Old Peculiar . . .

Theakston's Old Peculier

I read a short story a year or two ago by Neil Gaiman titled "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" and wondered if any brew actually has such a name. A recent online search turned up one by that name at the Blue Cat Brew Pub, but I'm guessing that any brew named "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" will have been inspired by Gaiman's story. I did find an Old Peculier that undoubtedly predates the story, but not a Shoggoth's, obviously, and the spelling differs (as Kevin Kim points out in a comment). It sounds flavorful:

Distinctive banana and black cherry aroma leading to a magnificent Christmas pudding kaleidoscope of flavour. Rich, Smooth and Sweet.

But if this Old Peculier inspired Gaiman, it did so more for the name than the flavor, because here's what a Shoggoth's tastes like:

The beer had the kind of flavor which, he suspected, advertisers would describe as full-bodied, although if pressed they would have to admit that the body in question had been that of a goat.

That's from pages 151 to 152 of Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors, at least in my 1998 Avon Books edition. I would have expected the Theakston's to have a similar taste, "the kind of flavor that one could describe as full-bodied, but . . . also [with] a hint, oddly enough, of something eldritch and gamey . . . something redolent of goat. Maybe satyrical?"

But I guess not . . .