Take any marketing course, and one of the first things you’ll learn is that unique or striking packaging is one of the best ways to attract new customers to your products. When someone walks into a store and is faced with shelf upon shelf of packages that contain basically the same thing, marketers want their version to be more eye-catching and appealing than those of their competitors.

So it makes sense that a brewery founded by a marketing expert would have their beers packaged in some not-so-ordinary bottles. Such is the case at Suffolk, England’s St. Peter’s Brewery, where owner and marketing professor John Murphy came up with a unique 500 mL bottle for his brews based on an 18th century gin bottle.

This distinctive bottle helps St. Peter’s beers stand out from the crowd on LCBO shelves. But the packaging design also makes the beers a bit difficult to tell from each other, as the only difference between the appearance of the brands is a different coloured small oval label.

Normally, this isn’t a big issue for Ontario beer drinkers, as their Organic English Ale is the only St. Peter’s product usually available here. But when another of their beers shows up unannounced, it’s easy to pass it by if you’re not looking carefully. Which is exactly what happened to me with St. Peter’s Best Bitter: it had been on the shelf at my neighbourhood liquor store for at least a couple of weeks before I noticed it, and even then, it was only someone mentioning it on the Bar Towel forum that brought it to my attention.

I’m glad I managed to find it, as it’s a pretty nice little beer. The colour is the vibrant copper-amber expected from the style, with a large white head that dissipates into a persistent thin head that sticks around to the end of the glass. The aroma holds notes of sweet malt (caramel & toffee, especially), tea and slightly citric hops. Like most St. Peter’s beers, the carbonation level is quite low, giving the beer a soft mouthfeel that is closer to a cask ale than most bottled and canned beers. The flavour is smooth and well-balanced, with a fairly sweet start, a subdued fruity middle, and a dry, lingering hop presence in the finish that increases as it warms.

With an alcohol level of either 3.7% or 4.4% (the former being the percentage given by the brewery, which has been crossed out on the label by the LCBO and replaced with a sticker claiming the latter to be the result of their lab testing), this is very nice session ale. But unfortunately, any sessions to be based around it will have to take place soon, as this is another limited release available only at selected LCBO outlets (LCBO 909739, $3.60/500 mL), so anyone interested in trying it should grab it while they can.