Easter Ales: Robin Hood

It's Easter Sunday, this is cause for celebration (being Christian-flavoured) and so I decided that I would mark the occasion like any other and have an ale. Inkeeping, I hope, with my own vision of what Christ is supposed to be (social-justice and pro-human) I thought it fitting to try Robin Hood from Springhead as Robin Hood was supposed to embody the same values and ideals as Christ Himself when he took from the rich to give to the poor (in some versions of the myth) as well as having a lovely band of merrie men to help him enact his deeds, kinda like disciples (and with the same smattering of human failings too, if memory serves).

And there's Disney too. I do rather enjoy, guiltily it has to be said, that film. And so there's also that link. It also forms a lovely pair with the last review on here of Maid Marian (link) though I lacked the wherewithal to have two ales on a single night. Which is ridiculous seeing how many I can get through on a night out! See this link and this link for evidence of the insanity. Anyway, one ale it is and one ale it shall be.

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Easter Ales: Maid Marian

Easter Ales? That may be a bit of a strong assertion to make, but it is getting close to Easter now, with Good Friday round the corner, and I have been thinking a lot about politics and who to vote for in the coming General Election seeing as how my community offered more votes for the BNP than for the Greens and UKIP combined in 2010. This does not bode well. I'm not a UKIP supporter. Luckily for me, there is not much chance of this hampering my enjoyment of a decent ale!

I have a brace of ales by Springhead to talk about over this time of mourning and celebration - the whole point of the Christian faith no less - and I thought that I would reflect this in some ales of a character that befits my vision of that celebration. Of course, being a wuss, I'm only having a single ale tonight. Therefore I start with Maid Marian who, by tradition, was compassionate and eased the suffering of those in the manor to which she was born before being betrothed and fighting with and for the Merry Men. And now I have an ale by the same name.

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Gold!

Company was over! Huzzah! I had hoped to play a game or two of Settlers of Catan and get the ales in whilst that was ongoing, but instead we were besieged by our children and so the time came to get in food, that Chinese again, and we eschewed gaming in favour of chatting and sharing youtube videos. Anyone would think that I'm set in my ways or something. Anyway, the point is that we did not really get to the ales until after the first two visitors had left. My Sherwood Forest dwelling friend and I then got down to some serious golden ales.

Which, of course, meant that I had Spandau Ballet in my head after the evening rather than a hangover. Alas, such was the lateness of the hour and the tension in the youtube videos, I failed to take pictures on the night and had to take them in the morning. You may recall some of these ales from previous frolics and so they were to be.

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Beer Review: Roaring Meg

So, this was the second in a brace of beers that was bought for me by my childrens and it was an oddity. I have certainly not seen this on sale before and so it marks a real find by the Boy. Basically, the bottle has a large sun on it and it was bright and obvious enough that the Boy was able to pick it out of the line up. I'll take that.

What is it? Well, it is Roaring Meg from, um, the UK. Somewhere in Nottinghamshire from the looks of things on the bottle but no brewer's name. [edit- I now know this to be Springhead] This could be a good sign I suppose, because they're obviously banking on the beer doing the talking rather than the brand.

There is a big sun on the label and a clear expectation that one will be blown away by the brew as there are no details on hops and whatnot. I see this as a generally positive thing. So, would you like to know more?