Cambridge Sgt. Pepper
Saison-style ale with Peppercorns. It was twenty years ago today…
Well, almost twenty years ago today, as we present to you the first of three special Anniversary Beers in celebration of our upcoming Twentieth Anniversary!
It was April Fool’s Day, 1989, when Phil “Brewdaddy” Bannatyne first opened the doors to what would become one of the preeminent breweries in the country. Of course, true to the spirit of the day, it would be another month before the first house-made beers would be available on draft.
Sgt. Pepper has been brewed with Pilsner, CaraVienne, and Rye malts, plus Magnum and Spalter hops. But the driving force behind this beer is the contribution from whole peppercorns! Black, Green, White, and Pink Peppercorns were added to the brewkettle, and they provide a noticeable fresh, herbal spiciness to the nose and through the palate. Pink pepper provides a high, floral character mostly as an aromatic, and Green pepper offers an herbal freshness with slight heat. White pepper contributes a subtle earthiness, and Black pepper engages the palate in a lingering, tingling warmth. All combine to accentuate the complexities of our Belgian yeast, and are balanced by crisp malt character with a hint of sweetness.
OG: 1.054 (13.5*P) FG: 1.008 (2*P) ABV: 6.0%
Well, almost twenty years ago today, as we present to you the first of three special Anniversary Beers in celebration of our upcoming Twentieth Anniversary!
It was April Fool’s Day, 1989, when Phil “Brewdaddy” Bannatyne first opened the doors to what would become one of the preeminent breweries in the country. Of course, true to the spirit of the day, it would be another month before the first house-made beers would be available on draft.
Sgt. Pepper has been brewed with Pilsner, CaraVienne, and Rye malts, plus Magnum and Spalter hops. But the driving force behind this beer is the contribution from whole peppercorns! Black, Green, White, and Pink Peppercorns were added to the brewkettle, and they provide a noticeable fresh, herbal spiciness to the nose and through the palate. Pink pepper provides a high, floral character mostly as an aromatic, and Green pepper offers an herbal freshness with slight heat. White pepper contributes a subtle earthiness, and Black pepper engages the palate in a lingering, tingling warmth. All combine to accentuate the complexities of our Belgian yeast, and are balanced by crisp malt character with a hint of sweetness.
OG: 1.054 (13.5*P) FG: 1.008 (2*P) ABV: 6.0%
3.4
189 reviews
Cambridge, United States
Community reviews
Bottle. Pours a copper color with a thin head. Taste is spicy and peppery with a yeasty wheat characteristics. Interning and flavorful
Bomber. Pours an amber orange with an off white head and aroma of peppercorn and malt. Taste is of peppers up front, with malt, caramel, yeast, and brett into the peppery finish.
Pours a dark copper pour with a beige head . Nose is peppery with light malt. Taste is peppery , but pleasantly so and not over the top, with a nice confluence of hops and malt. Finish is peppery, with a moderately long finish . Nice ! quaff score 7 / 10
On draught over the years, most recently, 1/11/16 at the brewery.
Mildly hazy, light amber-golden body has an off-white head atop that shows moderately-strong retention.
The nose divulges little, if any of the pepper, probably not able to tell it apart from yeast phenols. Lots of bready vienna malts, with some herbal hop notes that add complexity. Little bit of citrus character with vanilla and a touch of mustiness. Pretty straightforward Belgian ale-like characteristics. Not going to confuse this for Dupont or Blaugies, yet nor are you going to confuse it with the pseudo "saisons" running rampant in American breweries. No alcohol or flaws noted.
The flavor is where this thing really shines, in my opinion. The peppers begin fairly reserved, with light honey, bread and dried herb notes. Begins to gain a peppery spiciness and by the finish the dry, but highly flavorful pepper notes linger very lovingly on the palate. I don’t like spiced saisons, and I’ll admit there’s probably a little novelty here, like in a chili beer, but I think this thing works wonderfully. There’s enough acidity from the yeast to give it a real enough Belgian character, while malt and hop provide enough complexity to prevent this from being a one-trick pony. Tight carbonation, a bit of a bready, hard texture, but with some more maltiness emerging as it warms.
This was poured into a tulip glass, thinking it was a saison, but after smelling and tasting, this does show enough saison characteristics to proceed in the same glass.
The appearance was a semi-dark hazy burnt orange to brown color with a one finger white foamy head that dissipated within less than thirty seconds leaving some light messy lacing sliding into the beer.
The smell starts off with a strong spicy peppercorn, almost overbearing, but as it warms, light breadiness with some lemon shows up wanting to balance.
The taste was mainly spicy with a hotness running into the breadiness and sweet lemon. Peppercorn dominates the aftertaste and allows a quick hot to spicy finish.
On the palate, this one sat about a medium on the body with a decent sipping quality about it. Carbonation feels fine as a saison or a vegetable beer, whatever one wants to really call it.
Overall, I liked this one for me, but if you don’t like "peppercorn" and a lot of it, I probably wouldn’t buy this if I were you. It’s a bit of a palate wrecker.
W aromacie cudowna kompozycja belgijskich fenoli, kwiatów, słodkich owoców i ziół, nieco biszkoptowego słodu, genialny! W smaku bardzo belgijskie w charakterze, półpełne z lekkimi przyprawami, żytnią ziemistością i lekką brzoskwinką, posmak wyraźnie pieprzny, drapiący w gardło, ale mimo wszystko pasuje to tu, nadaje piwu charakteru. Do pełni szczęścia brakuje bogatszego, bardziej złożonego smaku, choć i tak jest znakomicie. I mega pijalnie!
Bottle back from San Francisco. Love that I have to go to sf to bring a beer from Boston back. Never mind that there is still a lot of Pepper here. A little bit of lemon. Bit of a wild yeastyness. Aroma is lemon and tart, pretty nice all around. The pepper is a little powerful though.
On tap at the brewpub. Pour is clear orange with a small white head and good lacing. Big cracked pepper aroma - some lemongrass, biscuit, floral, herbal and musty. Taste is lemons, biscuit, ground pepper, some herbs, basil, and bread with a big spicy finish. Medium body with high carbonation. Not bad - pretty refreshing.
I can definitively taste the peppercorn, especially as an aftertaste. Light orange color.
Peppercorns are obvious. The saison itself is nice and has extra spIces from the peppercorns. Color is light. Very low carbonation. Aroma is nice. Bottle
Good, but the pepper is not strong enough, and the beer itself is a bit bland.
2014-10-19 Bottle. Pours deep golden with a white head. Aroma of saison beer with pepper. Taste is spicy with a pleasant presence of pepper. Good beer.
Hazy orange and copper coloured body with a thinnish, fast-dying tan head. Aroma of white pepper, coriander seed, curacao, yeast, alcohol and quite a bit of wheat. Medium-bodied; Assertive grassy and herbal notes with a lot of curacao along with yeast and white pepper kick showing some light fruit near the end. Aftertaste showing a touch of light hops, alcohol, grass and a bit more coriander seed than before - pungent. Overall, a nice beer with a good kick of spices and a pleasant yeast flavour near the end. I sampled this 65 cL bottle purchased from The Charleston Beer Exchange a few hours ago on 20-April-2015 for US$7,99 sampled in my hotel room in the evening on 20-April-2015.
Ciekawe piwo choc wygladajace zwyczajowo, Mala pianka, mglista barwa pomaranczowa, niskie wysycenie. Zapach suszonej moreli. W smaku owoce moreli, gruszka oraz lepki karmel z przyprawowym dominujacym smakiem pieprzu i zio. W gardle lekko i przyjemnie drapie. Pieprz rozgrzewa i silny jest ten posmak w ustach. Troche zdominowal ten pieprz bo malo bylo chmielu w smaku jak i zapachu.
I’m a big fan of this beer, it’s been a while since I’ve had it so I’ve been waiting to add it to RB. When I took a homebrewing class and made a peppercorn rye bock, I brought this in to show how peppercorn and rye were natural partners and could round out a beer, even though this is a completely different style.
It pours a hazy amber, almost muddled looking, from a bottle. Nose is a sour earthiness. Flavor has some citrusy fruit, both dry and sweet at the same time, but then has this great spiciness from the peppercorns which add considerable and long-lasting heat, and a slight sourness from the rye. Not what I expect from a saison, but the additions make a great and inspired beer.
Prezentacja:
bursztynowe, nieprzejrzyste, piany słaba sycząca, natychmiast opada do pierścienia
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Aromat:
słodki - karmel z morelą, śliwką, w tle winogrona, jabłka skręcajace lekko w kieunku belgijskich przypraw i skóry
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Smak:
słodkie, za aromatem - karmel z owocami, a po przełknięciu w przełyku piecze pieprzowa ostrość, trwa tam dłuższą chwilę
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Odczucie:
średnie ciało, dosyć mocno nasycone, troszkę zalepia
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Ogólnie:
złożone, ale dupy nie urywa, pierwszy łyk daje przyjemne pieczenie, kolejne już zalegające
.
The beer pours a cloudy amber with a small white head that fades quickly. The aroma blends Belgian yeast with hints of rye, pink peppercorns, and floral hops. The taste is slightly spice-filled, mildly sweet, slightly sour with a sweet, Belgian yeast aftertaste. The palate fuses an average carbonation, thick texture, and medium body.
I picked up a bomber of this at Andrew’s Cheese Shop in Santa Monica and took it to Clark’s superbowl party, where I ended up drinking most of it myself while the rest of the crowd stuck with more traditional fare. This one was my first Cambridge Brewing beer, and after everything I’ve heard I was eager to see if they lived up.
On this one, they did. Hazy yellow pour, peppercorns on the nose alongside a nice dusty American saison nose, without too much in the way of sweetness or fruity esters. The flavor pretty much followed, certainly with plenty of pepper flavor but no heat, playing well and blending with the saison character. I was really impressed and would happily repeat this one any time.
650ml bottle. Minimally cloudy, deep golden colour with small, frothy, half-way lasting, minimally lacing, off-white head. Fruity and spicy yeasty aroma, hints of plum and berries. Taste is slightly sweet malty, fruity, notesof plum, slightly spicy yeasty overtones, a cautious peppery notes unfolds in the finish.
Dark golden pour. Small white head. Little lacing. Pepper and malt aroma. Malty with big pepper notes. Spicy.
Bottle at Craig’s...spicy pink peppercorns, wood aged aroma...rich textured mouthfeel, really well balanced heat..Pepper hits you in the back of the throat then fades...Ace.
bottle at home ... golden amber .. big white head ... soft zezty peppery fruit nose ... juicy fruits .. soft oily orange ...long dry peppery fruits .. dry orange fruits ...
Bottle at Craig’s. Pours clear pale gold with a thin white head. Aromas of light pepper, hot spice Taste is more pepper, pink peppercorns. light pepper burn at the end, but nicely done.
Bottle. Golden with white head. Aroma of pepper, apple, clove. Taste if black pepper, full on, caramel. Sweet.
Bottle at Craig’s. Pours pale amber, nose is peppery, sweet toffee, taste is dry, peppery, sweet, toffee, floral, esters.
Pours hazy orange with a small white head. The aroma has mushy malt, pepper, stone fruit, spice and mild lightly toasty malt. Only light, if any, saison/farmhouse notes. Very pepper heavy. It has a medium crisp biting body with semi-sharp carbonation. The flavor starts off with pepper, pepper and more pepper. There is some stone fruit and some smooth Belgian yeast (not saisony though). The finish unsurprisingly has lots of pepper qualities. I did enjoy this, but you have to be a fan of heavy pepper to really enjoy it.
Sample at Boulevardia 2014. Comes a somewhat cloudy golden orange with a small white head. Aroma of citrus, floral, and spice(?). Taste is citrus, malt, floral, and a bit of peppercorn. Interesting.
Tap at brewery. Cloudy yellow orange pour. Pepper, citrus, floral, soapy. Light body. Spicy and sharp carbonation. Spicy finish. Pretty nice
Oct, 2013. JDW. Soft blandish malt with soap notes and some pepper (hah!) Some faint honey. And odd and unattractive beer.
Ins Glas ergießt sich ein leicht trübes dunkel goldgelbes Bier mit geringer Schaumkrone. Geruch nach Pfefferkörner, dieser Geruch sticht sehr hervor und lässt somit andere Aromen kaum durch. Geschmack malzig fruchtig, zunächst nur leichter Geschmack nach Pfeffer, im Abgang hält sich dieser Geschmack dann ziemlich lange.