Lovely Saint Winefride
Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project

Lovely Saint WinefrideLovely Saint Winefride
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From:
Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project
 
Massachusetts, United States
Style:
European Dark Lager
ABV:
7%
Score:
88
Avg:
3.94 | pDev: 8.38%
Reviews:
53
Ratings:
129
Status:
Retired
Rated:
Jan 24, 2016
Added:
Feb 10, 2012
Wants:
  8
Gots:
  18
Lovely Saint Winefride is a “brown” lager, created by Dann using a complicated and extremely-rare decoction mash. You’re correct, “Brown Lager” isn’t actually a style, but we wanted to make the most deliciously malty lager imaginable. At the same time we wanted this to taste like a lager you’d actually find in Germany, bursting with authentic character and suitable for the most discerning old-timer.

Besides the decoction mash, we fermented Saint Winefride at 52 degrees and lagered her over a period of 9 weeks in the deep of winter. They just don’t make lagers like this here in New England. The beer is malty, containing a blend of German malts and roasted German malts. There’s even the wisp of smoke near the end.

St Winefride lived in post-Roman Wales from 600 to 660 A.D. She was charming and intelligent, and decided to become a nun. Unfortunately, this news went down poorly with her suitor, Caradoc, who hacked off her head. Luckily, her Uncle Beuno was able to perform the miracle of reattaching it and she recovered fully. (Hooray!). She became an Abbess and governed Gwytherin Abbey in Wales until her death on November 3rd, 660 A.D.

The lager, yes lager, started out as an idea to create a very rustic beer with a roasted character and a brown disposition. We imagined a pre-Great War sort of beer that might have been on its last legs of popularity. The kind of beer young folks of the time would laugh about as being “an old man’s lagerbier”. Well Pretty Things is the old-man’s-dream-beer-brewer, so we decided to give it a whirl. We started with malted barley and hops from the German tradition and employed a single decoction mash. Decoction is a slightly complicated, time intensive and little used technique (on this continent anyway) that insured temperature accuracy in the age before real temperature control. Got it? Okay, that was a boring explanation. How is this: we took a portion of the mash and boiled it at 212 degrees F for 15 minutes. Trust us, boiling a mash is rare. Dann has only done this a handful of times in his twenty year career (on purpose anyway). Ahem. We continue by saying this brown lager is also quite delicious and nice to drink. If you choose to not think about boiling mashes and old men we assure you this beer will still very much please your palate.

Tasting notes: deep brown red colour, tannish head, fine carbonation, deep dark malt character with quite a lot of yeast presence in the flavour, refined Hallertau hoppiness. 7% ABV

Quite a lady! We hope you enjoy this beer!
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Ratings by kmwilson76:
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Rated by kmwilson76 from Pennsylvania

4.25/5  rDev +7.9%

Mar 18, 2012
More User Ratings:
 
Rated: 3.99 by NateF90 from Connecticut

Jan 24, 2016
 
Rated: 4.39 by foundersfan1 from Missouri

Dec 20, 2015
 
Rated: 4.04 by dannycohen62 from Illinois

Oct 29, 2015
Photo of sphmiel
Reviewed by sphmiel from Missouri

4.11/5  rDev +4.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
On draught at iTap CWE.
dark brown, fluffy white lingering head.
Aroma is toasty malts, carried into the taste, dark brown bead.
Medium mouthfeel with crisp finish.
Worth going out of your way to find.
Aug 15, 2015
 
Rated: 3.94 by dataylor21 from Kentucky

Aug 11, 2015
 
Rated: 3.5 by Mattymystique from Massachusetts

Jul 22, 2015
 
Rated: 3.87 by DeutschesBier from Maryland

Jul 02, 2015
 
Rated: 4 by Mantooth from North Carolina

May 31, 2015
 
Rated: 3.88 by American_Hawk from Massachusetts

May 15, 2015
 
Rated: 3.93 by Rshersnow from Massachusetts

May 03, 2015
 
Rated: 4.19 by LostHighway from Minnesota

Apr 15, 2015
 
Rated: 4 by atlbravsrno1 from Maine

Apr 11, 2015
 
Rated: 4.16 by t8dd from Illinois

Apr 09, 2015
Photo of Davepoolesque
Rated by Davepoolesque from Massachusetts

3.21/5  rDev -18.5%
look: 3 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.25
Its a brown ale that tastes like a light brown ale.
Mar 25, 2015
Photo of GreesyFizeek
Reviewed by GreesyFizeek from New York

4.4/5  rDev +11.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
On tap at Deep Ellum in Boston, MA.

This one pours a dark, tawny brown, almost black, with a half inch head, and a good amount of lacing.

This one smells like brown bread, a bit of chocolate, warm campfire smoke, slight vanilla, and some nutty aromas as well.

This is really delicious and really well-crafted. All of the flavors meld together really well. The malts contribute such a nice warm nutty, toasty, and slightly smoky flavor. There's also some chocolate, and a slight bit of roasty nutty coffee. This has a lot of brown bread/pumpernickel characteristics that I really dig.

This is medium bodied, with a bready and full mouthfeel, and a moderate level of carbonation.

A really nice, just really pleasant beer from Pretty Things. I wish this style got more attention from breweries, it's awesome.
Mar 23, 2015
Photo of OrestesMethuon
Reviewed by OrestesMethuon from Montana

3.97/5  rDev +0.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
A very drinkable toasty lager, the Lovely Saint Winefrede is a fairly dry, light-viscosity dark beer that's nonetheless bursting with burnt-caramel sweetness, warmed oak and maple seasoning, well-toasted brown bread textures, and a lot of medium-roast Colombian coffee qualities sprinkled around the flavor-complex. It has a dry, espresso, biscuit, and booze nose; decent head that deflates over ten minutes or so; and a lurking buoyancy in the weight along the tongue that keeps this beer both afloat and tethered to its lager-heart. Nonetheless, its clarion brown color, its not-fully-burnt, brown-malty-sweet backbone—which underlies the more burnt, coffee-tasting top-layers (which I assume result from the "decoction")—and its richly warm quaffability hem Lovely Saint Winefride firmly in a "brown" frame of reference, despite its lager-premised creative process.
Mar 23, 2015
Photo of badgustav
Reviewed by badgustav from New Hampshire

3.99/5  rDev +1.3%
look: 4.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Appearance - quintessential dark lager look. Clear, deep brown. Great light brown rocky head that lasts for quite a bit

Aroma - Started a little heavy on the malt, but settled down. More malt forward than I expect from the style. Hops are subdued with light floral notes. Hints of toffee

Flavour - gentle maltiness and sweetness, offset by the hop bitterness. Robust and slightly complex. Slightly more bitter than expected. Coffee notes hit up front then fade slowly. Slight papery taste as if the hops are going over

Feel - a lingering bitterness settling into the back of the tongue, light on the tongue.

Generally enjoyable beer. I'd drink it again but may not seek it out.
Mar 21, 2015
 
Rated: 4.25 by slasich from Pennsylvania

Mar 09, 2015
Photo of BigOldOaf
Rated by BigOldOaf from Massachusetts

4.02/5  rDev +2%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
This beer is more than the sum of its parts. An excellent and fully enjoyable brew the whole way through.
Mar 08, 2015
Lovely Saint Winefride from Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project
Beer rating: 88 out of 100 with 129 ratings