Name: St Peter’s Brewery India Pale Ale

Style: English IPA

Country: England

ABV: 5.5%

Beer description: St. Peter’s Brewery comes to us from Suffolk. Their beer is brewed in a medieval hall that dates back to the 1200’s. It’s doubtful that the brewery itself is that old, but, judging by the bottle, St. Peter’s Brewery does like to keep things old fashioned. Their bottle is an old design originally from the U.S.A, in the shape of a flask. This is their IPA. It’s expected that St. Peter’s will be doing a more traditional IPA: they look to be a traditional brewery and the alcohol is fairly low by today’s standards. Because of this, although the bottle says “India Pale Ale,” we’re taking the liberty throwing this one into the English IPA category.

On pouring, the suspicions that this is a decidedly traditional IPA start to be confirmed as this beer is fairly light for an IPA. It’s a lovely tan colour with a off white head that sticks around. The head is actually quite thick and really sticks to the side of the glass. A head this thick is usually reserved for darker beers like porter or stouts, and it’s great to see on a light beer.

The smell of this beer has a very earthy quality about it and a slight sour/rustic smell to it; it smells like the good parts of a farm. There seems to be a mixture of Old and New World hops as there is a bit of pine and citrus about the aroma. However, it’s more dominated by the spice and earthiness of British hops. Looking around the aroma, the malt and some fresh cut grass come out.

The strong head on this beer makes it very creamy as it hits the mouth and it’s great; it’s an exceptionally creamy and smooth beer that seems to take a cue for an ESB. Up the front of the taste is some lovely vanilla and biscuit flavours which is all rolled in with the creaminess. It’s almost like a shortbread in beer form. There’s a good, sharp bitterness at the end of the beer, but it’s far from overboard. The bitterness dies away quite quickly making for something with a nice bitter kick, but still a nice, sessionable beer.

This beer wouldn’t really be classed as a session IPA, as it’s not trying to be a new age IPA, it’s trying to be a traditional English IPA. That being said though, a beer like this works well as a session IPA. It’s got a good body, a good amount of bitterness, and the depth of flavour that IPA drinkers like.

Check out other English IPA reviews.

Check out other St. Peter’s Brewery reviews.