No, your eyes don’t deceive you — we have, in fact, secured some of the highly-sought after beers from Tired Hands Brewery for this month’s picks. A rarity on the west coast, this Pennsylvania-based brewery has long been exchanged over the beer black market, with bottles being stealthily (and illegally!) traded via mail. But now you’ll have a chance to sample some of Tired Hands’ cult brews — no mail fraud required.
Fermented with Oregon marionberries, this is a great example of a saison that’s not afraid to let the fruit really shine. Tart, yogurt-y twang to round it out.
This cult-favorite beer has notes of mandarin orange, floral lychee, peach push pop, and musky guava.
Soft earthy hops, modest pine, a little herbal with some lemongrass, grapefruit peel, wildflower and lots of hearty cereal grains
From the brewery: "Tired Hands Brewing Company was born in the confines of Jean’s parent’s garage over eight years ago. He began brewing beer partly out of intrigue, but entirely out of passion. During his college years, his father had turned him on to the hoppy pale ales and IPAs of the West Coast, which eventually led to many months of beer exploration. During this time, he discovered the beautifully dry and expressive farmhouse ales of France and Belgium. After a few months of homebrewing, Jean entered his beer into a local homebrew competition (now one of the nation’s largest), and took first place in the Belgian category with his Saison. Upon obtaining a degree in Special Education (a skill set that has been instrumental throughout his brewing career!) from West Chester University, Jean set off to pursue his passion for beer professionally.
He landed a job at Weyerbacher Brewing Company in Easton, Pennsylvania. Through Weyerbacher, Jean learned the ins and outs of brewery management (filtration, bottling, kegging, scrubbing mold, etc.) and made many great friends in the process. He even met his now-wife, Julie Foster, while representing Weyerbacher at a beer festival in Boston. She was a home-brewing college student who was volunteering at the fest.
After some time at Weyerbacher, Jean moved on to Iron Hill, where he worked as a brewer at their West Chester location for nearly five years. During this time Jean fell head-over-heels in love with the brewpub model of brewing. By creating beer in one room, and then serving it in another, he was able to connect to the people drinking his beer on a personal level daily; a perk previously unavailable to him while working in a production brewery.
After many years of brewing professionally in different environments, much travel, careful consideration, and quite a few business classes from both Wharton and the Community College of Philadelphia, Jean built Tired Hands Brewing Company to be a concise rendition of his ideal brewing environment."
