Many years ago—decades, actually—I would walk into a Glebe pub and if one of the owners, Rose, was behind the bar, I would greet her and then say, "A pint of PP, please."
Rose knew what I meant and she'd reach for a clean pint glass and go to a tap that had a picture of a black Labrador on it. Around the picture was the proper name of the porter that flowed into the glass: Scotch-Irish Brewing Company Black Irish Porter.
But I affectionately referred to the beer as PP—Perry's Porter. Perry, the owner of the brewery and brewmaster (and very good friend of mine), came up with the nickname at its release party, at the Arrow & Loon Pub (though, when he said it, he used a bit of a French accent and made it sound like he was saying "pee-pee"). Rose and Paul, the original owners of this now-gone establishment, became friends with Perry just before he started his brewery and just before they opened the pub, and they were the first pub in Ottawa to serve Perry's beer.
They automatically put any of his releases on rotation and they always sold out.
Perry's third release was his Irish-styled porter, following on the success of his session ale and IPA, and followed by a cask-conditioned ale that was hand-drawn and served at room temperature.
And I'll never forget Perry's 2005 Imperial Stout, which he said would hold up for 10 years, assuming that people kept it that long. I wrote about it a few times: when it was six years old, at the beginning of 2015, when the brew was still pouring well, and in December of 2015, when the beer reached its tenth anniversary, proving that Perry hadn't lied about the stout's longevity.
(I had my final bottles of Tsarina Katarina 2005 Imperial Stout a couple of years later and while there was no fizz left, the flavours were still sound.)
Perry's brewery is long-gone, having sold the business to Ottawa's Heritage Brewery, which in turn was bought up by what is now Kichesippi Beer Company. None of Perry's recipes survived the transfer and that was purely Kichesippi's loss in retiring them.
And though Perry is out of the beer industry, he has never stopped making beer, though he only makes small batches for himself, nowadays. Until this past weekend, that is.
In addition to being a great beer maker, Perry also has a great singing voice, and he has joined my other friends, DW, and me for a few karaoke nights. Last Saturday, he was out with us again at Bistro-Bar l'Original, in the Hull sector of Gatineau.
"Don't let me forget that I have some beer for you in the trunk of my car," he said as we sat down. "It's a cask-conditioned version of my porter."
I was immediately excited. I loved PP and missed it over the decades since I last had a bottle, which I had picked up at my friendly neighbourhood LCBO. It was the Irish-styled porter by which I've measured every dry porter I've come across.
And I was excited to try a cask-conditioned version.
"Just remember that there'll be sediment at the bottom of the bottle, so you won't want to pour it all out into your glass," he said, as he handed me an 8-pack at the end of the night, "unless you like pooping a lot."
I poured my first glass a couple of days ago and here are my thoughts. I hope I don't sound like I'm rubbing in the fact that this beer is not for sale anywhere, and that if I share any of it, it'll be with a special friend or my father, who also loves dark ales.
Here goes:
Perry Mason (formerly, Scotch-Irish Brewing Company)
Ottawa ON
Appearance: pours a dark, walnut brown with a fizzy, taupe head that quickly settles to a fine lace. Bubbles cling to the inside of the glass but dissipate, and the beer turns less fizzy to flattish by the time you reach the bottom of the glass. And when I reached the bottom of my glass, I noticed only the slightest traces of a greyish, silty sediment (I had left about a teaspoon or so of beer in the bottle when I poured, and even at that, I didn't see much sediment when I looked into the bottom of the bottle).
Nose: cocoa and a touch of prunes.
Palate: rich espresso and cocoa, paired with tobacco and prunes. There's a bit of alcohol that swirls around in the mouth but doesn't steal the show; rather, it holds everything together in a lingering finish.
Overall impression: Perry has never made a beer that I didn't like, and I don't think I'm being biased because he's a good friend. There was one time, when he invited me to join him for Volo Cask Days in Toronto, and he had submitted a firkin of a pumpkin ale. After setting up and tapping the mini keg, he poured us each a sample.
It was awful and I told him so. He agreed but suggested that we let the firkin settle, as it had just come from the car after the four-and-a-half-hour drive. We had a few hours before the event started, so we went to grab a meal and wander this Toronto neighbourhood.
When the festival started, we tried the ale again and it had completely transformed into one of the best pumpkin ales I've ever had the good fortune to try. And many people at the festival agreed, as it was voted the best pumpkin ale of the show and outpoured all other pumpkin ales by three to one.
I love a good porter and Perry makes a great one. Even though it loses its effervescence before you finish your glass, the flavours make you not care about bubbles. Everything else comes together and goes down easily.
Beer O'Clock rating: 🍺🍺🍺
Cask-conditioned beer doesn't have a long shelf life so I'll likely finish the rest of Perry's porter over the next week or so. I'd like to save a couple of the bottles, to take to Toronto to share with a good friend, who I'm meeting in early May. I think the bottles should last and I'm hopeful that they handle the trip to Toronto well.
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment