Lookit that, the next weekend finally arrived!

So, ever since... Since the 8th of August '04, it seems, I've been having a Holy Grail every now and then; perhaps once every four to eight weeks. In the beginning, I bought them with the intent of tasting, then posting a report here. Then I always forgot the reporting part until several days had passed, so I refrained from posting because the memory had faded a bit, and resolved to buy one again and write it up faster that time around... It became a vicious circle if you will (or a virtuous one, depending on how you look at it! :-) , but pretty much a habit, anyway.

Now, after all that: Last weekend, for the first time that I can recall, I bought the "Monthy Python's Holy Grail" together with its big sister, the brewery's namesake Black Sheep Ale (they're both from [link|http://www.blacksheepbrewery.co.uk/|Black Sheep Brewery]). With this as, IMO, a particularly fitting baseline to compare against, I now finally feel qualified to comment. In short: Quite nice.

The somewhat longer version: Holy Grail is quite light and sweet for an English ale; much more glurr-glurrable than more typical ones like its stablemate. I'd imagine that in the summer, it's quite refreshing on its own (and I may have tried it this way, but I can't actually remember), but since we hardly ever *have* summer up here, and since I take most of my beer with weekend dinner nowadays, it is perhaps most precisely characterized by what food I'd drink it with. To wit, I've found that Holy Grail -- like honey-flavoured beers and wheat beers -- goes well with our occasional weekend fish dinner. (i.e, the typical Scandinavian family-with-children fare of fish sticks and mashed potatoes.)

Hope this helps at least a little bit... (Well, actually I wonder if anybody besides me even remembered that this conversation was left half-done. Heh.)

(There, Don -- think of this as a [very] belated birthday present! :-)

One or two (or sometimes, but rather rarely, three), with dinner on the weekend. (OK, so "weekend" is often rather generously defined as Friday to Sunday, inclusive... :-)

But then I don't *always* go for the 1/2-liter bottles either; quite often I buy the [link|http://www.olvi.fi/positiivinen/tuotteet/oluet/Ruuti/|El Cheapo] brand, which happens to come in 1/3-liter bottles. (And the few times I drink three bottles with a meal, it's usually those.)

For instance, this weekend I've drunk... Les'see, a [link|http://www.koff.fi/en/news/company_pressreleases/332.html|Karhu] on Friday, two [link|http://ratebeer.com/Ratings/Beer/Beer-Ratings.asp?BeerID=25940|Ruuti] on Saturday, and that [link|http://www.hartwallolutperhe.com/tuotetiedot_spalter.htm|Spalter Pils] I bought and a [link|http://ratebeer.com/Ratings/Beer/Beer-Ratings.asp?BeerID=4513|Nikolai] (that Anki had bought for me earlier; on Friday, I think, with the Karhu) today, Sunday.

All half-liters, except the Ruuti, which were thirds. So that makes, uhh... Two-and-a-sixth liter over three days, I think.

Yeah, if I were still a German citizen, they'd probably strip me of my citizenship.

And to think, you missed "Eric Pollard"[*]! Poor you! You'll have to make up for it by buying the latest six seasons of "Emmerdale" on DVD and watching all of it within the week...

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[*]: Wossname, something Chiggers?, who plays mr Pollard on Emmerdale-no-farm-anymore, was there to ceremoniously pull the first few pints of their Emmerdale ale[2] when they launched it earlier this year.

[2]: Hmm... Funny; shouldn't these punsters have called it "Emmerd-ale"[3]?

[3]: Maybe not. Like, shades of l'Emmerd-eur...