Your first clue that this is going to be a different kind of beer experience is that the bartender is putting on latex gloves.

	John Heller, Post-Gazette photos At the Harris Grill, Alex Fruzynski, left, and Jon Lewis add hops to the "organoleptic hops transducer module." Click photo for larger image. Related article Tracking down beer on the Web

It's just after 4 p.m. on a recent Monday at Shadyside's Harris Grill, and assistant manager Jon Lewis has opened a five-pound bag of what looks at first glance like hamster bedding or fish food. It smells like piney flowers.

"Whew, that smells good!" exclaims his also-gloved general manager, Alex Fruzynski, who begins reaching with him into the bag of what actually is Centennial hops.

They're the dried flowers that, normally added at different times during brewing, give beer not just its characteristic bitterness but also much of its flavor and aroma. Both Mr. Lewis and Mr. Fruzynski are among the "hop heads" whose beer cannot be too hoppy.

That's why they're loosely packing these hops into what looks like, because it is, an industrial filter body.

Meet the "organoleptic hops transducer module," also known as "Randall the Enamel Animal," or to old friends like these guys, just Randall.

The unusual device is the invention of Delaware's Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, which is famous for great beers that are way out there, hop- and otherwise.

Gene Mangrum tries a glass of the hopped-up Dogfish Head beer. Click photo for larger image. Let's go to the hops The new Rivertowne Pub & Grille on Route 30 in North Huntingdon just got a "Randall" that it plans to debut at a beer dinner soon. The phone at the 24-tap establishment is 412-823-2239. For more on the Harris Grill, on Ellsworth Avenue in Shadyside, visit www.harrisgrill.com or call 1-412-362-5273. For more on Randall, visit www.dogfish.com. This just in: At an April 23 East End Brewing Co. tasting, the Sharp Edge Creekhouse in Crafton (412-922-8118) will use its own hop filter device on Big Hop IPA, which brewer Scott Smith says also will be garnished with hop flowers (!).

You think its 90 Minute India Pale Ale already is highly hopped (at 90 IBU, or International Bitterness Units)? Well, run the line from the keg through this module and let that draft beer steep in these additional hops for a while.

You'll get hop pop, legend has it, that will take the enamel off your teeth.

"I was blown away," says Mr. Fruzynski, who last fall got from the local Dogfish master distributor what until recently was Western Pennsylvania's only Randall. "I didn't think it was going to make that much difference."

As a tentative taste test of this night's hopped-up 90 Minute IPA revealed, it isn't tooth-dissolving or mouth-puckering. In fact, at least after a short steep in these hops, the beer seemed to taste more mellow and smoother, no doubt in part because of a little lost carbonation.

Mr. Fruzynski says he likes the big IPA as it is brewed, but thinks it's a bit sweet. "To me, this really balances it."

They made their own modifications to the device, so the filter sits in a bucket of ice while the beer steeps to reduce foaming, and they have experimented with several different kinds of hops.

Such innovation is encouraged by Dogfish founder Sam Calagione, who invented the device and debuted it in 2004 at an annual Washington, D.C., celebration of hoppy beers called the "Lupulin Slam" (the common hop vine's Latin name is Humulus lupulus).

To teach people more about how hops help make the beer, Dogfish continues to make and sell Randalls at cost to beer bars around the country, which are listed on its Web site.

The term "Randallized" is now part of the beer geek language, including at the Harris Grill, which runs different brews through the Randall each Monday and Tuesday.

"Anytime there's a Randallized beer, I will give it a go," says regular Zakk Weston. "How could you not?" Tonight's 90 Minute IPA is the only one he hasn't cared for, but his buddy, Gene Mangrum, hops on board with, "I will quaff and quaff again. ... It's fun."

Mr. Lewis, who recently left the Harris Grill to work for the Darden Restaurant Group at Smokey Bones Barbecue in Robinson, says the Randall works best with high-alcohol beers, which better strip the hop oils, and they've experimented with several different types, including stout.

For people like him, there's no beer that isn't better with more hops. He likens the effect to high tannins in red wines, which he also enjoys. "It reminds me that I'm drinking it."

With a devilish grin, he adds, "This is almost, like, sadistic," and relates how one night, he took the hops left after a typical two-day run in the Randall and squeezed out the dregs to drink.

As he puts it, "People are always looking for something bigger."