On Thursday, August 8, tomato fans, beer enthusiasts, the Happy Cat Farm team and a group of local farmer friends gathered at Tired Hands Brewing Company for the debut of HappyHands, a surprisingly refreshing tomato beer. This unique and unlikely collaboration between a local tomato celebrity and a creative brewing master resulted in a Berliner Weisse made with 120 pounds of heirloom tomatoes. HappyHands is available now while supplies last at Tired Hands in Ardmore.
Tim Mountz of Happy Cat and Jean Broillet of Tired Hands combined their talents and shared love of good beer and locally grown produce to dream up HappyHands, using multiple varieties of tomatoes (Paul Robeson, Black Krim and Tim’s Black Ruffles), added in two applications during the brewing process.
Popular menu items among the tomato and beer crowd were the Tired Hands Cafe home-brined pickle plate, the B.A.T. (smoked bacon, arugula, and tomato) and Jeano’s Panino (a panini made with Birchrun blue cheese, young Swiss cheese, haricot vert beans, baby greens and on this occasion a local tomato). All platters included the amazing house-made crusty and delicious no-knead bread.
Kerry Watson of Waywood Beverage, formerly of Victory Brewing Company, is an avid reviewer of new beers and attended the HappyHands launch. Even with 15 years of experience in the business, this beer was something new to him and he was happy to share his thoughts on the brew:
My first-ever tomato beer of any sort and it combines a light, refreshing style that is perfect for the summer with the fresh taste of local heirloom tomatoes. As a Berliner Weisse should, HappyHands leads in with a nose of nice light tartness, a touch of lemon, and a nice very subtle sweet tomato note provided by the heirlooms. The flavor begins as the perfect example of the Berliner Weisse style with good lemony tartness that peaks as notes of mild salinity, wonderful heirloom tomato earthiness and mild sweetness creep in and carry to the finish which is crisp, only lightly tart, and lingers to farm fresh tomatoes in the aftertaste. So very strange but so perfectly refreshing for a taste of local summer freshness!
It makes sense that summer’s quintessential garden product would shine as a featured ingredient in a summer beer, but it took a unique pair to attempt it. As Happy Cat brand designer Meredith Langer noted, “Who knew that tomato beer would be so good? Tim and Jean did.”
Hurry and try a glass of HappyHands before it runs out! Tired Hands is located at 16 Ardmore Avenue in Ardmore, and reachable by phone at 610-896-7621.
Beer-making photo credit: Meredith Langer. All other photos credit to Claire Murray.
