The Seed: A Living Beer Project

Bhavna and I bid farewell to the fun weekend at Cape May and set Apple Maps to route us home with one additional stop at The Seed in Atlantic City. The drive from Cape May was uninteresting and uneventful. We arrived in Atlantic City, and the Apple Maps app navigated us through mostly empty city streets.

The brewery is next to Westecunk Axe Throwing in a windowless brick building on Baltic Ave in a residential neighbourhood. The homes appeared to be a mixture of new modern townhouses and old row homes. The brewery’s location initially seemed peculiar, given its reputation. However, I've learned that great things often come from unexpected places. Curious and excited, I parked the car.

Arriving a tad too early, I patiently waited in my car, eagerly glancing at the entrance of The Seed. The anticipation grew with each minute, like the bubbling excitement before taking the first sip of a perfectly chilled brew. Finally, the time came, and we hopped out of the car and stepped through the entrance, a small door on the side of the building.

The Seed Taproom
The Seed Taproom · Sunday 16 April 2023 · FujiFilm X-T3 · XF27mmF2.8 R WR

Upon entering, I was struck by the taproom's industrial aesthetic. It exuded a unique charm that perfectly complemented the atmosphere of the brewery. Bhavna and I were the first and only people there at that moment. It felt like a private tasting experience, a rare opportunity to chat up the cicerone.

Engaging in conversation with the friendly cicerone, I discovered their passion for beer was as vibrant as their crafted flavours. We delved into the intricacies of the brewer’s creations, discussing the unique qualities that set them apart. What caught my attention was their collaboration with our local brewery, Troon Brewing. This collaboration showcased their dedication to pushing boundaries and creating unique beers.

We learned that the brewer at The Seed had a penchant for experimentation. Each sip carried the essence of their creativity and dedication, leaving me craving more.

The Seed Taproom
The Seed Taproom · Sunday 16 April 2023 · FujiFilm X-T3 · XF27mmF2.8 R WR

After presenting the beer flight, the cicerone opened the garage door on the side of the building exposing the far side of the tap room and letting in more light.

Since we still had to drive home, Bhavna and I shared a flight. We had the Tangerines And String Quartets a pale ale dry hopped with Citra and Sabro. It was super juicy and delicious. We also had the Home Going, a double IPA brewed in collaboration with Fidens Brewing in Colonie, New York and dry hopped with Nelson CGX, Strata, and Amarillo. Next was Cozy Up, an English-inspired dark mild brewed in collaboration with Forest and Main in Ambler, PA. Bhavna and I toured Forest and Main several years ago. We followed that with The Ever Thinking Mind, an IPA brewed with oats from Rabbit Hill Farms in Shiloh, New Jersey, and dry hopped with bright, punchy New Zealand hops.

The Seed Taproom
The Seed Taproom · Sunday 16 April 2023 · FujiFilm X-T3 · XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR
The Seed Taproom
The Seed Taproom · Sunday 16 April 2023 · FujiFilm X-T3 · XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR

A few more people entered, and we lost the attention of the cicerone, who was now busy serving patrons. I met a friendly couple and got into a lively conversation about beer styles, our favourite breweries in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. We discussed our early beer experiences and how we started drinking craft beer. The commodore and willingness to share are one of the things I love about beer enthusiasts.

What is The Seed: A Living Beer Project? It’s a brewery project exploring the fantastic combination of indigenous ingredients, local agriculture, and fermentation. They’re always playing around with new ideas and trying to find the perfect balance between art and science, but what drives them is nature’s infinite variability. From the tiniest differences in wheat harvests to the incredible range of flavours and aromas that different microbes can create, there’s always something new and exciting to discover. They’re so passionate about this project, and it shows in the fantastic stories they tell through their beers.

The Seed Taproom
The Seed Taproom · Sunday 16 April 2023 · FujiFilm X-T3 · XF27mmF2.8 R WR

I can't help but reiterate the significance of this living beer project. The title speaks volumes about their commitment to cultivating unique and dynamic brews. The Seed is more than just a brewery; it embodies artistry, passion, and innovation.

Before we left, I purchased a four-pack of After Winter, a Kellerpils brewed Rabbit Hill Farm malt with fresh Cascade hops and marigold blossoms.

I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have visited The Seed and witnessed their craft firsthand. I eagerly look forward to returning to this brewery in the future. If you're a fellow beer lover, I highly recommend venturing into The Seed and discovering its magic. If you’re into craft beer, you need to check them out!

Isolation Photo Project, Day 51

This morning while reading a Casual Photophil article about the ALPA 10d 35mm Swiss-made legacy film camera, which according to eBay listings would cost over $1000 for a body and another $1000 for a lens, and which is no longer in production, it occurred to me that the purchase of expensive ALPA and Leica cameras and lenses would be worth it if I could rent them to get a return on the investment. I envisioned a sort of Lensrentals type arrangement but strictly for legacy film cameras and lenses. But then I did some searching on the web using the keyword rent vintage cameras and realised that the idea was not new. The very first link in the results was for Film Objektiv.

We rent some of the best tools in a minimum of two-week increments — a timeframe that makes it a fraction of the price of either buying or even renting the gear from a local shop, not to mention that a lot of this gear is impossible to find at a rental shop, to begin with.

We take the shipping and return time into consideration when determining our rental prices. Cameras end up costing less than $2 per day on the low end to about $30 per day on the high end.

I spent hours looking through their catalogue of available kit to rent.


A few years ago, I experimented with various coffee brewing methods and purchased and "reviewed" coffee from roasters all over the country. I haven't written any coffee reviews since December of the last year. I'm bored and running out of things to do to break up the monotony of daily life so I may revisit.

This week I am brewing Lake Kivu (Rwanda) - Natural Processed coffee beans from Sakrid Coffee Roasters, a Princeton based roaster that I have only recently discovered. The earliest Yelp review is from 9/11/2019, so I will assume the roaster is new.

The Nyamyumba, Rwanda beans were brewed in my Chemex using the method I used for the Ebb cloth filter but substituting the Chemex paper filter for the Ebb. I am not skilled at coffee tastings, so take my tasting notes with a hefty dose of salt. What's written below is what my brain decided is the truth. YMMV. I do add milk or creamer etc. to my coffee but will occasionally add one packet of Monk Fruit in the Raw.

You can read more on these beans on the Sakrid Coffee website.

Coffee Name Lake Kivu (Rwanda) - Natural Processed
Roaster Sakrid Coffee Roasters
Roast Light
Category Organic
Region Nyamyumba, Rwanda
Nuance smooth, subtle, mild caramel-apple
Weight 13oz
Cost $18.00
Shipping $7.64

I ended my day with a session of No Place For Literature by The Referend Bier Blendery. This spontaneous fermented wild ale is a collaboration with Kelly Green Brewing Co., Troon Brewing, and The Seed: A Living Beer Project.

Brewer's notes:

No Place for Literature is our collaboratively brewed and fermented beer of exclusively New Jersey origins.

We brewed this wort in April 2017 with NJ grown pilsner malt, raw wheat, and old whole leaf hops from @rabbit_hill_malthouse as well as NJ hay and hand-harvested NJ organic spelt. The wort itself was brewed as an antiquated saison, with a thick step mash and extended boil before cooling overnight in the coolship with an open exchange with the air around us.

The following day, after racking into French oak Pinot Noir barrels from @albavineyard one barrel each was pitched with the house mixed cultures from @troonbrewing @theseedbeer & @kellygreenbrewingco while a fourth barrel-fermented fully spontaneously.

Tuesday 12 May, 2020 | Day 51 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR | f/8.0 | ISO 2000

"No Place for Literature" was excellent ale to drink while listening to Bono's 60 Songs That Saved My Life playlist. I know most of the songs in the playlist but I think Bono has expertly arranged the order of the songs. I think this will be part of my regular rotation.

Bono is turning 60 years old, and to mark the occasion he’s created a playlist of the most important songs in his life. It spans generations and genres, from Frank Sinatra to Kendrick Lamar, Billie Eilish to Angélique Kidjo, and all points in between. But we’ll let the U2 icon explain it himself:

These are some of the songs that saved my life—the ones I couldn’t have lived without, the ones that got me from there to here, zero to 60 through all the scrapes, all manner of a nuisance. From the serious to the silly and the joy—mostly joy. I wanted to thank the artists and everyone who helped make them. They were doing the same for me.

Also available on Spotify.

Submitted as part of the 100DaysToOffload project.