Back in August, I called one of my posts The Audacity of Hops. It was about Oskar Blues taking the iconic Barack Obama poster and turning it into one for Dale’s Pale Ale. It turns out a homebrewer in Washington DC, whose day job is as a paralegal at the Department of Justice, brewed a homebrew by the same name. Sam Chapple Sokol also writes about beer online at the Humble Gourmand, where he tells the story of his new homebrew, The Audacity of Hops, The Beer of the American Dream.

From the Humble Gourmand:

How to represent Barack Obama through beer? Well, it was obvious that it had to have malt, the backbone of beer, so I added even amounts of dark malt and pale malt to give it a beautiful brown color. Victory malt, a specially-kilned variety of barley, also had a place. For good measure, I threw in a couple of pounds of corn sugar, from Kansas and Illinois. There had to be hops, so Challenger and Progress seemed like logical choices.

Then, how to symbolize Obama’s global origins? A blend of coffees from Kenya, Indonesia, and Hawaii, roasted by my own dad (Beans From My Father?) The water is all filtered tap water from the District of Columbia, my home and that of the future president.

There are 51 bottles in all, representing the 50 states plus DC. Yes, each label is numbered, and yes, I will be drinking #14 (Vermont, what?). [Sokol is originally from Vermont.]

And guess what? It’s ’08 percent alcohol.

The Washingtonian also did a story on his beer, and mentions in an update that if there’s enough interest after the election, he may do a commercial batch for sale, though this time named InaugurAle, or something like that.

Label art by Drew Art Carlisle.