Fisher Cats vs Binghamton Mets

Ready for some minor league fun we took a ride up to Manchester, NH to see the new Hampshire Fisher Cats. It was a trip down memory lane since I attended college at Saint Anselm's located here. At the time there was no minor league team in the city. Today the New Hampshire Fisher Cats call the Northeast Delta Dental Stadium located close to down town home.

The weather forecast wasn't the greatest but it appeared that it would hopefully clear in time for the 1:35pm game. My brother got the suite tickets which included VIP parking. As we walked through he back VIP gate we were each handed a Fisher Cats baseball. The kids loved it and were already asking to play toss.

We headed up the stairs and found our suite. After settling into the luxury suite we enjoyed the view and took some pictures.. The rain was light but steady and somewhat refreshing. The stadium ground crew were busy preparing the field as we relaxed. as the rain began to intensify they rolled out an enormous tarp. It was a fairly impressive feat considering the size. I counted 18 people working to secure the tarp. As we waited for the start of the game which we knew it would be at least delayed we enjoyed the stadium hotdogs and some beer.

45 minutes after the schedule start of the game the grounds crew were again working hard rolling up the large tarp and prepping the field. As they worked hard we could see the umpires touring the field checking on its readiness for the game. Unfortunately we learned shortly there after that the game had not only been delayed but postponed to a later date. Evidently the field was too wet to play.

We took a walk to the box office where we traded in our tickets for another game later this summer. Hopefully it won't get washed out too. As we headed for the car we decided to check out where the new seats were. While they weren't luxury suite seats they were right behind the home team dugout.  I am looking forward to the game in August

Task 5 - Moonlight Meadery

(05) Visit a winery or brewery & take the tour

Activity: Moonlight Meadery
Location: 23 Londonderry Road Unit #17, Londonderry, NH 03053
Cost: $25.00 per 2 people (Groupon)
When: June 1, 2013
Rating: 5-Stars

Having learned how beer is brewed, wine is age, and alcohol fermented I thought I would learn how honey wine or mead is made. At Moonlight Meadery in Londonderry, NH, I learned from the son of the founder Michael Fairbrother that when you combine 1 part honey and 3 parts water with yeast mead is produced.

After a quick history lesson about the origin od mead he began the tour in their newly expanded Moonlight Meadery production facility. Here the tour guide explained the process of fermentation, filtering, aging, bottling, packaging and finally distribution of their various mead products. I found the tour both informative and enjoyable.

By the end of our tour at the meadery, we went through the nearly 64 different meads they produce and like father like son, our tour guide has a deep passion about their mead products. His experience and personal preferences guided our tasting session from the dry to the sweet offerings. 

During the tasting, I learned that you can affect the flavor by combining the mead with other ingredients and/or by aging it in oak barrel vs a regular fermentation tank. Mead that contains spices are referred to as metheglin, mead that contains fruit is called melomel, and meads that are fermented with grapes are called a pyment.

Moonlight Meadery calls their product Romance by the glass… and they name each of their different meads accordingly. First, I sampled Sensual, a traditional mead made from just wildflower honey. It was an excellent way to start as I learned how traditional mead should taste. Next I tasted some of their specialty meads. The meads I tried were: Red Dress, Kurt’s Apple Pie, Serenity, Sumptuous, Temerity, Admiration and finally their most premium mead Utopian. Utopian Mead is aged in Oak Barrels that had been used by Samuel Adams’s to age Utopias. These barrels impart a flavorful yet subtle fruity sweetness like a fine cognac or aged sherry without the bite.

I couldn’t leave without making a purchase and selected Kurt’s Apple Pie as my mead of choice. Made from local apple cider and Madagascar vanilla with a touch of Vietnamese cinnamon it tasted just like the apple pie my grandmother used to make in a liquid form. I can’t wait to try his suggestion to drizzle this over some fresh made vanilla ice cream.