AF&TB's October Spectre-tacular - The Flying Cybertronian

by Beedo Sookcool
on 2012-10-15, 13:44:23

GHOST SHIP

Adnams Brewery of Suffolk uses a lot of nautical imagery for its brews, usually ship-related, which makes it rather difficult to come up with action figure partners for its suds. (I’m just waiting for Hasbro to get off its collective skid-plates and make a new version of the Autobot Triple-Changer, Broadside, so I can pair it up with Adnams’ own Broadside. I had considered the Fansproject three-fold character of similar alt-modes, but his ship mode doesn’t pass muster for me.) This ship-based habit of Adnams is a bit of a pain when it comes to these articles, as Adnams has apparently won the title of “Brewery of the Year 2011” by The Good Pub Guide, and I’d like to try more of their wares and give them some coverage. For their novelty Hallowe’en-themed beer (there get to be more and more of those every year, it seems), Adnams presents Ghost Ship, their 4.5% ABV “ghostly pale ale.”

Sometimes, aircraft (especially fighter jets) are referred to as “ships,” so I’m teaming up Adnams Ghost Ship with the translucent Masterpiece Edition Ghost of Starscream, which is technically a different figure from the Henkei Ghost of Starscream used in last week’s Spooks review. And who turns into a ghost fighter jet. (Since when do ghosts need to turn into jets?) And because I don’t have any ghost pirate figures. Also, I hope they do another Masterpiece Ghost Starscream based on the retooled MP-11 body plan (and the rest of the Seekers while they're at it, of course). Because that Seeker mould is awesome and has no hip-kibble getting in the way.

The back of the bottle reads: “Suffolk’s shore is littered with the eerie wrecks of smuggling ships, the ghost town of Dunwich, and endless haunting tales. It was this colourful history that inspired Adnams Ghost Ship. This ghostly pale ale has good assertive pithy bitterness with a malty backbone and a lemon and lime aroma.” At this point, I don’t have much else to add. As with most drink descriptions, I find them to be written by people who either have vastly more sensitive palates than myself (most likely), or have a good imagination, or possibly have synæsthesia.* Anywho, regardless of my gourmand palate, this is nonetheless some damn fine beer, and I will look forward to its return again next Hallowe’en. It’s tangy and sharp and snappy, but not too much so, and just different enough to make it worth waiting another year to have some more of these at your next Hallowe’en party. I’ll bring the habas mojadas and chilli-and-sour-cream lentil curls (which are much, much better than they sound).

* Synæsthesia is a condition where a person’s senses are effectively cross-wired, so the person would taste citrus if given a kiss, or see yellow when smelling flowers, or claim that their chicken marengo doesn’t taste pointy enough, for example. There was an excellent article about it in one of my old Discover magazines a couple of decades back. Dr. Ovolat Qail Uthan, one of the scientist characters in Karen Traviss’ outstanding Star Wars: Commando series postulated that Jedi were all synæsthetics, owing to their sensing of the Force in different ways.

Drink this if you also like: Novelty ales, seasonal ales, tangy golden ales in general.