More Interior Framing @hawksbillbrew

Well, the interiors work keeps plugging along at Hawksbill Brewing Company.  It is one of several activities we have going in parallel to get the place open - construction is the one activity we have the most control over right now, so we're making good progress.  In fact, this completes the first stage of framing.


Some earlier photos I put up last week showed the walls for our two accessible restrooms and the cold room.  The layout starts to be recognizable with these shots, which show the future bar area - the first one is more or less the view that patrons will have as they enter the building.


Our brew house will be visible to the rear, on the right side of the first photo.


The second photo gives the perspective from part of the tasting room, an area that will be adjacent to the brew house.  We're pretty excited that almost the entire operation is going to be visible to our patrons from this area.


More seating is planned for the front of the building, which looks out of those big windows onto scenic Zerkel Street.


We're going to get started on MEP next - mechanical, electrical, and plumbing.  In fact, we've already received notice that part of the cooling system will be the first equipment to arrive next month, so we have that to look forward to!


We're getting a lot of great feedback from the community and we simply wouldn't be able to do this without you.  We're working on getting a good idea of our schedule put down on paper and are hoping we can report a revised opening date in the very near future.  It's clear we won't make the September date, which is on our banner, but we are hoping we can do a late fall date - a lot of ducks need to get in a row for that to happen though!


We welcome comments and feedback here on this blog, or on our Facebook page.  Thanks for your support!

Framing the office @hawksbillbrew

The initial framing at Hawksbill Brewing Company is completed, so I thought I'd post a couple of updates about what's going inside our charming little home at 22 Zerkel Street in Luray.  First is a photo from the back part of the building, which is where most of the back-of-house functions will take place.  

This window is going to be in the Operations Manager's office - it features a pretty nice town view, with Main Street just over there.  Also visible here is the Norfolk Southern rail line - that's an important part of our building's heritage, as the facility was built to be an ice storage facility for the Norfolk & Western, which was its name back in the 1910's.

Here's a look at the framing for the wall that will define the office.  Pretty spacious digs, and plenty of natural light, although I think we're going to need to augment that some!

There's quite a bit left to do, but we'll keep posting updates here and on the Facebook page.  Drop a note in the comments or over on FB if you have any questions for us!

Late July Check-in @hawksbillhops

It's getting close to harvest time at the hop yards - in a post three weeks ago we showed a mix of cones and burrs, but now it's all cones.  Our Cascades are booming, or as a friend from the hops co-op might say, "Strong like bull!"


David has done a tremendous job in the yard this year despite the onslaught we had from Japanese beetles, and everything else that can happen with this unusual crop.  We have better than a 90 percent showing on the 300 Cascade hills, and since most are second years, we've got a lot of product!


We are still working on our harvest plan - hoping to have them processed in a professional oast and then pelletized.  Most of this crop will go to our new brewery in Luray, with a couple of pounds reserved for the breweries we worked with last year.


When I field tested on Saturday, the cones were still quite wet, so we're a few weeks out.  Really can't wait to see how we do!

Another @hawksbillbrew Update - Framing Walls

Laydown of some initial materials.

Last week I wrote about getting started with demolition at Hawksbill Brewing Company - that was actually taken care of pretty quickly.  The team moved right into framing out the walls, some initial work that can be taken care of while we await some other ducks to get in a row.  Thought I would post the highlight photos here.


We feel like we've been very lucky with our location at 22 Zerkel Street in Luray - there is simply nothing I can think of that I would complain about.  Our landlord is the Fire Department, and they are right across the street, and you can see the building from the key tourist zone of Main Street.  Location and relationships are two steps towards success.

The first stud walls were for the restrooms.

Even so, we are going to do some modifications so the place will work as a brewery.  We need accessible bathrooms, for one thing, so we're going to put in two.  We also need a cold room where we can store filled kegs and run the taps.

Framing for the cold room.

So those two features are the first to go in, with the bulk of the framing getting done over the last week or so.  There's more to come, of course, and that stuff needs to be coordinated with the MEP - mechanical, electrical, and plumbing - that is lined up to follow these initial walls.


It will keep on rolling on as equipment is incrementally delivered.  That is scheduled to start beginning in August, when the main cooling unit arrives, and continue until November.


Quietly, right here on the blog, I guess I'm announcing that we are delayed.  Our banner says we will open in September, but we aren't going to make that date...I hesitate to make a prediction just now while I await some confirmation on lead times.  I hope we can hold to a commitment of Fall 2016 - for the record.

A Hole in the Ground for Money

Our driveway after the 2.5-inch rain storm.

In the Valley, the summer storm season has been nothing short of amazing.  I've lost count of the number of times I've heard about rains in excess of a half inch, and then there was the microburst a few weeks ago that knocked down trees from 5 miles away in Luray all the way to the hollow.

The tree damage reminded me of the derecho we had in the DC area in August 2012, except that this time the trees all pointed in the north-to-south direction, whereas they pointed west-to-east the other time. And I have a feeling that we won't be so lucky that Port City makes a special beer to observe the occasion of this storm!

We've had trouble with our driveway at Hawksbill Cabin ever since we bought the place.  As can be seen from the accompanying picture, the previous owners had problems too, and went to great lengths to try and repair past damage and prevent further damage.

After the repairs - this time.

It's a decently sloped grade, enough so that we bought all wheel drive cars to ensure we can make it up the hill in the winter.  That's the problem - once water gets out of the various culverts and other storm water features we have, it gets on this slope and speeds up, carving out gulleys.  There's a ton of gravel down the road that was once part of our driveway!

Still, after our last repair, it held up for three or four years.  We thought we had solved the problem.  Until this year, when we had a 2.5-inch rainstorm around here.  After that, it was gulley-city.

The storm sent us on an all-hands search for someone who could repair the driveway this time.  Our friend Mickey, who did such a great job on the previous repair, had retired, so we needed a new person.

We found a local fellow who came out one Sunday to have a look at the situation.  Pretty quickly he was back with us for the estimate and a plan for a new gravel variety - and he said he would bring out some heavy construction vehicles to pack down the gravel after it was placed.

It all looks great and it is pleasant to drive on.  We have had a couple of storms since the repair and I think it is holding up well.  We'll just have to wait and see for the next big one though, I guess.

Speaking of Breweries - @hawksbillbrew Update

Earlier in the week I wrote about the brewery that was near Tempelhof Airport in Berlin when I lived there.  But frequent readers know that I also have a project to build a brewery in Luray, Virginia - with the hope of opening it by the end of the year.


It's been a great journey, challenging, but over the last six weeks or so we've really started being able to make some visible progress.  On Friday two weeks ago we wrapped up our second round of fund raising, so we ordered our 5BBL brew house, and then yesterday the construction crew showed up to our building at 22 Zerkel Street in Luray to start the demolition.


This building's previous life was as retail stores for the last 10 years - an appliance store and then a scooter store.  There were a few iterations before then too, but it originally was an ice storage facility for the railroad, and then a creamery.


There's not much left to indicate those earliest operations, but there are signs of the stores.  You can see the floor paint in some of the attached photos that show where the old display shelves were, and if you look closely at the duct work you'll see hooks and such that were used to hang fan belts when the place housed an auto parts store.


The main element of our demo was to get rid of an old demising wall that was put in to separate the appliance show room from the warehouse area where parts were stored.  The wall was simple frame construction with particle board, and had a small office built into it at the end.  On the public side, there was a sales counter, and in the back there were work counters with electrical conduit and several outlet for small repairs.


Our construction crew got in there and made pretty quick work of things at this stage.  David says they are close to being finished already.  We'll be doing most of the fit-out now, to be followed by electrical and then mechanical/plumbing, all of which will be completed before our equipment arrives.


I'll post again on the construction progress soon - and also will put something up about the brew house order.

Revisiting the Berlin Brewery Scene

This framed mirror was one of my first
Ku'damm purchases in 1981!

It's funny how past blog topics come around again from time to time, and that is exactly what I was thinking when I saw a Facebook post come up recently about the Berliner Kindl brewery in Berlin.  A recent one about Berliner Kindl beer actually had me scurrying down to the basement to search for old souvenirs from when I was stationed in Berlin in the 1980's.  

Back in October 2014 I wrote a post here about a memory of the brewing smell from the nearby Schultheiss Brewery when I was stationed at Tempelhof Central Airport in Berlin.  That led me to do a Google search for images of the old buildings I remembered discovering back then as I walked around the neighborhood.

These two round Schultheiss deckels are among
my favorites of the ones I collected.

The post that inspired today's entry was on Thrillist (post is here), and as a fan of all things Berlin, I absolutely devoured it as soon as I saw it in a Facebook link!  A couple of the entries here that may one day inspire another post on Hawksbill Cabin are the mention of Berlin's craft brewery scene, and another about the old brewery in Neukolln - two points of interest I'd like to check out in person someday.  

The writer takes a moment to mention Berliner Weiss - an example of the sour style of beer that is increasingly popular here in the US.  Berliners practically have a copyright on this beverage, which is a sour wheat flavored with a squirt of fruity syrup.  I remember a beautiful May afternoon in 1984, visiting a shopping district up in Tegel and sipping one in a sidewalk cafe - I'm pretty sure I picked the red one - and again another time, a summer evening on the Ku'damm.  This drink is made for drinking outside and people watching!    

These are also favorites because of the ad for the
1985 Bundesgartenshau.

Another item of note in the post is the reference to the traditional beer advertisements that you can find all over Europe - the deckels, or coasters.  While I don't have any Kindl ones, I do have a number of Schultheiss ones, some of which are special interest topics.  In the photo above you can see a round one with the Schultheiss mascot character (I think the translation of Schultheiss is a reference to a municipal leadership role - need to confirm that) with a 1983 ad for the bi-annual British Tattoo that was held at the Deutcschlandhalle. 

I went to that spectacular show - it is a performance of massed pipes and drums, typically from military bands.  Back then, it was an annual show that alternated between Berlin and London.  I wasn't able to find a link to video from the 1983 show, but here is one from a 2011 Tattoo:  

 https://youtu.be/G_c-oxdU8rg

The second set shows another Schultheiss ad for the Bundesgartenshau in 1985 (Mary and I went to the version in Potsdam in 2001, by the way).  Here's a Wikipedia post about a park that was designed for that show.  I'll see if I can dig up our photos from the 2001 edition.

My Charlottenburger Pilsner deckel, a souvenir
of my 1996 visit on the way to Kiev.

A final photo to close out today's post, this time of Charlottenburger Pilsner.  To be honest, during my time in Berlin I didn't often drink these beers - they simply weren't served in many of the places I frequented.  I've got tons of deckels with Konig Pils, Tucher, and Jever, among others, and Pilsner Urquell, which we absolutely sought out.

Schultheiss in particualr was definitely an urban, city beer (Baltimore's Nattie Boh comes to mind) - but I do remember how refreshing it could be in a smoky disco.  You could get a six-pack of Berliner Kindl in cans at an imbiss near the Oskar Helene Heim U-bahn stop, and I do remember doing that a few times when I was taking University of Maryland classes down there.

As far as the Charlottenburger Pils goes, I don't remember trying it during my years there.  But during a visit in 1996 I stayed in Rhiemers Hofgarten  on a stopover on the way to Kiev, and I had a couple in the hotel bar.  That's probably where I got this deckel, but I'll see if I can't track down more info on Charlottenburg Pils for a future post - it appears to have an interesting story about an East Berlin connection.  

I have been feeling a bit nostalgic about Berlin these days, so I was happy to see that Thrillist post.  Took me back - I'm glad I still have the souvenirs!

The Second Year Cascades @hawksbillhops

After I visited Bill's hop yard on Saturday, I headed over to Hawksbill Hop Yards for my weekly growing season check-in.  David had let me know what to expect, that the Cascades were in fine growing condition and had begun to flower, and I was looking forward to walking in the bines and having a look around.

The Cascades are coming along - we have five rows of them, which is about 300 plants.  Most reached the top of the trellis, which ranges from 10 - 16 feet - some slack has worked in to the assembly, so we'll need to tinker over the winter.

We are getting hit with Japanese beetles early this year.  They are eating the leaves on a good-sized sample of the bines, so we are working on a proactive management plan for this threat.  We're concerned that the loss of photosynthesis during prime growing days could mean we lose a few plants over the winter.
 
These plants are in their second year, and based on the production we're seeing so far, I can definitely see the changes from their maturity. We've planned for that to be a three-year process, but they are definitely on their way!

Our other varieties, Goldings, Fuggles, Chinook, and Columbus, aren't quite as far along, although we've had a pretty good showing from them.  We didn't string the Goldings, they were such slow starters, but they are definitely up and maybe should have gotten a chance after all!  We'll let them gain strength and then see how they do in year three.

The Chinooks and Fuggles are producing, but we may not harvest them this year to give them maximum time in the sun.  The Columbus don't seem to be doing as well, even as well as last year.

Finally, we have a small patch of 20 or so Centennials that we put in as an experiment.  During the spring, these bines were the first up, so I decided to keep them - there was a decision point back then about taking them out and replacing them with Fuggles.  Now that the summer is full on, the Centennials haven't grown any more, not even enough to find their strings, so I will take them out and put Fuggles there, so that we'll have two full rows of those.

Of course, David and I have that other project - Hawksbill Brewing Company - that is slated to open later in the fall, and that is limiting what we can do in the hop yard this year.  We hope to have the time and funds to be more attentive next year.  In the meantime, it looks pretty good for the Cascade harvest, so we should be able to brew with them at some point, achieving our goal of "grown here - brewed here!"

Checking in on Bill's Cascades

On Saturday morning I took Tessie out for a ride, and while we were doing some errands we decided we might stop by to see our friends Bill and Rhonda on Main Street.  They are restoring two houses down there, and one of them is among Luray's oldest homes.  The second has come far enough along, with wonderful modern features like radiant floor heat, so that is now their comfortable residence.


A few years back, Bill got some Cascade rhizomes from neighbor Dan, and planted them along a trellis in a sunny spot in the backyard.  The bines have thrived back there - his set up is just about perfect with the sunny spot, the 8-feet of climb, and an elevated garden.



They've become something of a bell weather for Hawksbill  Hop Yards, since they're usually ready a few weeks before us, due to the microclimate in that neighborhood.

Bill's plot o' hops was one of the final inspirations for the decision to bring Hawksbill Hop Yards to life - harvesting those hops in 2014 (see the post) on a perfect day sealed the deal.  The photo on the left  is of him and John picking the Cascades (stylized with the Tangled app - it's also one of my favorites from the thousands I've taken with the iPhone).

Since then, I partnered with David and we started the farm, and of course that whole adventure is yet to run its course!  Still, one step at a time, and the hops harvest is nearly upon us, as indicated by Bill's Cascades.

The Gardens at Northeast Harbor

Our timing was good for the azaleas.

Our vacation time in Maine was coming to an end, so after all the hikes in Acadia National Park, we decided to take one last stroll around the gardens near our hotel, the Asticou Inn.  There are two - the azalea garden, which happened to be blooming just then, and the nearby terraced formal gardens called Thuya, a native American word for evergreens.  The gardens are administered by the Land and Garden Preserve of Mount Desert Island.

On our check-in day, Mary and I had taken a walk around the azaleas, which include a beatuiful pond and a zen garden.  While touring, we learned there was a moss garden that featured a toro, so checking that out became an immediate priority for me.

The traditional toro in the moss garden.

The source of my fascination with these lanterns stems from my visit to Japan in 2011.  After taking note of several that were on the base, and seeing even more beautiful examples of them on a shrine tour to Kamakura, I researched them to learn about the Buddhist cosmology represented by their structure (link here).

We found a docent in the gardens who took a break from pruning and weeding to lead us to both, as there is a second whimsical one near the pond.  I took a few minutes to settle in to enjoy them.  I continue to fancy the idea of getting one installed in the wood lot here at Hawksbill Cabin - certainly my thoughts dwelt on the possibility while we spent our time in the gardens in Northeast Harbor.

The whimsical toro near the pond.

On our last full day, after the morning hikes to the beach and the Bass Harbor Head lighthouse, we'd planned for a farm-to-table dinner at a new restaurant in town called Fork and Table (sorry, Facebook holdouts, but you will find them here).  While we were preparing for that adventure, we decided to take a walk over to the terraced formal gardens called Thuya Gardens.

The property is set apart by terraced stone staircases that switch back up the palisades to the old residence, passing plazas and pergolas on the way up.  There is a memorial to the designer, a summer resident of the place, named Joseph Henry Curtis.

At the top of the palisade, there is a leveled garden that will remind you of the formal estate gardens at Monticello or Dunbarton Oaks - with plantings done in the English style.  There are short staircases between the lawns that guide your pace as you take a pleasant walk.

It was a fine finish to our stay in Northeast Harbor and the Asticou.  It was a convincing argument for summering here in Maine on Mount Desert Island, but at last the time for us to go back to DC had come.

This is my final post in the Vacation 2016 series.  Soon enough - just as I had to get back to work at my day job, my posts here on the blog will return to status reports on the hop yards and the brewery in the works.  Those topics will be the basis of a busy July and August - so stay tuned!

The Last Hikes at Acadia

The Bass Harbor Head Light - view from the beach.

For our last day at Acadia, we decided to take a drive over to the west side of Mount Desert Island and put in a few more of the easy day hikes. Because the area was contested during the colonial era - the boundary of the French and English claims lay in the region, some features reference those struggles - the Man o' War trail is one of these, and it was something I wanted to check out.

We learned that Bass Harbor Head is also a small lighthouse on that side of the island, so we took that in, as well as a nice short hike along the seashore that we found by coincidence.

The pathway to view the lighthouse.

I decided to do a little bit of scrambling on the rocks down along the shoreline, looking for a good photography opportunity for the light.  To be honest, part of the reason for my scramble was to get away from another tourist on a cell phone, and a guy who was showing off for some of his family - quite loud, even over the sound of the surf.

Eventually I found a sheltered spot, and got my photo.  But there was also the treat of being able to hear a buoy nearby, once I got out of their voice range:













We had lunch after all that fun in the morning, and then drove around to find this Man o' War trail.  It's named for the fact that the colonial era fighting ships would send their crews ashore in the area to get drinking water.  That made for an interesting story to go check out.

We were still a bit sore from the climb along Champlain Ridge, so we decided to take a route to the little cascade that was the source of the colonial drinking water via a fire road.  It made things easier for us, since the circuitous, longer route featured a couple of hand-over-hand rock scrambles that we were not up for.

At the end of the fire road we found a little cascade tumbling over 10 feet or so.  Not much of a stream to speak of, but certainly there would have been something more to it after a rain.

The key to it all, standing there and having a look at it, was to imagine the challenges of going to sea that way and being on one of those ships for months at a time.  You weren't solely at the mercy of the environment during your voyage since at any time you might encounter the enemy and be blown out of the water in a battle.

That's a pretty intense way to live, even if you may not have signed on willingly.  I wonder how many modern Americans would be up for it.  That was good food for thought for the drive back to the hotel after the day's outing!

More Acadia Sites

The lovely shoreline at Thunder Hole.

One of the reasons we had bailed on the Champlain Ridge hike was due to the weather that seemed to be coming up.  The winds had picked up, and low-hanging gray clouds were moving in fast, so we were worried we might be caught on the trail in the rain, and headed in.

The rain never came in, but the wind was cold.  We got back to the car and decided to drive around the Acadia Loop Road and do some sightseeing as opportunities presented themselves.  We ended up making stops at Thunder Hole and Cadillac Mountain.

Thunder Hole is one of those spots on the shore where a canyon has been carved into the rocks, so that when the waves come in, and especially at tidal changes, you get amazing splashes and sound effects.  For the most part it was quiet during our visit there - which you can see in the iPhone video below:



It was mesmerizing, so we stayed and watched for a few minutes.  Other tourists came and went.  Once we got the hang of it, we ventured a little further down the trail to have a look at the grotto that was responsible for the splashes.  Here's a look from that angle:

Mary bundling up at the
Cadillac Mountain Summit.

Well, that didn't end well, as you can probably guess.  Now we were a bit wet - something we had tried to avoid by bailing on our hike.  But we still had an adventure left - Cadillac Mountain.

There is a road to the summit, with a parking area that reminded me of the one near Coit Tower in San Francisco.  I can imagine it being just as crowded on a summer day!

But we were there out of season, and the howling winds seemed to keep most of the tourist at bay.  We had a look around, seeking the summit - and were pointed in the wrong direction from the concession stand.  Wet and cold, we decided we were satisfied with "summiting the mountain" and headed back to the car.

When we arrived there, we saw some interpretive signs and other tourists nearby, and went to check that area out.  The views from this summit are worth the drive, or hike if you're up to it.

Apparently, Cadillac Mountain lays claim to being the first to see the light of day in the US for six months of the year.  That's the view you get - looking east across the bay to the ocean, which was gray and cold the day we went.

Still, the mountain is a must, and we had a good time up there checking it out - despite being wet from our visit at Thunder Hole!

The Champlain North Ridge Trail at Acadia National Park

As advertised, there were great views from the ridge.

After our cruise of the Cranberry Islands, topped off by lunch in Bar Harbor, I talked Mary into a second hike from the Best Easy Day Hikes - Acadia book.  Listed as a two mile hike that might take about two hours, it seemed within our capabilities, even though it was an ascent that would take us to the summit of Champlain Mountain.





The book describes the hike as follows:

"Enjoy expansive views from the summit of Champlain Mountain and all along the open ridge, the closest to the ocean of all of Acadia's ridges.  At times you'll see the contrast of fog rolling in over Frenchman Bay below and sun shining overhead, or storm clouds streaming in from the west as clear skies still prevail to the east."

An example of the Bates cairns at Acadia National Park.

We made our way up the trail, and it wasn't long before we began to note some interesting features:  the unique cairns that were established here to mark trails throughout the park, and wildflowers in bloom, including Colombine and Pink Lady Slippers.

The cairns have an interesting history.  Originally they were carefully designed by Waldron Bates and other locals on Mount Desert Island, who apparently felt they were stewards of the natural beauty of the place.  There's a link to an article here that provides a great overview of these features.

Pink Lady Slipper flowers at Acadia.

On the topic of wildflowers, I was particularly excited when we came upon this little group of Pink Lady Slippers.  It's a type of orchid that also blooms in Shenandoah National Park and the George Washington National Forest, where they even have an interpretive trail named after the flowers.  Try as I might, hiking extensively in April, May, and June, I have never managed to see one in Virginia - so it was a pleasant surprise to find them less than a quarter mile into our Champlain Mountain hike!

The trail follows rock ledges and forest trails on the way to the summit.  At times, it was a bit of a scramble, but no where near as difficult as Old Rag or Bear Fence in Shenandoah.  We made good time and found it easy going, for the most part.

Mary enjoying the hike - before the snake.

We did have two challenges on the trail, and at the end we weren't quite able to finish.



First, Mary ventured a little ways ahead of me and got out of sight.  It wasn't long before I heard a yell, "Snake!" - and there she was when I caught up.  I went to investigate to see a juvenile rat snake slithering calmly away - not an unfamiliar species, but a little surprising to see it here, on an island.



The second challenge happened further up the ridge. On this side of Mount Desert Island, the exposure is to the Atlantic, and the breezes were strong and cold.  During the afternoon clouds had been moving it, and it was getting cloudy and overcast, so when we emerged from one of the forest sections on the hike, we were suddenly cold and buffeted by some strong winds - enough for us to call it a day on this hike.

It had already been an adventuresome day, but we still had time to check out a few more sights before dinner.  We drove on around the park's loop road to Thunder Hole and Cadillac Mountain - and that's where my next post will pick up.

Shipping Out to the Cranberry Islands

As we left Northeast Harbor, there was a view of
the Asticou Inn, where we stayed.

We had planned to take a day cruise in Maine - we'd heard about whale watching and the potential of having a look at a year-round colony of puffins.  While we were in the park the first day we learned that the National Park Service offered a cruise to the Cranberry Islands, which are just offshore of the larger Mount Desert Island where Acadia National Park is.

Bear Island Light - an early sight on the NPS cruise.

The fare is a bargain, and even better for us, the boat left from Northeast Harbor, a location within sight of the Asticou Inn where we were staying.  There is also a regular ferry to the islands, including Little Cranberry Island, which is the one our trip went to - the NPS operates a small museum with interpretive displays about island life there.

Our boat was crewed by a knowledgeable ranger who had been leading this tour for a few years.  On our cruise out, we made our way to the furthest of the islands.  There was something noteworthy to mention all along the way, including the Bear Island Lighthouse.


A second point of interest out in the harbor is a simple day marker that is built on a low lying island, no more than a pile of rocks.  Our boat approached and took shelter in the lee of the island - it was quite windy and there was a good chop going for the duration of our trip.

The daymarker - seals are visible as points of light
on the right.

Just to the west of the marker there lay a colony of gray seals, which partially explained why we had kept our distance from the island.  Maybe 50 of the animals lay sunning themselves, none disturbed by the nearby boat.
Our boat turned for our port-of-call at Little Cranberry Island, but not before we passed the location of a few osprey nests, and may have actually spied a nestling or two in one of them.  Eventually we arrived at the island, which is also known as Isleford, for an hourlong walk.

That was enough time to check out the storage yards around the harbor - several of the residents are lobstermen, and there was an exhibit in the little museum about island life, including the fishermen that live here.

Lobster pots and buoys stored for the season.

As our guide explained, in the past there were as many as 100 islands off the coast of Maine that hosted year-round residents, but now there are only 15.  Three of the islands are located here, near the park, including Mount Desert Island, Big Cranberry, and Little Cranberry Island.  

That was where my thoughts focused during the walk around the island - not only the challenges of living there during modern times, but especially how challenging it must have been during the early settlements, or even as recently as the last 50 years or so.

More lobster pots and buoys in storage.

As we made our way back to the harbor, Mary and I stopped into a pottery shop there.  The proprietor explained that she summered on the island, staying there from June until August.  She was just opening for the season when we stopped in - for the rest of the year she lives in Boston.

The chop on the harbor had gotten a little worse than when we first set out.  It wasn't so bad on the boat when we were underway, although docking at Little Cranberry took a second attempt.  We also were treated to the arrival of the mail boat, and a ferry arrival of folks arriving for the season, unloading all their luggage and groceries there on the little dock.

On the way back, our trip took us into Somes Sound, a glacier carved harbor that is similar to a fjord.  We were treated to a philosophical discussion of the technical definition of a fjord based on the Norwegian topography, and the result that this body of water has been downgraded in recent years because it is a relatively tame example of one of these features.

Our cruise over, Mary and I headed over to Bar Harbor for lunch.  Our first choice wasn't open, so after a walk around town we selected an Italian place near the water.  We fueled up, looking forward to a short hike we had planned for the afternoon, which will be the topic of my next post.

Hiking the Jordan Pond Path at Acadia

I'm a fan of these "Best Easy Day Hikes" books, and we got the one for Acadia National Park to help us plan our visit.  Since the inn wasn't ready for our early arrival, Mary and I went to the park for an orientation drive, and ended up having lunch at the Jordan Pond House - with the pond there inviting us, we decided we might go ahead and take a hike around it.

Jordan Pond, with the Bubbles.

From the easy day hikes book, the introduction to this trail says:

"The hike offers expansive views of Jordan Pond, the Bubbles, and Jordan Cliffs... . The graded gravel path on the east side of the pond is particularly easy, and an amazing 4,000 feet of log bridges on the west side helps smooth the way for what would otherwise be a potentially wet, rocky, and root-filled trail."

According to the "Map My Hike" app, this hike is just a bit over 4 miles long, although the book claims it is only around 3 miles long.  Otherwise, there's nothing to complain about in the description - it makes for a fascinating hike, and if you don't have time to do anything else in the park, it provides a good overview of the experience.

Intrepid day hikers on the Jordan Pond trail.

The pond itself is remarkably pristine, so much so that it is used for drinking water.  It's clear enough that you could see the bottom in most places.  The granite rocks that litter the south and eastern shore are moraines, as we learned, and the other significant trace of the glacial age are the two small mountains at the northeast end of the lake - the Bubbles.

Granite talus and birches.

One of the geologic facts I've learned since our hike is the composition of the stone were were seeing.  There is a shist formation of ancient seafloor, and then three varieties of igneous rock, including the Cadillac Granite, which are the pinkish boulders seen in many of the photos.  These colorful rocks, juxtaposed against the stark which birches, were one of the highlights of the Jordan Pond hike for me.

As we continued around the lake we would experience several other terrains, including the 4,000 linear feet of the log bridges, which are highlighted in one of the accompanying photos.  We hadn't read about how long this part of the trail was before we got to it - and remarked about how much of this boardwalk there was as we made our way along.  It's 5/6 of a mile, quite a structure!

An example of the mountains in the park.

We were lucky with the timing of our visit to the park.  There weren't a lot of tourists yet - apparently, since the summer season is so short here things can get very crowded.  As it was, we encountered only a few other hiking parties during our walk - everybody just as much in awe of the sights as we were.

And at 4+ miles, this hike was plenty to work off the lobster stew and Popovers(!) that we had enjoyed for lunch at the Jordan Pond House.  Later we learned that Popovers(!) are also a feature of dinner at the Asticou Inn - so we ended up having more!  But at least we'd had an excellent introduction to Acadia National Park already, by the time we checked in to our room.

Arriving at Mount Desert Island

One of many streams we encountered on
Mount Desert Island.

Our destination for the vacation was Acadia National Park in Maine.  We'd heard a lot about the park, famous for its glacial landscape and natural setting along the cold northeastern coast.  As soon as we arrived, before we actually crossed the last bridge to the island, we could see the mountains as they began to rise in the distance, and we knew we were visiting a special place.

We later learned about the French explorer Samuel Champlain, who came to the island to explore it in 1604.  According to Wikipedia, the journal entry he wrote about his observations include giving it a name:

"Le sommet de la plus part d’icelles est desgarny d’arbres parceque ce ne sont que roches. Je l’ay nommée l’Isle des Monts-déserts."  In Engish, "The mountain summits are all bare and rocky. I name it Isles des Monts Desert."

In our part of the country, we call these features "balds" - the bare granite at the top of the mountains won't hold topsoil or allow anything but the hardiest of plants to gain purchase.

The Jordan Pond House in Acadia National
Park is famous for "Popovers(!)"

Of course there is a long pre-colonial history to the place.  There is evidence of human activity dating back at least 6,000 years, and like Yosemite, the geology of the place was shaped by glaciers during the Ice Age.  The Wikipedia article says the glaciers retreated about 25,000 years ago, leaving moraines and other rocky deposits behind - we encountered these on some of the trails we explored.

Our room at the Asticou Inn was not ready for us when we arrived, so we went over to Acadia National Park to get our bearings for some of the touring we planned.  Our destination was Jordan Pond, based on a couple of recommendations from co-workers and others familiar with the park.

To our surprise and delight, the restaurant there at the pond was open for lunch and could seat us right away.  We sat outside, and while the actual season hadn't started, the place was bustling, and there were already interpretive activities going on there - a basket weaving demonstration and a nature walk, among others.

The incredible view from our room at the Asticou Inn.

We were offered "Popovers(!)" to start the meal, and to our surprise, there was already fresh local produce available for the salads and sides.  We chose a light lunch including lobster stew (this would be the only lobster I had during the trip - I'm not a fan, and prefer fish) and salads.

After lunch, Mary and I decided to hike around Jordan Pond - that will be the topic of my next post.  When we finished that, we headed back to the Asticou to check in - and we were welcomed to our room with an incredible view of Northeast Harbor.

Over the next few days, that mesmerizing view would entertain us with views of boats coming and going, and the tidal changes.  The Inn and the little town were a great choice for basing our trip - it could be a place we come back to over and over again, as is the John Dougherty House in Mendocino, Ca.

New Hampshire and Maine Breweries Tour - Part 3 (final)

My flight at Stark Brewing Company.

Today’s post will wrap up the series on the breweries we visited during our vacation last week.  As she had in May 2014, when Mary and I last visited Northern California on our vacation, she indulged my desire to make random stops at breweries we encountered along the way.  The previous posts were about well-known brewers like Anheuser-Busch and Maine Beer Company; the three I’m writing about today fall within the brew pub category:  Stark Brewing in Manchester, NH; The Liberal Cup in Hallowell, ME; and Cambridge Brewing Company in Cambridge, MA.

Stark is located at the north end of the
old mill district.

These were definitely in the random stops category, opportunities for us to take a break from the driving portions of our trips and have a sit down, local lunch.  I’d rate them all a success on that basis.  It turns out they all had their unique take on the “local” aspect of it.

Stark Brewing Company was the first of these stops.  We took a walking tour of Manchester, which has a famous mill district that has been redeveloped into a mixed-use area downtown, and the brewery is there at the north end.  Opened in 1994, the brewery rebranded as Milly’s Tavern in 1999, and recently returned to the use of the old name.  They’re currently working on adding a distillery to the operation – the installation was underway when we made our stop.

We had a great visit and the current brewer gave us a tour of the place.  Afterwards, I got a flight to sample the beers while we had a nice lunch, and the owner and staff chatted with us a bit about the operation.  Soon enough, it was time for us to get on the road.

Street scene in Hallowell, MA, home
of The Liberal Cup.

After our visit to Acadia National Park, we got on the road back to Boston on Saturday so that we could catch our Sunday flight to DC.  Once we got far enough along, it was lunch time, and we did a quick Google search for nearby breweries, finding The Liberal Cup.  Our drive there took us past the Maine State House in Augusta, by surprise, and then we found ourselves in another quaint New England town, Hallowell, which is where the Liberal Cup is located.

Their goal since opening in 2000 has been to operate as a traditional pub, albeit one that happens to have a 7-barrel brewery down at the end of the bar.  They try to make sure that there are always six or seven beers on tap, and of course they offer the typically generous portions of pub grub, which was part of our objective.  I had another flight there, very surprised to find a couple of lagers mixed in with the ales and porters!

The final stop was at Cambridge Brewing Company.  We decided to take a walk out from the hotel we were staying at to visit some familiar haunts – Mary went to graduate school there and I’ve had a few consulting projects in the neighborhood.  Things have really grown up in the Kendall area, certainly driven by the economic engine that MIT provides, and this brewery has benefited as well.

It was the end of our trip, and it was a Saturday evening, things were just getting started when we were there, early evening.  Rather than lingering over a flight and dinner, we made a quick choice about what to eat, and then I had an IPA to go with my meal.

With these three visits, we had managed to tally five breweries in all during the Vacation 2016 tour.  We missed some good ones that truly would have been good stops – Allagash and Smuttynose are among the well-known names that come to mind.  Still, I’m quite happy to have been able to check in at three categories of breweries:  Mega-international, craft production, and brew pubs; and I sampled some really good beers during all of that.

I brought back some good ideas and observations that I hope we can make part of Hawksbill Brewing as we prepare to break ground on the leasehold improvements and order our brew kitchen.  All that will start soon – we’ve got a busy summer ahead!

New Hampshire and Maine Breweries Tour - Part 2

In the tap room - beers on tap and the bar.

After our A-B tour, and a stop to visit friends in New Hampshire, we began making our way up to Acadia National Park, which was the ultimate destination for our vacation trip.  As I mentioned yesterday, Mary had agreed to indulge me on a few visits to breweries on the way, so I had set my sights on Maine Beer Company, in Freeport, Maine, as one of the stops.

When I first began homebrewing a few years ago, Maine Beer and Boulevard were among the earliest craft breweries my fellow enthusiasts introduced to me.  The emphasis on "craft" was most apparent with Maine Beer, embodied in one of the quotes on their web site:

No tours are offered, but the production brewery
is visible from the tap room.

"We told ourselves if we couldn't do things right then we wouldn't do them at all."

Boulevard, which I toured (link here) in Kansas City in December 2014, similarly demonstrates what you can do if you stay committed to your values and aspirations.

As a result, the experience at Maine Beer brewery emphasizes a number of sustainable features to the design of the building and production area - solar arrays for power, and interpretive signage to introduce and educate visitors about other green features in use.  For a consulting professional who works on real estate and facilities, like myself, these are all great features to see in practice.

This commitment and messaging continues with the beer.  There is a solid history on their web site about experimenting with hops - see this link; also here is a quote from that page that presents a  mission that any craft brewer could adopt:

Here's the flight I chose at Maine Beer
Company - four 5 oz. tulips.

"The Hop Program developed as a way to experiment with new hops and new hop combinations, and also incorporate different styles of beer.  It is important for us to keep learning and growing as a brewery, and the Hop Program allows us to do that.  Never standing still, and always moving forward are some of the goals we aim to accomplish through this series."

We can get Maine Beer in Virginia, and my local in Bethesda also offers the pint bottles.  Peeper, Lunch, and Mean Old Tom are some of the varieties I've sampled.  For my flight, I chose Peeper, Pilot 10, a tiny beautiful something, and Beer IV -  a couple of pale ales, a hoppy lager, and an IPA (Beer IV) from the Hop Program.

The beers were good, just as expected.  The crowd in the tap room was steady, but leaned a bit more on the hipster side than I might have liked, but I can't complain.