One of my favorite moments in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” involves a mob of peasants who have captured a “witch”, who appears to be a young woman dressed up in some strange oddities to make her look like one. The mob wants to burn her at the stake, and calls upon Sir Bedevere to give her a trial:
Sir Bedevere: What makes you think she’s a witch?
Peasant: Well, she turned me into a newt!
Sir Bedevere: A newt?
Peasant: [meekly, after a long pause] …I got better.
Crowd: [shouts] Burn her anyway!
Brewed to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Monty Python comedy team, Monty Python’s Holy Grail Ale is not just a marketing gimmick. A solid English quaffer, it stands on its own. Since its introduction in 1999, it has become The Black Sheep Brewery’s best-selling beer in the United States.
Holy Grail is a pale ale which, according to the beer’s label, has been “tempered over burning witches.” And although I can’t promise that no witches were harmed during the brewing of this ale, I can assure you that after your first swallow (unladen, of course), this fine example of a traditional English pale ale will cast its richly malty and pleasantly bitter spell on your palate.
Into a pint glass it pours a transparent, pale amber hue with a quarter-inch head. The head dissipates rather quickly, leaving not too much lacing at all. The smell is distinctly of pine and a slight hopiness that mingles with the grains and malts to create an interesting aroma . The initial sip yields some malt and the nuance of pine, followed by breadiness, then the ale’s strong roasted malt flavors impart a caramel-like sweetness to the brew. The slightly fruity hop flavors cut through the sweetness to create a rounded, even finish.
The bitterness doesn’t pack a hop wallop, however. This is not a bracing American IPA, brewed to appease legions of hopheads at the expense of those less enamored with Humulus lupulus. Rather, Holy Grail is brewed using Whitbread Golding hops, a variety of medium intensity hop known for its distinct pine aroma and flavor. During the brewing process, the boiled wort (early beer) passes through a hop-back, a chamber containing whole-leaf hops. This process combines the malt and hops flavors to intensify the fruity aroma on the nose, and helps to leaven the ale’s sweetness to make for a balanced brew.
Overall drinkability is excellent. Thanks in part to the low alcohol, which is nigh undetectable, nonexistent bitterness and a pleasing, if fleeting, taste. I’ve easily knocked back a few of these in a evening. A solid brew with an awesome theme.
It still didn’t tell me what the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow is — but I did swallow a lot of this ale, since I had to buy an entire case of it at a brew distributor. They’re all gone now and I never shared any with the crew at Buzzbin. Hope they don’t burn me at the stake.
