Last night I enjoyed St. Peter's Old-Style Porter with dinner, and despite the green bottle (see 2 posts ago), I was pleasantly surprised. Though rarely made this way today, traditional porter is a blend of an older, more mature ale and a younger, lighter one. This process allowed porter brewers to save only a portion of their batches for aging and blend the other portion with older batches for immediate distribution.
St. Peter's Old-Style Porter is brewed in this traditional manner, which provides a unique character to the beer. There are hints of "age" in the beer--a very mild sourness, some oxidation, etc--but the blending mellows these aged notes with a fresher brewed beer, allowing for an incredibly complex flavor profile. There was even some skunkiness from the green bottle, but I purposely chose a bottle from the back of the shelf at the store (where it's darker) to minimize the chance of the beer being light-struck. The nice thing about a darker, more robust beer is that these skunked flavors and aromas quickly dissipate and are overwhelmed by the beer's true character. I'm definitely looking forward to trying a few more of St. Peter's beers...!now if only they would drop the green bottles!
The bottles, though problematic for skunk potential, are based on a historical bottle and used to be more oval/flask shaped. I remember getting them that way a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteThey used to have a tag that said, "Our beautiful flask-shaped oval bottle is a faithful 500ml copy of one produced c.1770 for Thomas Gerrard of Gibbstown, just across the Delware River from Phildelphia"
So, I agree that the green is a problem but the idea rocks, in my opinion.
I'm drinking this porter as I type. Just googled the name and got straight to this post. Great beer!
ReplyDeleteI'm new to the porter style, but will definately try some more.
Cheers!
Merino, Amsterdam NL.