Fade to Black and the Hackberry Tree

About two months ago we did a review of Left Hand Brewing's Fade to Black Smoked Baltic Porter. I thought the beer was brilliant, and was very happy that it came in a six-pack. I brought a bunch with me to Portland and all my Portlander beer geek friends also very much enjoyed the beer.

Ro Guenzel the Head Brewer from Left Hand sent me a backstory on the beer and I thought it was such a good story that I would post it here.

Thanks for the kind note on Fade to Black. I hand-smoked over 7,000 pounds of malt using wood from a 100+ year old hackberry tree planted by my wife’s great-great-grandfather on their family homestead back in Nebraska. The tree split during a spring snow storm several years ago. My wife’s aunt, who still lives in the farmhouse, complained to me that the tree was too pungent for her to use in her wood burning oven. So I made beer with it! Last Christmas I took a case of the beer back to the farm. Her family, which does not drink usually, all gathered around the living room and toasted the tree as we sipped the beer. We had to leave before things got wild. Attached is a picture of the tree and farmhouse.