BANANA BREAD BEER:
Okay, this one's a bit of a stretch, I'll admit. I've never found any Bananaman action figures. (Surely, you remember him from Nickelodeon in the mid-1980s to early 1990s, often tacked onto an under-running Dangermouse episode to fill time? Big dumb guy in blue -- rather like the Tick -- but also with some yellow, banana-themed costume elements as well.) But I've got a couple of Amanaman figures, which sounds similar, and they're green-and-yellow and kind of banana-shaped, so I'm running with it. In the olden days (like, medieval times), beer was jokingly referred to as "liquid bread," and that gag was the basis for this brew. And sure as sheep-dip, this ale tastes strongly and deliciously of bananas. Originally, Banana Bread Beer (shortened to BBB on parts of the label) came in bottles that proudly proclaimed they contained "ONE FULL ENGLISH PINT" (20 ounces) as a two-fingered salute to the EU and their fascist metrication regime. But since the supermarkets who stock these fine products demanded to be able to buy crates of eight 500-mL bottles, production was cut down to ½-liter bottles. So another proud patriotic gesture has fallen prey to bean-counters (and possible Marxists who want Britain to abandon the Pound and adopt the Euro). Speaking of which, while in the supermarket today, I noticed that Wychwood's Goliath (covered in a previous article) has shrunk from its former huge glory to the standard ½-liter-sized bottles. But then, our unelected Prime Minister Gordon "The Usurper" Brown just raised taxes on alcohol again, so that's somewhat understandable. Anywho, getting back to this week's brew . . . .