Most of my experience with British beer came from watching an old "Asterix" cartoon in which the brews are too awful for the French main characters to drink.

Asterix and Obelix clearly weren’t served the Wells and Young’s Brewing Co.’s entry for The Daily Iowan beer of the week: Banana Bread Beer.

The brewery was founded in Bedford in 1875 by Charles Wells, and it quickly expanded to become one of the largest family-owned breweries in England. Wells and Young has continued to grow and now brews the English versions of Corona and Red Stripe.

But the company’s original beers stand out — especially the exceptionally odd (but delicious) Banana Bread Beer.

True to its name, the ale has the strong, sweet scent of freshly baked banana bread. The recipe calls for fair-trade bananas to go along with the water from a well dug by Wells himself, and the result is a distinctive, almost peculiar nose.

Banana Bread Beer pours a deep copper with a thick, foamy head that stays in the glass for several minutes.

The beer has light, thin mouth feel with gentle, almost nonexistent carbonation. It makes up for it with a strong banana flavor and bready, hoppy notes — it’s basically my mom’s banana bread in liquid form.

And my mom makes really good banana bread.

Salud.

— by Seth Roberts