Gigglebit IPA Not A Prank
The West Coast Randall and Oakalator in-line oaking system
Brewsville-Portland, Oregon
When Hopworks sent out a press release announcing the release of its Gigabit IPA at 2pm Thursday April 1, I was certain this was the latest April Fools joke from the brewers at the SE Portland organic brewery. (I had collaborated with the brewery’s Christian Ettinger, when he was brewing at Laurelwood on the “West Coast Randall” in 2004, so I expected this was more of the same. (the West Coast Randall was a 100 gallon water heater stuffed with hops, ala a Randall (organoleptic hops transducer), a nose thumbing at the emergence of the Randall phenomenon on the East Coast.
Funnily enough the joke was on me this time. Gigabit IPA is a real project, and a very tasty beer. The beer was brewed in an attempt to lure the high tech behemoth to bequeath Portland with its favor as a test site for its broadband internet network, that has a one gigabyte speed. I had a chance to try the 5.9% abv beer at the Spring Beer And Wine Fest, where it was one of the full pour beers to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The beer has 75 IBUs and a great Northwest hop flavor, and its label is styled to look the Google homepage. Seems like pretty good bait to lure the company to Portland to me.
