March 2007

It’s Samuel Adams week here at GroovyBrew, and this just happened to be the first beer I pulled out of the sample pack. I popped it open and took my first sip, and it turned into a really long sip. Mmm … beer. Beer good. Mmmm… Of course I’m like that with just about all beer, so, onward.

I can’t stop drinking it, and it’s nearly gone, and I’ve hardly written anything. Of course that has a lot to do with my teenage daughters being right behind me, poking each other and screaming “OW!” at the tops of their lungs, then laughing hysterically. By the way they’re acting you’d think they were the ones drinking.

This light lager is not the Holy Grail beer, but it is tasty. Rich, almost chocolaty, with a lightly sweet edge, the taste is followed by a dancing bitterness. Afterwards, you’re left with a nice smoky aftertaste … and an urge for another.

Fortunately for me, I have another!

Home brewer Bruce Stott’s recipe is one of two who won a competition over 1500 other entries, which is how this beer ended up in Samuel Adam bottles. You’ll find it in the LongShot mix 6-pack (along with others which will be featured here this week). Presumably that’s Bruce’s smiling face there on the label.

Halfway through the second bottle I’m noticing the sweetness has faded, leaving the bitterness in control. Still good, but I don’t think I’d drink more than two before moving on.

Which it is now time to do!

Okay, so I’m writing this fantasy novel about the beer that was in the Holy Grail, and for this novel I have to do research. Part of the research is finding a beer so good I would say that it’s The Beer, the Holy Beer. Today’s candidate is the Westmalle Dubbel Ale brewed and bottled by the Trappist Monastery of Westmalle in Belgium.

I bought one bottle. I just opened it. Is this the beer? Pouring the dark amber brew into a glass, I’ll tell you one thing, it looks delicious.

Hold on while I take that first reverent sip…

It is good! Very good! Sitting here savoring the aftertaste, it’s getting even better. This ale has a complex flavor that hits you smack dab in the middle of the tongue, a chaotic combination of fruity and mocha, and a deep malt double-whammy that brings on — at least in me — a rush and an afterglow.

So now I’m just sitting here smiling. Is it the beer of God? Could be. It’s definitely a contender. Let’s have a moment of silence and I’ll meditate on it.

…several moments of silence later…

Hmm. No. It’s not the Holy Beer. It’s good, and it’s brewed by monks for God, but … sorry guys, it’s not the beer I’d put in the Grail. Toward the end of the bottle the flavor starts to fail. Sad, but we don’t have a winner.

So the search goes on.

When I’m not writing about beer, or coffee, or lizards, I write science fiction and fantasy, and in the fantasy novel I’m working on now my character is searching for the beer that had been in the Holy Grail. In this story they discover it was beer, not wine, that Jesus drank, and there’s a 2000 year old conspiracy by the wine growers to hide that fact.

Like I said it’s a fantasy, and darn it, it’s my fantasy. Beer was in the Holy Grail.

Tecate was not that beer.

I’m not saying I don’t like Tecate. No, I love it, and that’s weird. To me Tecate is very unique in that it’s the only beer I actually prefer in a can instead of a bottle. I like it with lime and salt on the rim. I’ll drink it straight but I prefer it all set up as if it’s tequila.

The beer that was in the Holy Grail would have been … correct me if I’m wrong, you experts out there … a dubble style, dark and rich. That is normally what I like, something with a lot of flavor. A heavy beer with history.

That’s not Tecate.

Again, it’s weird that I love it so much. I am in fact drinking some right now. It’s a light lager with some decent flavor, a subtle one, much like finding the flavor in some delicate Asian food … where you almost have to meditate on it. The after taste is tangy, and you get that metal edge from the can which — again weird — is in this case pleasant.

So if you add up what I’m saying, I find Tecate a delicate Mexican zen beer that goes better in the can, and which is enhanced by lime and salt.

Weird. And definitely not something you’d get from the Holy Grail. But still, good.