Once a year I instruct or rather guide the SpaceShip Beer on a rugged corner of Whitehead Island. The sail boats and lobster boats ply the waters carefully at the western entry to Maine’s grand Penebscot Bay. It’s an annual 5 day course called The Art and Science of Beer at the Whitehead Light Station. I get to choose over 100 beers to try before we fly during a series of intensive relaxation and tasting sessions.
The setting couldn’t be more dramatic. Nine students of beer and I as galactic captain maneuver our way through beer lore, history, evaluation, culture, food, sunshine, sea and air. Our minds transcend into warp dimensions, creating a memory vortex that remain with a smile on all of our faces. We were there.
The Lighthouse itself was originally commissioned by Thomas Jefferson in 1805 – the first U.S. Lighthouse to be built and commissioned. The keepers station has been restored and renovated to accommodate 12 guests, with three living rooms a grand dining room and a view that endures for a lifetime. We were even treated with some extraordinary “leftovers” from Daisy Martinez who hosts the Food Network show, Viva Daisy - she landed her SpaceShip Daisy at the Whitehead Light Station the week before for a 5 day class Cooking with Daisy. Whoa – awesome does not do justice to what she is about!
With the help of one of planet Earth’s beer wizards, Nolan Stewart, beer manager at Portland, Maine’s DownEast Beverage beers were selected based on a number of factors: I never had the beer before, classic beers representing classic styles from well known beer countries, innovative beers from around the world, beers from every continent, beers that integrate themselves with food culture, extreme spectrums of character, and the unexpected. Add to this several bottles of my own homebrewed meads and beers (some over 15 years old) and surprise arrivals delivered by kayak the weeks before by beer fans who wanted to make pilgrimage and offerings to the SpaceShip Beer; several beers from Michigan shipped via Warp-Transcenders 3.0 by alumni of last year’s SpaceShip Beer journey.
The course offered a full day of touring part of Portland, Maine’s brewery scene with touchdowns at Allagash brewery, Maine Beer Company brewery, Shipyard brewery and Maine Mead Works.
And for the beers stay tuned for the next post for a list of 80+ beers I selected and inherited for the beer tasting...
Next year another landing of SpaceShip Beer at the Whitehead Light Station is under consideration. Follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook to receive announcement.
Comments