When I was a lad, back in another century entirely, Bridgeport was considered (how do we put this delicately?) not the best place to buy a house. P.T.Barnum was long gone, and the industrial manufacturing economy which had replaced him was gone as well. Nothing was left but vacant lots and empty factories.
Fast-forward to the present day and we find that this idea is completely out of date. The Bluefish are thriving, the city is reviving, and a number of YAHOOS are happily living within the city limits.
Case in point: Mara Heneks, our hostess for the April meeting.
Mara has been building what may be the most high-tech brewing system of any Underground Brewer. At our last meeting at her home, she showed us her induction heating system and glycol-chilled fermenters. She has now added a home-built, 3-tier brewing rig. Brewers like me, without any space to call our own, can only gaze admiringly at this amount of dedicated brewing equipment.
And it doesn’t go to waste. There is never any shortage of great homebrew at Mara’s place. Most of it wild and/or sour. All of it delicious. Complemented by a generous spread of tasty munchies, this made for another excellent club meeting.
The rest of the YAHOOS brought their own high-quality brews to be judged. Except for me. I brought a tripel so bad that the rest of the batch had to be dumped. I had hoped for some advice on how to avoid the off-flavors next time, but apparently I stumped the experts. Never underestimate an Underground Brewer — even our fails are epic.
Tasting notes: