Knowing full well that I am about as subjective as I can be on the subject, I'd like to take a moment to thank Andris Veidis - the brewer at Blue Hills Brewery for hooking me up with a growler of their tasty spring marzen lager (see photo). It is a surprisingly good beer that fits perfectly with the miserable springs we have here in Boston. It is still cold and wet out, and the smooth caramel malt backbone provides sustenance to deal with it. However, baseball season is a weekend away, and with it comes promises of sunshine and warmer temperatures. Blue Hills matches this budding optimism with a note of citrusy-grassy hops in the nose and in the mouth. By far my favorite spring beer, and I'm a much bigger fan of it than I am of Sam Adams' Noble Pils.
I've got to be honest and admit that I'm a friend of Andris, and that I got this growler on the barter system rather than the capital system. I met him a year or so ago when I was working on a From the Source on his nascent brewery, and as we chatted he essentially made it clear that he would welcome any help he could get from a homebrewer. So once or twice a week last summer I would head down on brewdays, or sometimes on filter days, and lend a hand in exchange for beer and experience. I no longer have free mornings, so working there has become impossible, but we still keep in touch and trade beer. For example, I traded him a six-pack of homebrewed IPA and California Common for this growler.
I figure that any relationship that revolves almost entirely around beer is a good one, and it doesn't hurt that I'm in good with one of Massachusett's up-and-coming breweries. For those who aren't in the know yet, you should definitely check out Blue Hills. They have tastings every Friday at the brewery in Canton. And if you've got homebrew, bring that too.
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