By Jamil Zainasheff
he tornado was forming at the side of
the road, right next to the RV. People
say that you should never try to out-
run a tornado. Instead, you should
get out of your vehicle, dive into a
ditch, cover your head, and hope for
the best. But this tornado was forming in the ditch and
there was no way I was crawling into that same ditch.
My friend Peter Symons from Sydney, Australia was
quietly working the camera while I kept repeating, "Oh,
this is not good. This is not good." Alongside of us were
several storm chaser trucks, the only other vehicles on
the road. I could see them pointing at the idiots in the
RV that were about to die.
When Peter agreed to join me on this road trip, I doubt
he realized it would include outrunning tornadoes. Of
course, any good adventure has a few challenges along
the way and our trip from Oakland, Calif. to the AHA
National Homebrewers Conference in Minneapolis,
Minn. in June was no different. Our plan was to stop at
16 breweries and meet up with Brewing Network listen-
ers along the way. At this point, we were only about
halfway through the 2,500-mile trip and I was beginning
to think we would not survive to see the rest.
The Road To Great Beer
We had our first challenge when the alternator on my
old RV quit about 40 miles before our first stop at Great
Basin Brewing Company in Sparks, Nev. I knew we could
still make it to Great Basin, but I was worried about los-
ing a day trying to get a new alternator installed. Once
we arrived at Great Basin, we forgot about the alternator
and settled in for some great food and one of
my favorite beers, Ichthyosaur India Pale
Ale. The "Icky" has a light, toasty
malt background, a firm bitter-
ness, and a big hop charac-
ter that stands out when
compared side-by-side
with many other IPAs, all
without being harsh or unbal-
anced. I asked owner/brewmaster
Beers, Brewers and Tornadoes
T
Tom Young about what makes a great IPA and he told
me, "As a brewer, it is easy to just add more hops. The
quest