TMS Beer Project: St. Peter's IPA

With the name Saloon included in our moniker, one could surmise that we here at TMS like to drinky drinky. One that would make such an assumption would be correct, thereby throwing out the whole, 'when you assume you make an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me' bullshit. We also like to plagiarize each other. In the same vein as the Wrigleyville Bar Project, we are proud to bring you another installment of the TMS Beer Project. The premise is simple: we review beers. Each rating will feature a variety of scores from 1-10 and comments from the bartender. This is a public service damn it. We don't want you to be the sucker who pays $15 for a six pack of some overrated Belgian cat piss.

Now, we all drink massive amounts of beer so we know what we speak of. Each of us seem to have a favorite style of beer though. I myself like cerveza from south of the border. Will we be reviewing macrobrews like Bud and Coors? Oh you bet your Aunt Susie's ass we will. For purposes of this science experiment, and it is in the name of science, those will be the "control" group. Use them as a base line for when we review lesser known imports and microbrews. Without further ado, I bring you our next beer:

St. Peter's India Pale Ale

Brewery: St. Peter's Brewery, Suffolk, UK
Type: IPA
Recepticle: Bottle

Drinkability (1 being Jim Jones' kool-aid, 10 being the nectar of the gods): 7 - This is a premium IPA, yet smooth, allowing for multiple pints to be consumed if allowed. Just know that after three your ass will be kicked.

Heartiness (1 being fresh mountain spring water, 10 being a pureed British steak infected with mad cow disease): 6 - Lots of hops. If you don't like bitter beers, you're not an IPA fan anyway. But it's not like you have to chew it to get it down. Fairly smooth and inviting for an IPA, especially held up to what you find at some American microbrews.

Intoxication (1 being your friend's weird pentecostal grandmother high on Jesus, 10 being Boris Yeltsin on a week long bender in the Crimea): 7 - Pale ales are my bread and butter. I can drink them like most guys drink light American beers, so the 7 doesn't bother me too much. Like Tusker, this one does not have the alcohol content posted on the label.

Celebrities You May See Drinking This Brew: I could see a guy like Hugh Laurie sitting in a pub drinking this. British football players that don't favor porters (except Beckham, who fancies himself a strawberry daiqueri).

Affordability ($ being chicklets in Tijuana, $$$$ being diamond encrusted braised lamb shank from a trendy cafe on the Champs d'Elysee): One bottle equals one pint, so you're not getting jipped with any 12 oz. bullshit. That being said, this pint was $3.99, and they're sold as individual bottles, not packs. It equates to pretty much a dollar under what you would pay in a bar for an IPA, so I'm going with $$$.

Overall: 8 - For me, a couple of these would be a slice of heaven on a low-key evening at home. I could see it becoming a habit to pick one of these up as a treat every time that I run to the liquor store with other items in mind.