With a foundation in homebrewing in 1992, Paul Kavulak set about to experiment within a hobby that would prove both entertaining and, at times, refreshing. Over a period of roughly 13 years, and with the able assistance of his wife Kim, this was a hobby that had moments of brilliance coupled with the occasional moment of panic and forensic science. One constant drove the momentum forward – the desire to create a better beer with each and every Sunday spent laboring over a recipe geared for greatness.
Fast forward to 2005 and yet another effort to brew a batch of Cardinal Pale Ale with a Cascade nose that should be truly noteworthy. Every good scientist changes a single variable and tests results against a control. In this case, the control was the nose of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale – a bright beer with a somewhat striking aroma of Cascade hop. Unfortunately, for Paul the changes were too slight and yielding results that were much too subtle to create a beer that fell into this zone. After a somewhat stressful day spent at the day job, and returning home to check on the progress of this particular batch, Paul was struck with total disgust with a beer that was going nowhere relative to his goals. In a fit of rage, and just prior to dumping the batch of beer, Paul grabbed the 1 large bag of Cascade leaf hops that he had on hand and dumped the entire contents into the now open fermenter. To seal his disgust and end the effort on that beer he tossed the lid on top of the fermenter and walked away.
2 weeks later, and in a better frame of mind, Paul returned to the scene of the crime to dump and clean the equipment. Upon removing the lid from the fermenter, the air was filled with the aromas that Paul had been hunting for. After determining that no harm was actually done to the beer in that moment of hatred, Paul decided to finish and carbonate the beer to test the outcome. It was in that moment of evaluation that when held to the light triggered the brain cell to think, “I’ll bet I can sell this beer”. And then in the next moment, sheer panic set in as the realization set in that there was no record of how many ounces had been dumped into the beer to create the finished product. A bit of math against previous batches that had used hops from that bag revealed the amounts and the drive turned to creating the venue to create and sell this and other beers commercially.
