Belt’s Beer Garden: The Holy GrALE

Today I share a beer that I bought solely from the name/label - The Knights Who Say NEIPA from Pontoon Brewing. As a fan of the movie the brew takes its name from - Monty Python and the Holy Grail - and a fan of great puns, I knew I had to try it, regardless of cost.

Hailing from Sandy Springs, Georgia, a northern suburb of Atlanta, Pontoon Brewing was started by a group of lifelong friends back in 2014. After a few years of contract brewing, they were able to open their own facility in late 2017. Today you can find them in five states - Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Tennessee.

The Knight Who Say NEIPA is a New England IPA brewed with Citra, Loral, Mosaic, and Simoce hops and has a very solid 8% ABV. Luckily for me, the beer was also very reasonably priced at $16 for four 16-ounce cans.

I was trying to find a nice shrubbery to enjoy this beer around (one that looks nice and isn’t too expensive) but, alas, there were no shrubs or shurbbers around my area.

The beer poured a cloudy bright orange color with quite a massive wall of fizzy, but dense, white head building up. The foam sat around for a while, preventing easy access to the beer, but eventually it relented enough for me to dive in.

While I was waiting for the foam to dissipate, I was able to take in the juicy aroma. It was packed with notes of lemon, papaya, mango, and candied orange with a bit of faked wheat backing up the hops. It smelled thinner/lighter than expected, especially for a beer with an 8% ABV.

My first sip hit hard with a massive punch of tropical hops. There was a burst of orange and lemon with the papaya sitting more underneath, just peeking out at times.

The brew was very juicy up front and proved me wrong as it was neither thin nor light but, instead, had a moderate body and sat a little heavier towards the end of the pint.

There was a tingle of hoppy bitterness midway through that hit the back of my tongue. That additional hop presence changed the flavor somewhat as the back half of the beer had a slightly peppery spice and grassy characteristic that pushed the citrus fruits into the background.

This NEIPA ended quite cleanly. There was no dryness or sticky resinous feeling and only the pepper lingered on for a brief moment but it was barely noticeable. That crushable ending had me taking sip after sip in quick succession and I finished that beer faster than an unladen swallow can fly! (faster than both an African or European swallow)

Pontoon has a very sessionable, very tasty IPA here. The Knight Who Say NEIPA was a deliciously juicy New England IPA.