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St. Peter’s Cream Stout

St. Peter’s Brewery Co. Ltd.
Bungay, Suffolk, England

Available: AL, AK, AZ, CA, CO, CN, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, VT, WA, WI

Fuggles and Challenger hops plus a blend of 4 local barley malts create an aromatic, strong, dark chocolate cream stout with a satisfying bittersweet aftertaste. Gold Medal winner in the International Beer Competition in 2003 and 2004.

Alcohol (vol.): 6.5%
Color: Dark Brown
Malts used: 4 local barley malts
Hops used: Fuggles, Challenger

• Charles Finkel

  Cream stout in a handsome antique-style package tempts my senses and fills me with great anticipation. That said, where's the head? The few bubbles that do appear disappear quickly. An opaque cocoa brown color, with bright red highlights is redeeming. Flavors of licorice, coffee, tobacco, honey and leather marry beautifully with wok-seared black cod served over organic kale, all finished with dark chocolate. I tasted this beer the day it arrived and again two weeks later. It improved dramatically.

• Michael Jackson

  Brewed at St Peter’s Hall, a 13th-century manor house near Bungay, in the county of Suffolk, about two hours to the north and east of London. The hall was partly built with materials salvaged from a nearby Dominican Priory. The “Black Friars” would surely have approved of this beer’s ebony color. This sample had disappointingly little head for a creamy style of beer. Nor was I initially impressed with an ash-like (charred oak?) aroma, but this quickly mellowed to an appetizing toastiness. In the palate, these characteristics had metamorphosed into an oily dark chocolate. I was amused by inclusion of “patience” among the ingredients. It took me a little time to appreciate this beer, but my patience was rewarded.

• Stan Hieronymus

  Bottling its beers in this curious flask (a copy of an 18th century bottle from New Jersey) and brewing with a variety of spices and fruits, St. Peter’s clearly isn’t restrained by tradition. Nonetheless, Cream Stout delivers a classic stout experience. Complex aromas of chocolate and burnt licorice blend into rich flavors associated with fruit/liqueur-filled Christmas chocolates. Impressive because of the balance it strikes between bitter sweetness and dry bitterness, while flashing only a restrained earthy hop character.