Gordon, a homebrew hobbyist living in Sebastopol, returned to his hobby three years ago after retiring. He originally homebrewed almost 40 years ago when he was inspired by a former student and began brewing with a friend. He even participated in the Sonoma County Harvest Festival homebrew competition and pulled off a 3rd Place award. Though his hobby activity ceased for a long time, he has now returned with a particular interest and focus on developing his brewing equipment and system in his garage, which now includes a “closed” conical, pressure fermenter and temperature-controlled fermentation cabinet.

He mostly enjoys stouts and hoppy beers. With this winning Black IPA, be seems to be right in his comfort zone. Next, he is working on preparing his fermentation chamber for colder, lagering temperatures so he can take on lagers. He tells us that he appreciates that he can trust our beer kits, which allows him to focus on his equipment and processes, which at this point is his favorite part of the hobby. Right on, Gordon! That’s our goal and we love to hear it.

For this batch of Dark of the Moon Black IPA, all-grain, he used his pressure fermenter. He monitored and logged fermentation temperatures in both primary and secondary fermentation, which are both performed in the same vessel in his “closed” system. He gave the dry hops 7 days of contact before bottling.

The judges hereby commend you, Gordon, for excellent execution of this brew! We enjoyed it thoroughly in our tasting and we are confident that a lot more delicious brew can be expected from your garage!