St Peters Cream Stout

St. Peter’s Cream Stout 1/2 liter bottle Medium pour in an English Pint Recent brewing?(L7025 18:31), creamed 05/07 Poured black with a huge light brown frothy rocky mostly lasting head with good lacing. Smelt of strong sweet black licorice, fruity esters ( almost bananas), chocolate, cola. Taste was upfront strong sweet and bitter black licorice, cola, dried dark fruit and chocolate and burnt grain followed by a strong to harsh bitter burnt grain taste and moderate sweet raisins and molasses, and light grass hops on a long finish. Palate was medium to full bodied, creamy, softly carbonated and moderately astringent. Overall, this is a cream stout with lots of guts. The bitterness of a stout is still there, only a notch above the sweet aspect of the creaminess. Great balance, and a classic in my book. I only wish they hadn’t changed their bottle to a more classic round shape. I say go back to the old oval flask looking bottle!

500ml bottle
Pours a sinister dark black with hints of chestnut on the edges. Nice poofy light-tan head forms on pour, soon gives way to a two-bubble layer that leaves gobs of lace on the inside of the glass. Wonderfully tantalizing aroma of deep roasted grain, chocolate, molasses, licorice, apples, and pungent bitter hops with a slight piney edge. The flavor is dominated by the roast grains and piney bitter hops. Chocolate and molasses eventually cut through, bringing with them a hint of apple and a slight lactose sweetness. For a cream stout, the cream part sure does play a minor role. Full-bodied, thick palate with a slight graininess and a long, dry aftertaste. Yeh, this stuff is pretty damn good.

500ml bottle - Pours dark brown with a very thin tan head. Based on other reviews, the latter seems to vary a lot between bottles. It has a nice, ample aroma of dark roasted malts and chocolate with a little coffee in there too. The flavor is that roast malt and lots of dark chocolate. Unfortunately it’s on the watery side for a stout. The carbonation is quite low and the the mouthfeel is creamy and smooth. Good, but it could be better with more body. It’s not good enough for the $4.59 a bottle liquor store price around here.

500ml Bottle: Pours dark brown, good sized taupe head. Aroma of your traditional cream stout suspects: roasted malt, chocolate, off-milk, espresso. Nice, though. Flavour followed those offers with the added hopping that’s actually quite strong, but balanced. Altogether quite good, but a bit watery for what I’d traditionally like. Enjoyable, though.

(Bottle, Jerusalem Tavern, Farringdon, London 25 Apr 2007) Dark brown, nearly black, colour with small but firm head. Roasted nose with dark chocolate and strong, black coffee. Slightly vinous. Heavily roasted taste with chocolate, coffee (with cream) and a creamy bittersweet finish. Medium to full body with a slightly oily mouthfeel. Very nice.

Deep black, rich complex smokey nose, with a sweet rich malt thats a little burnt, and more complex roast in finsh.

Bottle.Dark chocolate malt and coffee aroma.Black.Bittersweet smoky flavor.Medium bodied.I had been eyeing this one for a while.I’m glad I picked it up.Pretty good.

Of of the most impressive heads I’ve seen: thick, dark, and frothy. Poured a little more tenuous body than I had expected, but the color is a very impressive black. It’s literally as black as black can be; don’t even try to look through the glass. Scent not as roasty as expected, but more chocolate (like 87% cocoa Dagoba chocolate) and coffee beans. "Bittersweet" describes the taste and aftertaste quite well. There is a thinner mouthfeel that detracts from the experience. Overall, I enjoyed it even more because I think it’s unique. I can’t really compare it to many other brews, so it gets points for that.