Hall has a moat which was most likely used to defend itself from these attackers from the east. The bird is inside a barrel, which of course depicts the brewing tradition and the key represents the keys of Saint Peter – the keys of heaven, clever eh?
Alongside the brewery, St. Peter’s Hall is a historic venue with a bar and restaurant, and is available for functions, weddings, events, meetings and conferences.
The brewery also owns a London pub called The Jerusalem Tavern – a compact beer-lovers hostelry with a historic style, housed in a building dating from the eighteenth century.
Now this isn’t my first beer from St Peters Brewery as I tried their Cream Stout a while ago which truth be told I wasn’t at all enamored with, finding it very bitter and difficult to drink, and not as easy on the stomach as an Irish stout. (read about it here). Those Brits and their strong tasting bitters and stouts – anyway lets see if their honey porter fares any better.
Review: 500ml bottle of St. Peters Honey Porter: 4.5% vol.
This traditional English Porter is one of St Peter’s award winning brews – winning a stackful of gongs down through the years so I approach with high expectations!
Got to love the design of the bottle – looks great, well cool and eye catching in the off licence.
For the appearance it looks quite ok, a good head on the pour, a black colour with a red auburn tinge.
Some light carbonation and bubbles, but head does die a little afterwards, with some lacing on the glass
Overall it looks ok – nice pitch black colour and auburn red at foot of the drink…..even if the head is a bit thin……it will pass….
For the aroma, I find it quite strong on the nose – a really powerful whiff of honey – smells like something is gone off but no its the honey, it really is that strong. Sweet whiff of honey on the nose.
For the taste it exactly follows the nose – very strong taste of honey – and also some dark roasted malts, so much so that it overpowers the hinted tastes of chocolate and vanilla –
Its not that it is particularly unpleasant or anything, just different to what I am used to. I am not someone who drinks a lot of honey porters, so its very interesting and new to me.
If anything it tastes more like a black lager than a porter – and its pretty sessionable. I definitely could see myself drinking a good few of these if I was in a pub and they were on offer.
Very wholesome and filling, you get nice creamy mouthfuls and after a while the vanilla does shine through.
There is a bitterness there and it is a slow burner.
I found the second one a bit harder to stomach – maybe not so sessionable after all? More of a heavy dark chocolate bitterness. That and the strong flavours of honey – found the second one more bitter and too tough for my delicate stomach.
So loved the first one, not so sure about the second one. Overall then I guess I am undecided! Note to self – need to try again as I am not so sure if I am a fan or not!