Hop’ville Elementary #1 (Citra)

Lasting Brass Hop’ville Elementary Citra (Single-Hop Session Series No. 1)
Gifted by the brewer, 4.5% ABV

Growler filled at the source

Hope.

lbHope is an important thing. Once you lose hope, you are pretty much doomed. My wife and I have hope that our special needs son will continue to thrive and ultimately live in an assisted living facility. I hope the UConn Huskies get a good football coach. You hope I’m not going to get too “deep” on this page about a home brewing friend’s beer.

Otherwise, you’d quit reading. Right? Right.

If you think about it, “Hope” is a weird name to give girls. Hope for what? And how many Faiths are atheists? Why ascribe a thought to your daughters with their names?

Since we’re talking about names, how cool is “Hop’ville Elementary?” Assuming Ed, the home brewing brewmaster guru behind Lasting Brass, intends to create a few more sessionable single hop beers all under the series called “Hop’ville Elementary.”

Get it?

No, really, do you really get it? Ed has a cool habit of naming his beers after things in his hometown of Waterbury. In this case, there is a Hopeville Elementary a couple miles from Ed’s brewery*.

*In-law suite in his house.

Waterbury needs hope. One of Connecticut’s most challenged post-industrial cities, with years of corrupt politicians – one in jail for trying to have sex with little girls – and corroding infrastructure.

So naming a school Hopeville seems like a modest and worthwhile place to start. Except… sigh, there’s a reason this city is called the Dirty Water. Googling Hopeville brings up two articles:

1. A bunch of Hopeville teachers busted for cheating on standardized exams. (most of whom quickly returned to work. Hope!)

2. So with that mess getting cleared up, it came to light that the school’s pincipal was all-the-while stealing $10,186.21 from the cafeteria’s coffers.

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This picture is great. Taken at some fete celebrating the “impressive” test-score gains of the Hopeville kids. Whoops. The lady 2nd from left with the blond hair? Yeah, that’s Margaret Perugini, alleged second in command of the cheating ring – looking guilty as hell. The lady in the middle? That’s your Principal Maria Moulthrop right there, the thief – AND woman who pushed for the cheating.

I just read through the investigation (pdf) and found it fascinating. Cheaters never prosper.

Sigh. I hate to pick on our cities, but when this crap keeps happening in the Bridgeports and Hartford and Waterburys of our world, it’s impossible to ignore.

Lasting Brass Says:

”Just take this and let me know what you think. Thanks.”

Hope.

I had hoped this beer would be great. It was. Smooth, citrus-forward hops with a low ABV. Tons of flavor and body from the first whiff to the last drop, I’ve often judged a brewery by his ability to make great session beer with tons of flavor. Ed crushed it.

Hope.

I hope the best for Waterbury. I hope Lasting Brass Brewery becomes a real and valuable and profitable thing in the city someday. I hope the city finds a use for all of its old factories. Waterbury was an incredible place in just after WWII. Vestiges of the town’s prior wealth loom all over the place, with absolutely stunning architecture and art – If you know where to look.

Hope.

You hope I just end this now.

I love Citra hops. I contend it’s my favorite of which I’m aware but could be swayed by Nelson Sauvin I suppose. And this beer was perfect in everyway.

Overall Rating: A
Rating vs. Similar style: A+

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