A few weeks ago I visited Austin and stopped into some of my favorite beer bars. As I sat at the bar at Easy Tiger, something interesting caught my eye. There was some sort of intriguing looking contraption with a Dogfish Head sticker that said, “Randall the Enamel Animal.” But what really caused me to notice is that it was filled with hops. Mmmm…hops. I just had to find out what the hell this “Randall” was all about.

The bartender and I were talking beer (I am so thankful for the times when I get to sit at a bar and engage in conversation with other beer lovers), and he introduced me to Randall. In order to best explain it, I took this directly from Dogfish Head‘s website:

Randall, a true Dogfish Head invention, is an organoleptic hop transducer module. What’s that you say? A double-chamber filter that you connect to a tap of your favorite beer and fill with flavor-enhancing ingredients.

Yum, right? Naturally, Easy Tiger had it hooked up to the tap for Dogfish Head’s 60 Minute IPA. I normally find the 60 Minute lacking just a bit in hoppiness (if you’ve read any of my posts you already know I’m a total hop head), so I was eager to see how it would taste after being filtered through the Randall.

The verdict? I give the Randall two thumbs up! A job very well done. My 60 Minute IPA was more flavorful than I could have imagined. I would love to try some other brews that have been Randalled, but it’s designed for one tap at a time. And I’m glad Easy Tiger used it for a Dogfish Head brew. If you’d like to read more about this hop transducer module, here’s a link to it on Dogfish Head’s website:

http://www.dogfish.com/company/tangents/randall-the-enamel-animal.htm

Thanks, Dogfish Head and Easy Tiger!