If ever a beer needed a theme song, the most recent batch of Fortune and Glory DIPA was screaming for it. And luckily, I've already got one picked out. The theme song from a 1980's gem called "The Never-ending Story." Who can forget Atreyu and Falkor? Right now Fortune and Glory is exactly that, a never ending story, or perhaps better descriptor would be "saga." A Never-Ending Saga.

It all started on hot December morning last year. As we hashed out the beers we wanted to brew for in 2020, choosing between both new and old, a consensus was immediately achieved on Fortune & Glory. One of our first Hazy Double IPA's to be released from our home in Glen Iris made on our own brew kit. Has it really been a year?

The brew was added to the schedule. Early March release. Done. Dusted. Or so we thought.

Let's blow past the brew date in our timeline and fast forward to day 5 of Fermentation. The first dry hop was done a few days before and fermentation was pushing into Free Rise. We left for the weekend patting each other on the back. The Monday morning. "Why is FV6 at 1C?" You could hear a pin drop. The airlock bucket was silent, the occasional bubble - giving you a slight hope. In some ways, worse then no bubbles at all. Gravities were taken. The distance to go was far. Turns out that a solenoid valve on the FV's glycol supply line had failed and when it did so, it failed to open. The beer had crashed. With our most serious EMT Brewers Hats, we attacked the problem. Scrambling around like a scene from E.R., We did everything we could do to revive the patient, but alas the yeast was spent and the beer was too cold. It might take 2 months to bring it out of its coma. Decisions were made and our first official Drain Pour at Deeds happened. We opened up the bottom and blared TAPs on the speaker. 40hL of sweet hazy DIPA just gone.

Raw Materials were ordered and we looked to brew a follow up the next day. We had to replace the liquid. A plan was formed to brew one batch Friday morning and the second turn on Saturday. Friday went swimmingly.

Saturday morning, 6AM mash in. All looking sweet. Plans to hit Carwyn at noon were all lined up. But alas, it was not to be. When I went to mash out, raise the temp of the brew to 78C prior to transferring into the lauter tun, I found that the boiler had no pressure. I scrambled.... every minute you lose in the morning blows out your day by 10 minutes on the back end. Ask any brewer, it's true.

Thirty minutes later the call was put our to our Boiler Service company. By 830am, a tech had arrived. I let him do his thing as I busied myself with other jobs that needed doing. The clock ticked on. 9am.....9:30am.....10am........ Plans Cancelled....... 11am ....... My partner expressed her disappointment in the situation ....... 11:30am.....

"Hey mate, I can't fix this. I can't get the part until Monday morning."

So that was that then. Batch 004B of Fortune and Glory had to be dumped. No way around it. Is this possible? Is Fortune & Glory cursed? I felt like the guy at the end of Last Crusade who picked the wrong cup.

So I transferred it over to the lauter and drained as much liquid as I could. It bound of course, so when I had open up the knife gate to access the malt, that missing liquid came rushing out, splaying violently out of the grain bin, and covering most of the floor. No joke. It was like a punishment for even attempting to brew another batch of F&G. Was it cursed???

Let's just say I later utilized my bartender as an amateur psychiatrist that could provide ethanol without a prescription.

So to close, that is why there is so little Fortune & Glory available and why we leapfrogged from batch 003 to 004. I'm sorry it happened this way.

Also as we had planned to brew two turns of this beast, when one got dumped we had already pitched enough yeast for two. Let's just say it fermented fast and furiously leaving a bit more of a hotness / alcohol finish then we would have liked. I guess in short, this beer will remind you you aren't drinking fruit juice, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I promise we will brew it again before the end of the year. Maybe. I mean, it's impossible to know what might happen if we tried to brew it again. If you get your hands on one, please let me know if it came alright!

Cheers and remember, drink Fresh!

Justin