The homebrew club got real interesting last night. Jerry started dating this girl Maddy, and she was something else: purple hair, piercings, and a load of tattoos. And then there’s Jerry: bearded, balding, and been carrying a spare tire for years now. I can see the appeal for him, but she’s out of his league.

Anyway, she calls herself a “biopunk” – which, really, sounds like Jerry: He’s always been messing with yeast in a basement lab for flavor, more alcohol, things like that. She’s been doing weird things with yogurt, making it glow in the dark when it goes bad, stuff like that. She brought a bunch of her gear to his place. One thing lead to another, and she moved in so they could brew. Well, that, and other things.

“This is an unfiltered lie-detector IPA,” said Jerry, tipping a sample into my cup.

“The yeast make your tongue glow in the presence of the stress hormones usually associated with trying to hide something,” added Maddy.

“C’mon, take a sip, tell me whether you like it,” said Jerry, grinning.