A beer from Monty Python’s comedy crew, brewed (I envision) by stiffly-moving british police in a hand-cranked meat grinder.  I of course picked this up purely for the label, as being a card-carrying geek I would proudly drink any beer brewed by Monty Python, Dread Zeppelin, They Might Be Giants, rock tumblers, graphing calculators, 24-sided dice, etc.  (I could go on…)  I know I’m being suckered by niche-marketing, and I know the true beer snobs will complain this is the wrong way to pick a brew.  But let’s face it, you’re not reading Walt Liquor’s beer reviews on this site for my nuanced palate, are you?  (If you are, I urge you to read my Grammy-award-winning series of reviews on Beers Whose Artwork Can Kick Your Ass.)

The joke of the label itself is a little broad, given the off-kilter Monty Python humor — the beer artwork says “Holy Grail”, with the “GR” crossed out and “ALE” written in below.  Yes, thanks, I got the joke — broadcasting your joke that loudly I’d expect instead from something Jay Leno pasted to a black card, not from the folks at Monty Python.  And yet, the beer is actually really tasty…  it’s got a nice thick ale taste to it, something you might imagine enjoying with a bratwurst or salt & vinegar chips in a British pub somewhere.  I had figured that an essentially gag one-off beer would show the signs of a lack of priority on taste, but it’s the real deal.  Of course after five straight reviews of the very worst in beer (again, see my Stanley-Cup-winning series on Beer Whose Artwork Can Kick Your Ass), Formula 409 might get three out of six from me at this point.  For that reason I give myself a handicap of one off my first impression of 5 out of 6 for this beer.  I heartily recommend it.   And I wear high heels.  And I like to press wildflowers…

Big Sky Brewing, the makers of “Moose Drool”, have delivered a positively yummy little summer beer here. It seems that I have an unhealthy affinity for beers with “Honey” in the title, and this is no exception. It was light and airy like a yummy wheat mixed with a pale.

All you have to do is get past the horrible wrapper. It took me a few beers to realize that that was in fact not a bear…but a wolf. At least I know that if my current career doesn’t work out, I could have a future in wrapper design.

Every now and then, when I’ve had tons of the Easy Drinkin’ brews, I hanker for something more experimental. I wander down to the local brew pusher and grab something off the “wall o’ beer”. Sometimes this can have spew worthy results (see Fuller’s Extra Special Bitter … my dad bought it). But on occasion I get lucky, and this stuff is certainly one of those times. Those crazy Belgian brewers have created a fruity sort of yum in a way that Kona’s Wailua missed entirely. It’s a light tasty Belgian Wheat that leaves no crappo aftertaste that can be the hallmark of foreign beer.

The main problem I have with this beer has nothing to do with the taste, its the goofy wrapper. A snail? Really? I mean maybe they market this beer to France, or perhaps it just has some ingredient that the distributor chose not to mention. Either way, it’s a terrible visual choice, and makes me wonder what exactly it was that brought me to pick it up in the first place. Sacre bleu!