The 1761 Farmhouse Ale is being sold during the U.S. Women’s Open, created using spent lemons combined with ale for lower alcohol content.
When the U.S. Women’s Open teed off earlier this week, a lot of its guests toasted a guy who grew up in West York: Matt Keasey.
According to Kim Strong of FlipsidePA, Keasy has been a chemist most of his life. He used his biology degree from Penn State to land a job in a pharmaceutical lab, but he had an experiment brewing at home that he liked a whole lot more: making beer.
One of those beers, the 1761 Farmhouse Ale, has been turned into a summer shandy during the 2015 Open at Lancaster Country Club. The tournament is running at the club from July 6 to July 12.
The only place serving the shandy during the U.S. Women’s Open will be the 1761 Club, a renovated farmhouse on the club’s property. The 1761 Shandy is the creation of the club’s Executive Chef, Greg Myers, who asked Keasey a couple of years ago for a special ale for the club.
Keasey used spent lemons from the club’s well-known lemonade to create the lemony taste. Zest from the lemons were used in both the “boil” and on the aging end of the ale’s creation, Keasey told FlipsidePA. The result was a bright ale that Myers sells at the club from Memorial to Labor Day each year. His shandy combination of half homemade lemonade and half ale cuts down on the alcohol content to create something refreshing for the casual beer drinker.
“It’s really good,” Myers said.
Matt Keasey started his own brewing company, Spring House, about nine years ago in his own farmhouse in Conestoga, Pennsylvania. Next week, he’ll open the doors to a new enterprise, Spring House Brewing Co., opening July 9 at an old factory building on Lancaster’s Cabbage Hill.
The factory has been refurbished into a large bar, restaurant and brewery, serving 12 taps of Spring House’s craft beers and some Pennsylvania wines. The second floor will house offices and eventually space available for meetings and dinners.
Chef John Forshey has created a menu for Spring House Brewing Co. with a heavy Southern influence. He’ll have an oyster bar, smoked meats, fish and cheeses, and upscale comfort food like steaks and seafood. Everything is local, except the seafood, Forshey said.
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