Denver - September 25

I once read that doctors recommend you acclimate yourself to a higher altitude for 24 hours before you start drinking, Dr. Bill from Southern California says, �you only need to acclimate yourself for 24 minutes before drinking a beer.� I�m sticking with Dr. Bill�s advice.

The first day at the GABF is usually a slow day, going to the Brewer�s Gathering, seeing old friends, and in my case receiving phone calls from the earthquake retrofit contractor telling me that he is going to be delayed for another week. I�ve heard that before!

After the Brewer�s Gathering, my wife Natalie and I and a few friends went to what I thought was a private beer tasting put on by Babble Belt, it didn�t seem to private though. There were so many people there, lots of good beer though. The best beer of the night that I tasted was something that Todd Ashman brought to the Babble Belt tasting; it was from a brewery called Belvedere, made in Belgium. I need to find Todd later and get more info on this brew.

Of course, after the Babble Belt tasting we made it back to the Falling Rock where I actually got a fair amount of business done. I spoke with three potential distributors from Arizona, Alaska, and Southern California who will probably carry our beer, and most important I spoke with the White Lab crew about our collaboration that we will be doing next year.

Two years ago I had an idea to make a Belgian IPA - I wanted to fuss two styles together that normally don�t go together. At about the same time, the fine folks at White Labs approached me with an idea to brew a beer using all of their Belgian yeast that they have available, which is something like 10 or 12. So, over a beer and a game of Brewmaster we conceptualized this new beer, a Belgian style IPA using 10 or so yeasts to ferment it, and malts and hops from all over the world. And the name, DISCOMBOBULATION! After I brew the beer, we would release the beer and finally release the mixed culture and the recipe to the homebrew community.

So last night the concept of Discombobulation was rekindled and we talked about brewing this beast of a beer in March.

Today we are off to New Belgium Brewing Company for a tour with Peter. Should be fun!