To recap, here we are at World Class Beverage's Big Beer Dinner in Castleton (albeit some three weeks ago).

We were just talking about Nick Floyd.

AHHH! Why is he such a badass?

How lucky are we citizens of Indiana (read: Chicago) to have him here in our fine state? A true artist. A tortured artist? Pensive. Sarcastic. Hilarious. European soccer hooligan? He scoffs at beer styles like Miro scoffed at realism...or something like that.

Let's put it this way: he makes some of the best beer in the world. Period.

Notwithstanding the 'too fat for porn' comment, Nick Floyd spoke quite eloquently about his craft during the Big Beer Dinner on the 9th of April. Oh, of course there was that comment about Belgian beers brewed by monks, "If you think their stuff is brewed by monks you're high. A monk might have farted on it, but that's about it."

He has a good perspective on the industry.

And he sure knows a lot about hops. All three of the brewers at the table were quite concerned with this year's hop harvest. Apparently the drought in the Pacific Northwest has taken a toll on the harvest leaving each brewer to fend for themselves. Floyd mentioned pre-buying hops with the growers, but said it was quite a tricky business and didn't always work out. But I'd put my money on Nick Floyd over the poor hop harvest any day.

This man is a hop wizard. He knows American hops are the best in the world and he knows how to use them. And he claims that Alpha King proves it...quite rightly in my opinion. But Alpha King is pretty big, brashy and bold. 66 screamin' IBUs of C-hops. How about his Gorch Fock Helles that was served with the spicy chicken appetizer? That beer is something to behold. Not much of a Helles if I may be so bold, far closer to a Pils in its crispness and focus on the hops.

And what incredible mastery over the hop this beer does exhibit!

At first I thought it was completely German noble hops, what with the more pungent, spicy not-so-citrusy notes and all, but low and behold it's hopped with nothing but Glacier! Apparently it was supposed to be all German hops...but "they were thrown out." By mistake??

Speaking of hop-mastery, have you tried Brian Boru? You know, that 'Irish red ale' they make? Well, you really should. Of course it's as much an Irish Red Ale as Miller Lite is a true German Pilsner, but hey, who cares about style these days? The first thing that betrays Brian Boru's American roots is the absolutely MASSIVE all Amarillo dry hopping. The aroma crawls up into your nostrils and literally beats the shit out of your scent receptors. It's actually quite pleasant. And as Eric Warner pointed out, the aggressive dry hopping can fool your palate into thinking this is a bitter beer, but it's actually only 15-18 IBUs. And once you get past the aroma assault, Brian Boru showcases some very subtle flavors that may be attributable to the fact it's brewed with Irish honey.

In a veiled attempt to apologize for making such aggressive beers (ever had Dreadnaught?), Floyd offers us this bit of reasoning: "White males have the fewest taste buds." Good try dude, but have you ever had Carol Stoudt's double IPA?

Moving right along, lo and behold up pops the topic of fruit beers. Now apparently this was supposed to be kept under wraps, but it was announced loud and clear during the beer dinner so why not mention it here too, right? 3Floyd's currently has, get this, a Gumballhead peach lambic in the tanks! That's right folks. Gumballhead, peaches and a whole lot of weird microorganisms are gettin' it on in Munster as you read this. That should be interesting to say the least. And, according to Floyd, it's a REAL fruit beer, "Not that bullshit they make downtown." Ouch. Well, I suppose that's a call to the brewers in downtown Indy to step it up a notch.

The Pride and Joy Mild was nice with the salad, Alpha King stood up to the pork, and Braveheart on acid was surprisingly well matched with the dessert course. And by Braveheart on acid I mean their Scottish ale, Robert the Bruce. And did you know that the artist who came up with the rather frazzled looking Scotsman on the Robert the Bruce label used to do Happymeal artwork for McDonalds? Talk about trippy.

And as long as we're on the topic of intoxication, we might as well wrap things up with Alpha Kong. That's right, 3Floyd's new Belgian Sextuppel Ale, count 'em, sex, was brought out of it's hibernatory slumber for a chance to flex it's muscles, all 15.5% of them. While this beer certainly needs another, oh, 2 years or so of downtime, as Nick Floyd himself pointed out, it sure is an interesting brew now. Made with generous proportions of some sort of sugar that comes in cone form from East Indonesia, this beer is freakin' huge. Massive esters are pricked to life by a strange sharpness. Maybe it's ethanol? Maybe higher alcohols? Fusels? I don't know. But whatever it is, it's hot. And definitely worth a try. I can't wait to give it another go in a couple years.

And now that you're all primed on 3Floyd's, why don't you head up to Munster this Friday (the 29th) at 4pm for the Dark Lord release? You know you want to. Who wants to miss the release of one of the biggest, baddest Imperial Stouts ever made? And even if you don't like beer, you can certainly turn a profit by sitting on the bottle for a couple months then finding a die hard beer geek to sell it to. They'd probably pay dearly. It will also be fun to talk to all the folks that have driven literally hundreds of miles to be there. On the true beer geek's calendar, this is a momentous event.

I've also heard from Dave Tohtz that in addition to Dark Lord, Alpha Kong, Gorch Fock, Gumballhead and perhaps Thulsa Doom (an English IPA) will be on tap.

I don't see how one could resist.