HALLOWEEN
SPECIAL!
Ashley 'Cyclops' Cotter-Cairns and Sebastian 'Shaggy' Lipsett come over
all Palin with Monty Python's Holy
ale.
"Beers of the world, unite!"
The UNOB slogan
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Monty Python's Holy ale: Better
than a wet haddock in the chops
Submitted
by Ashley
'Cyclops'
Cotter-Cairns
One of the perks of running a global
beer organisation is that your friends never need to ask what to buy
you.
Hot on the heels of bringing almost a dozen Quebec beers to my birthday bash, my great friends Adele and Ulrich came to visit after taking a Thanksgiving trip to Ontario with two more bottles in tow.
This one had me before I even opened it. I'm a huge Python fan.
Monty Python's Holy ale sneaks into our Halloween special because it claims to be 'tempered over burning witches". Decades after they broke up, the Python team can still bring a smile to people's faces.
So is this beer the Holy Gr-ale of
beers? At 4.7% abv, it has plenty of bite without being obnoxiously
strong. Its deep amber colour is the perfect British bitter tone.
There's not too much of an aroma, which I was disappointed about, but the taste more than makes up for that, with a complex tangle of fruity notes in the front, followed swiftly by a feint but pleasant hoppy taste and a long, mellow bitterness.
This could be the perfect example of a good British bitter. It's probably not the best beer in the world, but its fine character and easy to drink attitude make it a winner in my book.
I'd love to know what Michael Palin's favourite beer is. John Cleese probably only drinks wine, but I bet Palin's a real hophead.
Thanks for everything, guys. And this beer is the icing on a magnificent cake.
Monty Python's Holy ale: Monkeying around
Submitted
by Sebastian
'Shaggy' Lipsett
It was brought to my attention last
week of the need for a proper Halloween review for some Halloween-esque
beers. Figuring I had ample time to do this assignment, I reckoned I'd
try for the extra mile and do the review in costume.
As it turns out, it is a wee bit harder making an evil-flying-assassin-monkey costume than I'd originally bargained for. The requested beer was R & B Brewing's Hop Goblin IPA, but by the time I had finished my costume (about 6.35pm yesterday) the government liquor store was closed and I could only choose from a cold beer and wine store. To say I feel a little shame would be an accurate assessment.
Dismayed at not finding the beer of choice, I expanded my search for something Halloweeney and stumbled upon Monty Python's Holy ale (spelled GRail on the bottle), as made by the Black Sheep Brewery in Yorkshire, England. It indicated right on the bottle that it was tempered over burning witches, so I mean, I just had to try...
The colour of this Ale came out just on the
coppery side of red, and
a distinct fruity aroma also greeted me on the pour. At this point I
must say that I was sad to watch the head evaporate in a matter of 30
seconds. Perhaps this was a result of the burning witch tempering? I'm
not sure exactly what other characteristics burning witches would add
to the brew.
The MP Holy Grail/ale is definitely a very malty flavoured
beer. All
of the hops added seemed to settle on the fruity side of the flavour,
as opposed to adding any real bitterness to the brew. As sad as I was
about my mysteriously disappearing head, the beer delivered on the flavour
side and I dare say that it is not the last time that this
beer will touch my lips.
As for the costume! The party was a great time and I almost won the
limbo contest... the girl who beat me was all of 5' tall, and being
over a foot taller than her I felt I deserved a consolation prize.
People kept on running into my wings until they just plain fell off
while dancing. Oh well, what can you do? Happy Halloween!
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