Where's Marty? At Heavy Seas Beer learning about a new brew with a homegrown ingredient
Hi Everyone!
We have featured Heavy Seas Brewing on "Where's Marty?" twice before.
I have a ton of respect for owner Hugh Sisson. As I have previously written, him and his Dad really got "micro-brewery's" going, not only in the state but in a sense country-wide.
In almost 30 years, Heavy Seas has gone from a small place in Fells Point to a state-of-the-art brewery just outside of the Beltway on Hollins Ferry Road.
By my very unofficial count they have crafted MANY different beers in that almost 30 years.
The point is Heavy Seas is constantly evolving, keeping creative, and keeping it's legions of followers happy.
And today we went to visit, again, because of a special Hop.
The Hop is a huge ingredient in the beer making process. Hops grows better, but not exclusively, in the higher latitudes of the country where, in the summer, the days are longer.
Below is a glass full of Hops, but not the one we will be discussing shortly. But I think you should see what a hop ready for the brewmaster looks like.
So now, here is a long story made short.
A farmer in Maryland who grew up in Oregon, (high latitude state), picking hops saw a Hop plant on his farm here. He immediately recognized it.
He then gets the University of Maryland Extensionn involved, and sure enough, over time, that Hop was recognized by the USDA as a genetically unique Hop to Maryland.
The UMD folks gave it the name Monocacy Hop because the three researchers involved live in the Monocacy watershed area.
One of them, Bryan Butler, joined K2, myself and Heavy Seas Brewmaster Chris Leonard this morning.
When Chris found out about the Monocacy Hop, he was all in to make a real Maryland Farm-to-Table seasonal beer.
Bryan and his team were, also, all in. (It should be noted that UMD is spreading the word about the Monocacy Hop and sharing plants and research on it.)
In these tanks, Chris has created what is being called "Altimore."
"Alt beer" is a specific German style copper Ale. "Alt" means "old."
And on the 20th of this month at the Heavy Seas Tap House on Hollins Ferry Road, it will be poured and celebrated. What a story!
And we thank the University of Maryland Extension, and Heavy Seas for hosting us.
Two websites for you, one for Heavy Seas https://www.hsbeer.com/. And here is the addy for the UMD Extension https://extension.umd.edu/
The Extension site is FULL of interesting reading! Full, trust me.
Marty B!