Randall, meet BBC Altbier.

It was our plan last Friday to stage a 2006 encore presentation of Randall the Enamel Animal, the instant dry-hopping machine invented by the lupulin-crazed masterminds at Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. However, it did not come to pass owing to technical difficulties, and has been rescheduled for the coming Friday, October 27.

NABC’s Jared Williamson has been Randall’s keeper since we bought it from Dogfish Head in 2005, and this year Jared improvised a system to pass the modified beer through a cold plate so as to put a bit of a chill back in it, the difficulty being to keep the beer cool as it sits in the cylinder at room temperature and absorbs hop flavor.

Unfortunately, stray hop cones clogged up the lines. Jared’s fixed the problem, and we should be ready to pour BBC (Main & Clay) Alt on Friday. It is likely that Hallertauer hops will be used in Randall for the Alt, a German style beer.
We chose BBC Alt because we wanted to taste how Randall modified a beer that wasn’t already overtly hoppy. Last Friday prior to the stoppage, we’d passed a few glasses of Alt through Randall, and the results were tasty and hopeful.

In other words, I would have drained a few in the name of science – and there’ll be another chance this Friday.

Photo credit: Dogfish Head Craft Brewery.