There are some headlines you just can’t ignore. When you see it while scrolling through your social media feed, you stop whatever you’re doing, you click on it, and you read until you process what you’re seeing. It was in this manner that I learned about the microbrewery that made beer with yeast sourced from Roald Dahl’s writing chair.
Dahl was many things — a pilot, a spy, a casual anti-Semite — but he was most famously a writer. Although he wrote short stories for adults — about such cheerful subjects as a woman beating her husband to death with a leg of lamb or a finger-severing gambling addict — he’s best known for his children’s books, including “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “James and the Giant Peach,” and “The Twits,” a book about a husband and wife who go out of their way to make each other miserable.
Due to a lingering back injury from World War II, Dahl was unable to write comfortably while using a normal desk and chair. Instead, he sat in a modified armchair, located in a tiny hut on his property. It was here that he wrote his masterworks. (The hut is currently on display at the Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden, England.) Although Dahl died in 1990, yeast remained on the chair for many more decades — long enough for some of it to be swabbed off for the purpose of making Mr Twit’s odious ale.
The ale was made for a disgusting dining experience
While most definitely a children’s book, “The Twits” was the inspiration behind an adults-only, interactive dining experience held in London during 2016. This experience was the reason why the aforementioned beer was created. Mr Twit’s odious ale was an oak-smoked beer that was not vegan friendly. It also boasted an interesting array of spicy, sour, and smoky flavors. Although not to everyone’s taste, this beer proved a suitable accompaniment to the food that was served at the dining experience.
Those attending “Dinner at The Twits” were antagonized by actors playing Mr. and Mrs. Twit while eating dishes designed to be gross in theory yet edible in practice. These included Mr Twit’s bird pie and rodent goujons that were actually made with pigeon meat. With items like these on the menu, Mr Twit’s odious ale probably didn’t sound so bad. Then again, the whole point was for the menu to disgust people – it’s most likely what Roald Dahl himself would have wanted.
