...was DC really built on a swamp? Not really– today it’d be called more of a tidal plain. When Pierre L’Enfant set out with a team to survey the city, there was a lot of variety in what he found: fields of tobacco and corn, small forests, and some waterside bluffs and wetlands.
The first day of summer will also be the first day for drinkability of my West Coast style Pale Ale. I'd confused myself as to what I had brewing, so the Pilz has to wait for full-on summertime. I'll get a label done for this soon (ish)
Ooops I got ahead of myself here, up next is actually a pale ale for early summer; the pilz should show up in July.
The early-summer seasonal beer and follow-on to the Kolsch is a Czech Pilsner.
You beer history lesson is that Pilz is the result of repeated failure with standard ale-style brewing in Pilsen, Bohemia. Fed up with their traditional technique, they (purportedly) smuggled yeast from a Bavarian monastery and hired Josef Groll to bring bottom-fermented beer to Pilsen. Combining that style with locally available Saaz noble hops and you get Pilsner, which was first served on 11 November 1842. In gratitude of Groll's contributions to the beer world he was then fired.
I should be bottling the Pilz as soon as I have enough empties from the Kolsch to fit it.
So, this year I had three seedlings (Better Boys) all thrive (and by thrive, I mean, not die). I bought three tomato plants (one better boy, a brandywine, and one other varietal) from the farmer's market which had the benefit of a better upbringing and are already beginning to fruit.
The first brew of the season was a leftover from fall, a relatively dark Vienna Lager. I added some extra honey to sweeten it up a bit. It turned out as an excellent beer for a crisp autumn day, but was drinkable in the early spring as well.
Carbonating and conditioning right now is Kolsch, an ale that masquerades as a lager, native to Cologne. It has a mild aroma of dried banana (seriously), and took quite a while to get ready for bottling, so I'm hopeful for a complex taste.
The first brew of the season was a leftover from fall, a relatively dark Vienna Lager. I added some extra honey to sweeten it up a bit. It turned out as an excellent beer for a crisp autumn day, but was drinkable in the early spring as well.
