"The best sequels throughout time keep what you really like about the first thing, but they aren't afraid to do their own thing for the next season and kind of grow, in a way." — Joe Keery

While many eagerly await Joe reprising his role as Steve Harrington in the new season of "Stranger Things," Tallahassee has a fantastic science-inspired sequel of its own releasing this Saturday at Deep Brewing Company.

The beer, Electromagnetic Bitter — affectionately called EMB — is back! And version 2.0 promises to maintain beloved elements of last year's release while adding a few new wrinkles to the mix, starting with the beer itself.

Deep owner/brewer Ryan LaPete explains, "I feel like we got pretty dang close to the beer we were going for last year. But this year, we softened the water profile just a smidge to bring the perception of bitterness down a bit. Additionally, we changed our hopping from simply East Kent Goldings, the best hop we could've started with, and added to its floral/honeysuckle notes some Fuggle hops — a little more herbal tone. Tried to make that hopping aroma just a little more complex, but very minor tweaks." 

We can confirm this year's brew takes nothing away from last year's great recipe; instead, it adds subtle layers of complexity. 

This year's release also sees the Office of Economic Vitality's (OEV) return and their promotion of Tallahassee as "The Magnetic Capital of The World" — the idea central to nearly every aspect of this release. You see, EMB's style, name, and can label are an ode to Tallahassee's historic contributions to magnetic field research in physics, biology, bioengineering, chemistry, and other sciences. 

Kevin Gehrke of OEV explains, "The whole concept around [Electromagnetic Bitter], and relating it to the Magnetic Capital of The World, is that term 'bitter.' The most famous of the bitter plates, the technology central to the electromagnets, was invented here." 

Yep, in Tallahassee, at FSU's Field Magnetic Laboratory as we wrote about last year.

Year one of Electromagnetic gave us spectacular weather, a fantastic day of open houses and hands-on demonstrations at the Industrial Park, the perfect pour in the perfect glass, and quite possibly the best after-party in science history.

So how do the Office of Economic Vitality and Deep plan on topping that? To start, they've invited a few more collaborators from the capital city — Divvy Up Socks, The Slide Hustle, and Target Print and Mail, to name a few.

They’re teaming up to raffle off swag bags to 100 event attendees. Divvy Up, a Tallahassee company producing custom socks, has printed a few extra special items to be inserted in the bags. Slide Hustle, the resident food truck at Deep, has put together a specialty menu of London/English-inspired items. The first 100 people to purchase EMB will receive a voucher for a free slider. Toss in some trivia and raffles emceed by OEV to keep the "Magnetic Capital of The World" conversation going, and we're talking game raising!

The underscoring of the power of collaboration is one of our favorite aspects of this beer and event. We think OEV's Gehrke highlighted it perfectly in an interview on our upcoming episode of The Saturday Morning Bottlehsare, "with the Mag Lab, Danfoss Turbocor, the superconductor lab.

With all of the research done around magnetics. With other community partners. It made sense to join our concept with the growing and thriving beer scene. Tallahassee's thriving beer society." We couldn't agree more. And with Danfoss Turbocor's recent announcement of massive expansion in Tallahassee our beer society should only continue to grow.  

More:Danfoss Turbocor expanding in Tallahassee, bringing 'Project Juggernaut' to fruition

Those looking to attend the free event at Deep's 2524 Cathay Court #2 brewery will be treated to an ordering system and service honed throughout the COVID epidemic.

Deep has implemented and practiced their safety protocols through numerous popular events since late August — including CANiversary (their anniversary celebration), Tanksgiving, Christmas, and most recently, Gallontines Day.

However, the brewery continues to cater to those less inclined to attend events in person through website ordering and curbside service. Folks wanting to take the party back to the house may order beer, food, and the EMB branded nonic pint glass for this event at https://pickup.deepbrewing.com/. 

LaPete assures us that there are plenty of cans of Electromagnetic Bitter to go around, but did also drop this nugget on us. Those missing opening day Saturday might see a few kegs of EMB at their favorite watering hole.

More beer, more collaboration, and beer-to-go. Bigger. Better. Baller. 

Now THAT's how a sequel is done! 

Matthew Crumbaker, along with Danny Aller, is the co-founder, of the TLH Beer Society, a group of avid craft beer lovers. Reach the Beer Society on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or email: tlhbeersociety@gmail.com.