Seattle Beer Week Randall Night

There’s this device called a “Randall the Enamel Animal,” or “Randall” for short. It was created and perfected by Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione. The Randall attaches to a draft line and infuses fresh hops, fruit, herbs, or almost any other ingredient of choice into a beer.

Last night, as part of Seattle Beer Week, The Pine Box in Seattle hosted “Can You Handle My Randall,” 12 crazy-infused beers from Washington, Oregon and California. The Randall contraption looked straight out of a mad scientist’s lab.

Popping in on Hop Valley sales representative Rob Brunsman’s table at The Pine Box, the paper sheet marking each of the 12 Randall beers had two spots vacated. His crew favored The Breakside Brewery India Golden Ale with honeycomb, pineapple and mango and the Ballast Point Brewing Even Keel Session Ale with mango and Thai chili — which I concur. It was as if these beers were brewed to pair with these additional ingredients.

Other Randalls I could handle were the Crux Fermentation Project Saison with lemongrass, orange peel and ginger, Ecliptic Brewing White Asteroid Imperial Wit with Cascade hops, Big Time Brewing IPA with kaffir leaf and guava, Sound Brewery Entendez Noel with melons, peaches and apricots, and finishing with the Hop Valley Brewing Vanilla Porter with coffee beans.

Seattle Beer Week is loaded with events today. Check it at seattlebeerweek.com/events. Tacoma’s Engine House No. 9 represents with beer at Elysian Brewing’s FIRKIN-FIRKIN competition, Gordon Biersch’s LagerFest and E9 head brewer Shane Johns discuss fermentation as part of the Yeast Mode panel chat, beginning at 6 p.m. in The Pine Box.

LINK: Hop Valley vs Peaks and Pints