Pic(k) of the Week: Hops proffered for a brew

The hands of a farmer and brewer proferring hops for a brew: New York state Cascade pelletized hops will 'dry-hop' ¹ an "East Coast Pale Ale", that had already been fermented with Maryland whole hops.

The photo may be somewhat out-of-focus, but I like the image and imagery.

At their Milkhouse Brewery —a farm-brewery ² at Stillpoint Farm in Mt. Airy, Maryland— owners Tom and Carolann Barse have a half-acre of Cascade hops under cultivation. Tom and assistant brewer Thomas Vaudin produce 10 barrels of beer per batch.

5 April 2014.

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• "Dry-hopping ¹, the addition of hops to beer in the fermenting, conditioning, or serving vessel. <...> Dry-hopping is a cold-infusion technique that not only intensifies hop aromatics in beer but also adds aromatics that are substantially different from those achieved by late hopping. The alpha acids responsible for hop bitterness are not isomerized [molecularly-structurally altered] and therefore remain insoluble during dry hopping [do not add bitterness]."
  —The Oxford Companion to Beer
• A farm-brewery ² in Maryland must produce a beer "manufactured with an ingredient from a Maryland agricultural product, including hops, grain, and fruit, produced on the licensed farm." [How much or many of those ingredients is not specified.]
  —Brewers Association of Maryland
• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, often posted on Saturdays, and often, but not always, with a good fermentable as a subject. Camera: Olympus Pen E-PL1.
• Commercial reproduction requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.