St. Peters Old Style Porter
April 28, 2010
Not too long ago, I was mightily impressed with my first beer by St. Peter’s brewery; Winter Ale. Now that were in the midst of another English Ale Month here at The Brew Club (its an April thing we do) I’m getting a chance to try St. Peter’s Old-Style Porter.
The Old-Style Porter pours a very dark color that one might think is black at first. Upon further inspection, it turns out that this beer is an almost clear ruby red color! The head is foamy and beige in color – nothing all that interesting but worth noting.
The Old-Style Porter aroma at first worried me because I picked up a little bit of skunkiness in the beer as something in the background. Looking at the bottle, there’s really no ‘best-by’ date so who knows how long it might have been sitting around. While I personally think the bottle design is very cool looking, I’m wondering if a switch from green glass to brown glass might be worth considering. OK, so there was a little skunkiness – will that ruin the beer?
Nah! I powered right through that and found that the beer was pretty good!
To be fair, there was also some nice roasted malt scents and something sweet like toffee which were really the dominant players.
This 5.1%ABV porter is an easy drinker. Its very smooth and surprisingly thin. The thinness isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but a little more body would have been nice. The general flavors are similar to what’s picked up in the smell – minus the skunky thing. Having tried the beer, I’m going to say it isn’t skunky because it didn’t taste like an off beer. Maybe it’s the water they use or perhaps its an intentional characteristic that I’m misinterpreting?
St. Peter’s Old-Style Porter is a tad thin, but the flavors are pretty good and once again you’re getting roasted malts, a buttery sweetness and some dry bitterness in the finish.
Was this a ‘Wow’ porter? I’d say no, it wasn’t. While not bad, it didn’t really impress me either and unlike the Winter Ale that I tried a while back, I doubt I’d buy this one again – there are better porters. It had some interesting flavors, but it wasn’t enough to compensate for the thin body and slightly odd aroma.
Rating: 
Posted in 2 Star Reviews, Ales, English Beers
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April 29th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
As someone who loves his beers either big and robust or mellow and sublime, I have issues with most porters. They occupy a space between the kinds of beers I appreciate and usually wind up letting me down. it’s like someone got halfway to making a good stout and gave up. Usually it’s the thin body that gets me, and this one sounds like no exception.
It’s ironic (or moronic) that the first beer I brewed was a porter, but it has oak and bourbon in the mix, so I ‘m hoping that blow the roof of the thing. I’ll find out in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, the only porter I’ve really enjoyed is Victory’s Baltic Thunder. We’ll see about mine…
April 29th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Jim, that’s a pretty good assessment actually. I’ve had a few good porters, (Kona’s Pipeline and Sam Smith’s Taddy Porter comes to mind) but this one fits well in the bland file. You’re right, it was like an unfinished product.
Anyway, I’m sure your homebrew porter is going to be great!
Scott-TheBrewClub´s last blog ..Samuel Smith’s Famous Taddy Porter
April 29th, 2010 at 6:51 pm
What a letdown from the Taddy. I actually went to my beer store yesterday and asked for it, and they had about 5 different Sam Smiths, and not one Taddy! I’ve requested it, hopefully it shows up.
Don´s last blog ..Lagunitas Undercover Ale: Keeping Deep Cover
April 29th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
Don, while I haven’t had the entire Sam Smith’s lineup yet, but they seem to make everything well!
Scott-TheBrewClub´s last blog ..Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout
May 4th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
I actually think this beer is decent. It’s no Sam Smiths but I still like it. Their Winter Ale seems, to me, to be styled as a Porter and is more robust. I think you might enjoy that one a bit more.
Michael Reinhardt´s last blog ..Back in the Game
May 5th, 2010 at 8:20 am
Thanks Michael. I did mention that I really enjoyed their Winter Ale which I thought was excellent. I have a couple more beer from these guys (golden ale and organic ale) to try so we’ll see how that goes.
Scott-TheBrewClub´s last blog ..Beer Can Cannon – Gotta Love It!