Some friends of mine from C.R.A.B.S. (Chesapeake Real Ale Brewers Society http://crabsbrew.org) invited me to go to Mashout 2015.
The camping weekend was held at the organic hop farm, Organarchy (http://www.organarchyhops.com/).
I arrived and Matt and Will were in the process of getting their site setup.
I had already setup a few sites down from them…
So I moved next to where they setup.
Of course, after that it was beer time.
There were several different brew clubs there, and lots of interesting people to meet.
And and as you may have guessed, there was a lot of beer, too (mostly home brew).
That night I cooked tofu hot dogs for dinner.
Yummy!!!
There were a lot of people I knew at the event, including my old friend Chewie.
There were plenty of activities to do…
But I mostly wandered around tasting everyone’s beer.
Friday night included live music.
The next morning Matt, Will, and I went on a bike ride along the C&O canal.
The hop farm is very close to the tow path, so it was an easy ride down to the Paw Paw Tunnel.
We stopped for a quick picture at the entrance…
And then read the signs detailing the history.
When building the tunnel, “Blasting the unstable shale with unpredictable blackpowder was dangerous business; injuries and deaths were commonplace.”
This was the marker on the tow path to let us know where to head back to the hop farm.
When we arrived back at the farm, JD had arrived and was setting up his kegs on keg row.
I was going to play some Saturday morning vinyl, but my inverter wasn’t working.
So we decided to just lay around and be bums.
JD added his gear to our site, and now we looked like we knew what we were doing.
This is a registered trailer. Very cool.
There was a yurt on site…
That was impressive in structure and size.
JD and I decided to go for a walk around the hop farm.
And I decided to add some fresh hops to my beer.
Ah, what a glorious day.
There was an old graveyard on site, with the most prominent name being Roby.
We walked down to the C&O canal…
And came across some horseback riders as we walked.
We decided to head down to the Potomac River.
And we waded out into the middle for this picture.
The water was the perfect temperature.
I never miss an opportunity to skip rocks.
This was about 15 feet tall next to the river…
And this is the path we decided to climb up.
It took a few minutes, but we managed.
Coming back to the farm and you could see a lot of the camp sites.
Cheers!!!!
JD wanted to rest, so the rest of us headed down to the main area.
Coming into keg row.
Dinner was being prepared.
And many people were enjoying some social time together.
We headed back up to the site to get our chairs for dinner…
And when we got back, dinner was almost ready.
Everyone brought a dish to share.
Everyone took their places…
Speeches were given…
And then it was time to eat.
Lots of food for everyone.
My plate.
One of the attendees had brought along a telescope.
I held my camera up to the lens and got a good picture of the moon.
He built the telescope himself.
The mirror is the cool part.
What is the shiny spot to the right of the moon?
Oh, that’s just Saturn and its rings.
We headed back down to the main area for some more beer.
Then the tap trailer was lit up for night time.
There was also quite a large fire going with several people playing guitar.
The night was very clear.
JD decided to make use of the chalk to enhance the lettering.
Someone brought 33 different styles of Pringles.
It was getting late, and I was getting tired…
So I headed back to my tent for the night.
The next morning we packed up to head home.
But not before breakfast.
Like the night before, there was plenty to eat.
On the way home, JD and I stopped in Frederick at Brewer’s Alley.
One last beer before the end to a great weekend!!!