On a Sour Note...

I started homebrewing at the end of December 2010. The first beer I brewed was a porter, a kit I bought from my local home brew supply store. It was my maiden voyage into the Sea of Brew, the first of many yet to come. Potentially similar to anybody who has tried their hand at home brewing, I was sure that I knew what was coming through the whole process, from boiling the wort to racking to secondary to bottling. At least, I knew what I had read online in forums, and the first chapter or two of The Complete Joy of Homebrewing (which I still need to finish reading). Of course, the actual process went a little less smoothly than anticipated. All in all, I felt like I pulled off the whole brewing process from boiling to bottling pretty smoothly, other than forgetting to take an original gravity reading, having to restart the siphon a half dozen times when I racked it to secondary, having no idea what temperature it was fermenting at other than "the temperature my apartment's at," and forgetting to boil my priming sugar until I had fully prepared everything else for bottling. With the help of my girlfriend Robin, who's excellent assistance will be recruited for future bottling operations, it even felt like bottling the beer - which I would argue is the most complicated step of the whole brewing process - went smoothly. 2 cases of 22oz bottles later, my first beer was bottled and set aside, and I would be tasting the first bottle in 2 weeks to check how the carbonation process and conditioning were progressing.

Fast forward two weeks. I had been to Left Hand and Pumphouse the weekend before, and had sent an email to Avery to get more information about what had happened at the release of Margarete. The email I received back impressed me, with honesty, clarity, and insight into the business end of brewing that I had not previously encountered or considered. I wanted to share this email with all of you, so here it is, reprinted with permission of the author:

Hi Jake,

C.V. Howe here, Marketing Director for Avery Brewing Company. 

Jake, I'm really sorry to hear that the release last Friday left a bad taste in your mouth.  We make these beers because A. we are REALLY passionate about beer (just as you are, I assume) and B. because they are fun and we love throwing parties to celebrate them with our biggest fans!!!  It pains me to get emails like yours, since we try our best to get as much great beer as we can into the hands of those that really appreciate it!

I'm not sure if you've been to any of our prior Barrel-Aged Series releases.  If you have, you'll know that we've always had a 6 bottle limit on these beers.  This system was very effective for us for releases 1-5, and unfortunately a good amount of folks walked away empty handed last Friday at Margarete.  Obviously the huge demand for Margarete was not anticipated.  To put things in perspective, we sold a total of 54 cases of Quinquepartite, No.5 during the release event in September.  That was across the course of 4 hours (6PM-10PM), with folks trickling in all evening after the initial rush at 6PM.  59 cases of Margarete sold in 1.5 hours.    Why the huge increase in demand?  Your guess is as good as mine.  The marketing and advertising for all 6 BAS releases has been virtually identical. 

As the person in charge of the ticket giving and sales operation last Friday, I can promise you that the 6 bottle limit per customer was strictly adhered to.  Every person who made it in the door was given 6 tickets, and if they only had 5 when they got to the front of the line, they only bought 5 bottles.  Several customers did come in groups, or in couples, and on a few occasions we did give people a case box to more easily carry their six packs out among themselves and their friends. I can see how that might have sent the wrong message to those standing out in the cold.  

In retrospect, do we wish that we had decided to do a 2 bottle or 3 bottle limit?  Yes.  Did past experience with these releases leading up to Margarete suggest a 3 bottle limit? Certainly not.  Can you trust us to take the necessary steps to ensure a more equitable distribution of the beer at the release of Dihos Dactylion on 2/25?  Absolutely.

When it comes down to it, these beers have a real element of scarcity to them (have you seen our cellar? It's not real big.  And smaller still when you consider that a good percentage of the beer goes down the drain because it doesn't meet our standards.)  Going forward, we plan to make sure that those who make the biggest effort will get the best odds of walking away with beer.   Bottom line, you're gonna have to make an effort (showing up two hours after the release starts isn't likely to hack it), but if you make the effort and follow our instructions leading up to the release you will have a much better experience.      

Look for our new plan in the upcoming edition of The Monthly Mash and on our website, http://www.averybrewing.com/ in a few days time.  

Cheers, and I hope to see you and your friends at Dihos!!!!

C.V. Howe 

 As mentioned, I was humbled by the honesty of C.V. However, being the beer geek that I am, I was instantly intrigued by the mention of a beer that I had not yet heard of, "Dihos Dactylion." A quick Google search gave me just a teaser of information, in the form of a label and a quick description.

The text on the label reads:

"No. 7. Mumbles. Squints. Tie-dye V-necks. Popped collars. Moccasins. Marlin Shorts. Vermont. Was a butcher, then a brewer, now a quitter. We'll miss you, man!

BREWED WITH ROCKY MOUNTAIN WATER, MALTED BARLEY, IMPORTED SPECIALTY BELGIAN MALTED BARLEY, HOPS, BRETTANOMYCES YEAST, SACCHAROMYCES YEAST, LACTOBACILLUS, AND PEDIOCOCCUS."

The obvious details: 10.25% ABV, Barrel-aged in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels, and sour. Now for the name of the beer, "Dihos Dactylion." 

"Dactylion" translates into "The tip of the middle finger." 

"Dihos," however, does not directly translate. There is a Greek word, "dichos," which means "without." I would surmise that this is what they intended, as this would make the title of the beer "Without the tip of the middle finger."
[Update: from <http://en.allexperts.com/q/Greek-2004/proper-grammar-1.htm> :
"...there's a similar expression in Greek: horis metania.'horis'...means without and 'metania'...means regret. It could also be as: dihos metanoia.'dihos'... also means without."]
Now to tie it all together. The description hints at someone moving on, perhaps leaving Avery Brewing Company. Sleuthing Avery's website, I navigated to the Staff page to look for clues. Reading several staff members' blurbs, I came across one that was a perfect match, Jeff Rizzo:

“The second of two Vermonters on the Avery staff, Fred…moved to Boulder shortly after [graduating Keene State College in 2006]. Since October of ’06 Fred has served Avery in all aspects of brewing, proving himself particularly adept at learning the art and science of crafting beer. Outside of the brewery you are apt to find Fred killing it in tye-die V-necks, original Frogskins, his favorite pair of moccasins as well as the occasional button down Polo…”

Mystery solved. Dihos Dactylion is a "farewell beer" to a crew member of Avery, and they're parting with friendship and with fond memories, "without the tip of the middle finger." It is ironic, then, that this will probably be a particularly sour beer.

[UPDATE: from a Facebook post by Avery:
"Dihos Dactylion, our newest release in the barrel-aged series. Five saison yeast blend for primary ferment, secondary with house Brett then soured in Plumpjack wine barres for 18 months."]
Now that I had cracked the code of the next Barrel-Aged beer from Avery, it was time to check on the progress of my own beer. I pulled the bottle of my porter out of the refrigerator, poured it into a glass, and...

It was sour.

The lactic acid flavor was a sure sign that my inaugural batch of homebrew had been contaminated, later to be determined that it was my bottling process. As I pondered this unexpectedly sour beer in my glass, the irony struck me. In two weeks' time, I would be waiting in line to purchase a beer that showcased the very flavor that indicated I had ruined my first batch of homebrew.

Cheers! See you next week!