Several years ago, when The Slayer was serving his apprenticeship as The Understudy, he became acutely aware that beers were taking up domiciles at the bottom of the ocean to elude his ever vigilant search. Not one easily thwarted in his search for fine amber liquid refreshment, The Slayer learned to scuba dive so he could retrieve these wily adversaries, too.

Soon, he was procuring these elusive aquatic inhabitants with great regularity. The tales of his great underwater brew finds spread through the beer world like wildfire. Others, in search of fine beer, began to follow The Slayer's lead and learned SCUBA so they, too, could sup of the nectar from the ocean. Seeing the potential of large scale underwater safaris, The Slayer formed an association of aquatic beer hunters called, Malt Aficionado Sea Hunters (MASH).

MASH has grown to 200 members since it began in 1995. The Slayer leads brewpeditions to the murky depths at least once a month. Just this week, The Slayer was scouting the site for the next marine beer safari. While 'neath the salty waves, he came upon something quite interesting.

Sitting on the ocean floor was a small beer and wine outlet. As The Slayer neared the enterprise, he saw it had a sign above it which read, Beverage Boutique. As you know, the Beverage Boutique is one of The Slayer's favorite land-based hunting grounds. Seeing an aquatic package store with the same name made The Slayer feel very much at home.

Ever curious, The Slayer entered the aquatic Beverage Boutique and began to look about the establishment. Lo and behold, behind the counter was Jan DeVos the owner of the land based emporium of the same name. Surprised to see her beneath the waves, The Slayer immediately asked, "Jan, what are you doing down here?"

"I've opened an oceanic Beverage Boutique to go along with my store on dry land," she replied.

"What prompted you to do such a thing?" The Slayer queried.

"Well, I've heard so much about your aquatic connoisseur group, MASH, that I decided to help you with your oceanic safaris. Many times you have told me how difficult it is to hunt down beers scattered along the ocean floor. That made me think, 'If I make an artificial brew reef and submerge it near aquatic beer's natural habitat, I bet they would make a home of it.' That is what this store is: an artificial brew reef. Now, just look at all the beers that have made this their home since it was put down here two months ago."

"What an ingenious idea!" The Slayer exclaimed. "I had no clue that you actually paid attention to the things I write; so few do. You are quite the brewologist."

"Why, thank you. However, if it were not for your commitment to the quest of hunting down the world's finest beers, this would not have been possible," Jan retorted.

"Your admiration of me, while totally justified, is appreciated," said The Slayer in his usual humble way. "Let's see which fine brews have made your store their nesting ground."

As The Slayer looked about Jan's man made brewcosystem, he was amazed by the plethora of beers that had taken up residence there. Malt beverages of virtually every style were floating about in the confines of her artificial reef. Their brightly colored labels, which were illuminated by the many neon beer signs of the Beverage Boutique, created a visual spectacle like The Slayer had never before seen.

Many of the brews were old friends The Slayer had conquered on more than one occasion. They danced playfully around The Slayer as if they knew he had not come to bag them this day. The brews The Slayer had yet to encounter stayed back in the shadows of the reef; fearing what fate might lie ahead for them.

The Slayer could sense the new beers hiding at the back of the shelves and went over to them to begin the hunt. There, tucked discretely behind many other beers, were two brews The Slayer had never seen before; Neptune Dead Sea and Red Sea Ales.

Thinking it quite appropriate that he would first encounter these beers on the floor of the ocean, The Slayer grabbed the two bottles and prepared to slay them. The first to meet its doom was the Dead Sea Ale. The Slayer expected this brew to be of the usual pale ale variety.

He was quite surprised when he poured the contents into his special back lit aquatic pint glass. Dead Sea Ale was much too dark to be a pale or amber ale. "It must be a brown ale," The Slayer immediately thought.

However, when he put the brew to his nose he had to rethink its style. Dead Sea Ale had a very sweet, malty almost molasses aroma. It was much too faceted to be the scent of a brown ale. Growing ever more curious as to this beer's style, The Slayer immediately put the brew to his lips.

As the nectar flowed over his tongue, The Slayer detected a wonderful malt complexity with a hint of roasted barley at the finish. His tasting organ had a hard time finding the bitterness of hops; however, finally their flavor emerged, but only slightly. Roasted barley was the ingredient that actually balanced the malt sweetness of this brew with its coffee-like flavor.

After swirling the liquid around his mouth and depositing it in his stomach, The Slayer knew that this beer was most probably a Scottish ale. While it had all of the ingredients and flavor of this wondrous Celtic ale, Neptune Dead Sea Ale's was a little light for the style. Nonetheless, it was a quite pleasing American facsimile of Scottish Ale.

After The Slayer drank the rest of this beer, quite pleased with himself for properly identifying its style, he moved on to Neptune Red Sea Ale. This brew would not be as difficult to pigeon-hole because the label proclaimed it to be a berry ale. The Slayer identified the berry in question as soon as put the beer 'neath his nares. The ubiquitous aroma of the red raspberry immediately grasped his nasal hairs in its fruit scented vice.

The Slayer has seen, smelled of and tasted many, many raspberry beers in the past. Their aroma and flavor ranging from the sickening sweet to pleasingly fruity. Red Sea Ale would fall closer to the later.

This very light ale came off a little sweet at first sniff, but when The Slayer put it into his mouth he was surprised by its clean raspberry palate. The fruit was adequately balanced by the judicious use of hops. The Slayer thinks this would be a very nice beer to have on a warm, lazy day at the beach. Its very linear flavor makes Red Sea Ale quaffable but not exemplary.

Jan's artificial brew reef had provided The Slayer with yet another hunting ground. Her ingenuity and commitment to The Slayer's way of life pleased our happy hunter of hopped beverages. He knew that the next MASH safari would further explore this aquatic cornucopia of all things good. Beers ahoy!