Yes, that is how it’s meant to be spelt. Don’t get smart…
To find out why it’s spelt that way, you’re best off buying a bottle and reading the label for the full explanation…suffice to say that Masham in Yorkshire existed a little outside of the usual ecclesiastical boundaries and became known as a “court of the peculier.” Theakston also joke – rather weakly – that it’s a comment on the strength of the beer too…
And what a lovely beer it is too. A mainstay of the winter beer circuit in the UK (even though you can get it all-year round), it’s a solid performer and should never passed up if offered or available.
With a thinnish-looking head that doesn’t hang about Old Peculier, looks like beer beer should: i.e. boot brown and business-like.
The aroma is stuffed-full of dark and crystal malt, with a workman-like minerality around the edges – producing a distinctive, almost faintly metallic twang.
Upon tasting the maltiness bursts through the effervescence, all sweet and dark and mouth filling. A good mouth-puckering hop bitterness takes a while to come on…but when it does, it stays and accentuates the malt flavour.
Mouth-wateringly good it tastes like proper beer, beer that’s brewed for quenching the thirsts of people who do heavy, industrial or agricultural stuff for a living…
This is a big juicy beer, warming and inviting. I’d drink this while taking a break from clearing up the leaves in autumn…an excuse to spark up a bonfire and kick back a bit…