Hilarious story here from Max Marin at The Philadelphia Inquirer:
The City of Philadelphia inadvertently destroyed tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of future beer, and officials are sorry to have killed your buzz.
On Wednesday morning, the smell of fresh-cut grass lingered around the well-kept garden lot next to Philadelphia Brewing Co. But the freshly cut lot was not scattered with weeds — it contained precious hops that were being grown to produce the brewery’s seasonal “Harvest From the Hood” beer.
Brewery co-owner Nancy Barton had arrived at the Frankford Avenue site the day before to a distressed employee saying the hop garden had been laid to waste just a month before the beer was scheduled to yield.
Well that sucks, but “Harvest from the Hood” is a 7% wet hopped ale, which means it absolutely blows. Let’s be honest, this is an IPA in disguise. I’m sure it tastes great if you ever dreamed of taking a coniferous tree, liquifying it, and then pouring it into a glass to drink.
I’m going to have the total opposite take here. I think the city of Philadelphia should be absolutely commended for destroying this hop garden, “accidentally.” There’s enough hoppy beer out there and we don’t need more of it. There should already be limitations on how many wet hopped, dry hopped, or IPA-type beers at all local breweries, because it’s just way too much. If you have 10 beers on tap and seven of them are IPA, then what the hell is the point? Don’t call yourself a brewery, call yourself an India Pale Ale factory. I think this amounts to false advertising, and the new rule is that Philadelphia Brewing Co. must ESCHEW hoppiness in favor of Kenzinger, Walt Whit, and that coffee porter they do. Friends don’t let friends drink IPA.
In truth, this is one of the first positive things the city has done in many years. The irony here is that they finally start to clean this shit up and accidentally cut down the wrong thing, which is seemingly impossible. There are so many overgrown weeds and unsightly lots in that area that you could send somebody out with a lawnmower and a blindfold and they’d probably get the job done.
Good use of taxpayer dollars here.
UPDATE –
It appears that this story has “offended” some people who don’t understand that they are reading a facetious post at an irreverent sports blog. The city admitted that they fucked up, okay? PBC will be taken care of. If the city flakes, and screws PBC, we’ll blow up the city until they reimburse PBC. I will personally donate $250 to the cause. How’s that? That good enough for you?
Carry on.