Hail to the Goddess!

Yesterday, as I went about my business, I got a notification on my phone to tell me that someone had left a message on my Facebook timeline. Said someone was Jason Oliver, head brewer of Devils Backbone, one of my favourite brewing folks in this neck of the woods and overseer of one of Virginia's best breweries (I am biased but I think central VA has a far higher concentration of quality breweries than anywhere else in this commonwealth). Said notification was to let me know that they had re-brewed Morana and that it would be available sometime in May.

A quick reminder. Morana is a Czech style dark lager, or tmavé pivo, inspired by the magnificent 14° tmavé from Kout na Šumavě. Jason and I first brewed back Morana in 2010, and again in 2012. She, for the numbers geeks, has about 25 IBUs of good old Saaz hoppiness, and packs a 5.3% abv punch, lagers for between 45 and 60 days, and tastes simply wonderful, as my notes from the second batch attest:

Still there is the deep mahogany colour, the bready grains and grassy Saaz goodness, the sweet juicy caramel of the CaraBohemian malt and the lingering crisp finish you expect from a lager, but new to the mix was a lovely nuttiness, like chestnuts roasted on a open fire.

To say I looking forward to seeing her again would be an understatement, I am positively thrilled at the thought of heading down to Roseland for an afternoon of drinking, and filling growlers to bring home.