While in New York City recently, I stopped by the excellent Greenwich Village beer bar, The Blind Tiger (518 Hudson Street at West 10th), to try something decidedly different in the world of beer: Dogfish Head Brewing's 90 Minute IPA served through 'Randall the Enamel Animal.' What follows is a description of the 'Randall process' as described on Dogfish Head's website:
"Randall, a Dogfish Head invention, is an organoleptic hop transducer module. A three-foot-long, cylinder-filter packed with a half a pound of whole leaf hops that we affix to the beer line leaving a keg (for example, our 90 Minute IPA). The alcohol in the 90 Minute IPA grabs the oils off the hops in the Randall on the way to the tap, inducing the most pungent and glorious fresh hop experience known to man (or woman)."
While I wanted to try Randall for reasons of pure curiosity, I really didn't expect to like the beer that flowed from its tap, and I was right. For those who want hops, more hops and nothing but hops in their ale, Randall and the 90 Minute make an admirable combination. But if having some vague form of malt balance in your beer is important to you, then my advice would be to stay far away from Randall.
The problem is that the 90 Minute IPA is a relatively well-balanced beer to begin with, strongly hoppy but with a solid malt and alcohol backbone. When it flows through the tightly packed hop cylinder, the oils that the beer picks up not only over-hop the beer, they also seem to float on the ale rather than become integrated into the taste. The result is a slap of hops upside the head with every sip, which, as I said, is perfectly fine if you like that sort of thing, but definitely not an experience for everyone.
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