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Hoppy New Harvest

In farmer Tom Barse’s Mt. Airy brewery, he and Bryan Butler, Carroll County extension agent, show off a handful of hops grown at the Western Maryland Research and Education Center.

November 28, 2016

University of Maryland Puts the Flavor in Alum Brewer’s New Beer

Ask Tom Barse ’77, owner of Milkhouse Brewery at Stillpoint Farm, what sets him apart as a brewer and he’ll tell you he makes “classic styles of beer improved with Maryland hops.”

With his latest beer creation, you can now make that “University of Maryland hops.”

The rich, copper-hued pale ale brewed at his Frederick County farm is flavored with several varieties of the green flowers—they’re what give beer its bitter taste and spicy smell–grown at the University of Maryland Extension’s Western Maryland Research and Education Center.

On Nov. 16, he poured samples of “Test Yard #1”—(his original idea, “Beer the Turtle,” was a little too close to university trademarks for comfort)—to extension personnel, the dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (AGNR), local and state politicians and officials from the state Department of Agriculture, among others.

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