Nuclear Yeti Belgian Dubbel

Origin Story:

This was the first modern-day HLH brew.  Once the pandemic fully set in, I decided it was time to get myself a really time-consuming hobby.  I didn’t know at the time how far I would take it—Lauren likes to say that I’m the only one who really followed through on the pandemic hobby thing.

Nuclear Yeti is really just the extract-based Belgian Dubbel recipe provided by the sadly departed Eagle Rock Homebrewing Supply, executed on my 20-year-old homebrew equipment.  It was fine in execution—sweet and strong—but what it did do was whet my appetite to go all-grain, and to start making my own recipes.

Why Nuclear Yeti?  My son Henry is the Nuclear Yeti, through a tortured sequence of nickname permutations.  His close friend Aidan Yetman-Michaelson executed the label image perfectly and set a very high bar for our future branding.

Music Pairing:

While it’s not accurate to say that John Darnielle is the Mountain Goats—the band that has stabilized around him has carved out a distinct sound—it’s not wholly inaccurate either.  Darnielle is among our most generous performers—every Mountain Goats concert to which I’ve borne witness (and there are many) feels like a religious revival in the very best way.  At the same time, Darnielle’s songwriting is characterized by a brutal precision—of meter, of the sharp and surprising detail, of calibrated emotion.

The We Shall All Be Healed album is about a bunch of methampetamine addicts, observed with compassion, pity, and humor.