Tired Hands (September 2018)

CSA Week 1: Fuzzy Green
CSA Week 2: Pineal
CSA Week 3: D2H3: Motueka
CSA Week 4: Raspberry Green Tea Milkshake
CSA Week 5: Trendler Pilsner
CSA Week 6: High Road
CSA Week 7: Feliz Vendedor
CSA Week 8: Technicolor Splendor
CSA Week 9: Helles Other People
CSA Week 10: Alien Church???

That wasn't a release this week?
Will not do this again next summer, I'll post a breakdown when I get home. Not worth the price imo.

 

This was my first year in the CSA. Aside from the beer choices, the produce quantity and quality was very disappointing as well. I would never recommend this CSA to anyone

 

I started writing a long, drawn out complaint but negativity is a prison so all I'll say is this, out of the $750 spent only $181 was spent on beer and while the cheese is fantastic the produce was not great.

 

Actually looking forward to this one.

 

How many items did you get each week?

My wife and I were members of a vegetable CSA last year at a local farm (not officially organic but Certified Naturally Grown) here in Harleysville and it was 24 weeks long, $795 for a large share (10 items/week) and $425 for a small share (6 items/week). We had a small share and it was a lot for two people - each "item" was typically enough to cook as the main component of a dinner for 2 people (not just as a side).

I see the Tired Hands's CSA was billed as being heavy on tomatoes for the veggie portion. I can say from my home garden that this year was shit for heirloom tomato growing- way too rainy. Our harvest was tiny compared to most years.

As for fruit growing this year - again just personal experience from my yard I can say the weather messed up early crops such as strawberries and cherries, but the wet August gave us a bumper crop of plums and peaches. I see the Orchard that Tired Hands was using is from Adams County - they haven't been effected by Spotted Lantern Fly yet so that's not a factor.

 

I completely get that the csa is going to be different for the produce year to year but when this was brought up the rep from Tired Hands "I don't handle the farmer part of this" but would have been nice to throw a couple things our way to make up the difference in quality and quantity. He mentioned that "most people" sign up for this because of the farmers, not Tired Hands or the beer when he was wondering why I was asking him why we weren't getting any new selections week to week. Also unfortunately it was mostly the same week to week, so many peppers and now the past three weeks or so it has been apples which we pick our own in the fall and was hoping for more summer season produce.

This was a typical week:

Happy Cat Farm:
Radishes
Roasting peppers
Kale
Shishitos
Tomatoes
Tomatillos

Three Springs:
Yellow freestone peaches
White donut peaches

Cheese:
Birchrun Hills Farm: Red Cat
Valley Milkhouse: Lady Slipper

 

Also in regards to that NectoCooler, had Science Experiment XI on tap while I picked up the csa last night and that had a ton of citrus, I assume from the yuzu etc than anything to do with the algae. There was enough going on to mask anything that the Spirulina would provide so enjoy the nutrients, and childhood memories!

 

And one last thing, I wrote up above that the Alien Church was the 10th week beer for the csa, I checked the cans cause I was curious since it wasn't a release this past week and it's this week's batch canned on 8/30.

 

Based on the advertisement from Tired Hands, seems like the Happy Cat Farm probably just didn't grow much variety. That CSA we did, every week they usually had 15+ different things, you then picked the 6 that you wanted a couple days before pickup (you selected your choices through their website, first come first serve). So you could pick different stuff every week even if the overall list didn't change until new crops were available as the growing season progressed.

~$550 for the non-beer for 10 weeks does seem quite steep, although I guess it depends on much cheese and fruit you got.

 

Heading to Philly in a few weeks for work and I was hoping to get some clarification on the different TH locations...

This is what I was able to gather from their website:

Cafe - Taps/growlers and lighter fare/charcuterie/cheese
Fermentaria - Taps/growlers and a larger menu selection for food
General Store - Cans/Bottles to-go and other merch

The biggest question I have is do they only sell cans/bottles to-go out of the general store, or will these be available at the other locations as well? Is this where the weekly can release takes place?

I’m more interested in their saison/farmhouse bottles, but how long do cans typically last?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

You have the initial part correct. Weekly releases are sold out of the Fermentaria with other bottles and cans sold out of the General Store. Cans these days have been last for a couple of days depending on the brand. If you are mainly interested in the bottles then the General Store is the spot for you. Also they crowler out of the cafe.

 

Perfect!

Thanks for the quick reply.

 

Al's of Hampden/Pizza Boy has been getting a ton of Tired Hands in. In the last month alone they had multiple kegs of Extra Extra Knuckle, multiple kegs of Alien Church, Pineal, Technicolor Splendor, Rustic Pentagram, Metaphor Church. And it looks like they just tapped Oblivex: Retrospective which is very surprising considering that was an anniversary celebration beer. Hope this is here to stay so I don't have to wait to go to back home to Ardmore to get my fix.

Wondering if any other places that carries Tired Hands has just been getting a large influx of a variety of kegs

 

I hate to be that guy, and I wouldn't care if it was a non IPA can, but selling 6 day old IPA cans as a new release is crazy. If it's canned, why hold off selling it when they say these beers should be enjoyed fresh?

 

Half the people who open the cans are going to say they need a week anyway.

 

I can agree with that when it’s a shake or some new culinary IPA, but a staple like AC? Cmon.

 

6 days is nothing, we've been spoiled by these brewery only releases.

I remember when a month was considered fresh whenever I would find something from Troegs or Victory.