For almost a year now folks have been bugging us for one of those big, hazy, juicy things that seems to have taken the world by storm.

At first, we completely ignored the request, because we are generally head strong, cantankerous bastards down in the shop. Eventually, we caved in a little bit and tried throwing a bone with Hasselhopf and Nabikhopf, our "hopped-up farmhouse" offerings.

Well, today, my juice-mad friends, we have fully rolled over and made a treat to both cloud your mind and make sweet, sweet love to your taste buds. We give you Bulgakhopf.

Bulgakhopf is an 8.5% DIPA made with 2-row and flaked barley. Onto that creamy base we added Equinox, Saphir & Amarillo hops and fermented with a blend of London Ale yeast and saccharomyces trois to give an added depth to the tropical fruit notes. What results is a hazy, juicy potion assembled with one modest goal in mind: your absolute delight. And it hits bottle shops today. It was bottled on Wednesday and is fresh as Hell. Come on and get it.

Fun fact: We named the beer for Mikhail Bulgakov, author of the great book, "The Master & Margarita". That's one of the stars of the novel on the bottle, the demonic cat Behemoth. Behemoth likes vodka, chess, syllogisms... and mayhem.This week we're also releasing "Watermelon Gun", a 6.5% farmhouse beer with 1.5 fresh watermelons in each one of the 10 barrels of beer we made. By our estimations - and those of a team of alcoholic scientists that we brought in for the study - this is the best beer to help crush the incoming summer heat and elevate your mind-trailer to a Mind-Castle.

Both of these beers are being delivered to the following bottle shops today:

Beer Temple
Binnys - River North, Arlington Heights, Des Plaines, Jefferson, Lakeview, Lincolnwood, Marcey, Niles, River Grove, Skokie
Bitter Pops
Bottles & Cans
Ezras Fresh Market Place
Grand & Western Liquors
Iron and Glass
Liquor Park
Madison Vine Wines
Noble Grape
River Valley Farmers Table
Vas Foremost Liquors
Warehouse Liquors

Thanks to everyone - the bars, restaurants, breweries, the guild and people - who helped us celebrate Craft Beer Week this year. It was a great week and we're looking forward to having the best summer ever in 2017. Stay tuned for event announcements, bottle releases and - most importantly - fire notifications so that you can enjoy this summer along with Illuminated Brew Works.

Godspeed!