Black Sheep Monty Pythons Holy Grail

Brewed by Black Sheep
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Ripon, England

12oz bottle from Total Wine, Durham, courtesy of my lovely wife. Thanks, wife. Very cool label and everything, but really not a good brew. An anonymous amber pour with generic malty nose, the beer is unimpressive in almost every sense. It has little of the depth or character of the style, but tastes instead like a BMC amber. This is the kind of thing that suckers a yuppie who thinks that beer = England = Python. Or not.

500ml bottle
4.7% ABV
I tried this beer on November 27, 2008 after purchasing from one of my local LCBO outlets. The beer poured a translucent reddish-gold with a bubbly tan coloured head and plenty of effervescence. The aroma was grainy and skunky and not at all appealing. Definitely an ESB. The mouthfeel was medium bodied and medium carbonation (despite the effervescence). The flavour is bitter with some grain and citrus notes thrown in.

On tap at the Bocktown, nice place. Pale yellow and slightly hazy. Quarter inch craemy bubbly head. Aroma is a little fruity and even perhaps a little minty. On the palate we have good bubbly sensations for carbonation. Flavor is at first a tad sour then even a little tart, but not like a lambic. Funky in its own kind of way. Weird bitter finish builds on the back of the throat after each sip thru the session. S6L3F3T4o9

Poured a dark gold with a small white head. Aroma and flavour fairly malty with some caramel and biscuit notes. Fairly hoppy with a dry bitter aftertaste. Sort of watery, but quite good.

500 ml bottle. Pours a golden, orange-amber color with very little white head. Aroma is mainly malts, grain, bread, biscuit, and a touch of floral hops. Flavor is sweet, caramel malts, resiny hops. Light bodied, dry, flat mouthfeel. Very drinkable, sort of indistinguishable though.

Bottle from total wine, I had just enough to taste it and no more...yuck. Gold pour, white head. Very malty aroma with some corn notes and stale crackers. Some hops are on the nose a bit, but not on the tongue. Overly malty and the hops just dont blend well. Again, YUCK.

Bought it for the novelty value....good head, slight malts, pleasant enough taste. Good for throwing at Frenchmen!

Pours a copper color with a rather large white head that leaves good lacing throughout. A biscuity smell is the most present with some hop smells as well. The hops hit upfront, but are not strong and it is followed by a taste that is mostly bread-like. There is a hint of sweetness in the finish as well. Nothing too complex here, which lends to the difficulty in searching for descriptives. This brew goes down easy, and it would make a good session brew. I would not go out of my way to buy this again, but it was worth a shot for the novelty, and it was a fairly pleasant brew to boot. Reviewed on: 02-21-2007