Origins of continuous hopping

I met Sam Calagione at a beer dinner held at the Sierra Grille in Northampton. MA last night. Aside from learning some great information about his brews, He explained the Origins of continuous hopping used in the 120 IPA.

Before Paul Zocco designed the Zopinator to do their continuous hop additions. They used a 1970's cardboard version of electric, vibrating tabletop football that Sam picked up at his local Salvation Army Thrift store.

Sam went on to explain how they rigged the football game over the kettle at an angle so that it would vibrate and drop the hops in the kettle continuously throughout the boil. The down side to the contraption was that the steam made the cardboard playing field soggy, and difficult to re-use.

I've heard that story before. Damn, I'm not the biggest DFH fan in the world, but it would have been wicked sweet to have gotten in on that dinner!

I wonder if some of the hops ended up just going in circles in the corner of the end zone.

(Or is no one else on this board old enough to get that?)

He's a really nice guy. Turns out he grew up a few blocks away from where my wife grew up in Greenfield. The world just keeps getting smaller.

Wow, that's.... very odd!

I wouldn't have been able to make it, anyway - wife's got to have her dissertation done in the next week and a half, so I'm on pretty much continuous baby-duty from 4PM on. Keep me in mind, though, if you hear about other cool things like this in the area.

Bike N Brew said:

I wonder if some of the hops ended up just going in circles in the corner of the end zone.

(Or is no one else on this board old enough to get that?)

Click to expand...

That's when you break out the QB/PK with the catapult arm for the final addition.

What would the little felt football add to the beer?