Intended as a transition from the hot summer season to the colourful yet somewhat chillier autumn, the entire idea behind this beer was to blend toasty maltiness with fresh hoppiness, without going overboard on either. Since dark roasted grains can easily become dominant in flavor, the key was finding that ideal ratio for my grain bill and then letting the hop additions do the rest. With the first version of this beer the dark malts were much too dominant in taste and the hops were barely noticeable, so I had to iterate on it a few times to get the recipe just right. After some trial and error I was finally able to get this beer to where I wanted in terms of mouthfeel, flavor and aroma alike, with a good ratio of American hops paired with a malt bill that makes this a very well ballanced beer.