The infamous python found wrapped up in Mr. Trash Wheel in summer of 2015 has returned on a new beer from Baltimore’s own Peabody Heights Brewery.
The Charles Village-based beer makers and the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore announced today that they’ve partnered for a special-edition session IPA called Mr. Trash Wheel’s Lost Python Ale. The 4.5 percent alcohol beer is an unfiltered brew made from Mosaic, Citra and Motueka hops, giving it notes of lemon-lime and stone fruit with low bitterness, according to a release.
The beer’s name pays homage to a five-foot-long African ball python that coiled itself around Mr. Trash Wheel’s control box during a thunderstorm in August 2015. Staff at the Healthy Harbor Initiative, which manages both of the harbor’s trash-collecting machines, found the snake the next day and called National Aquarium general curator Jack Cover to come help. Using his expertise, he picked up the friendly python with his bare hands.
“This is the single weirdest thing we’ve ever found,” said Healthy Harbor Initiative director Adam Lindquist at the time, adding that they would find the animal a new home.
Now the snake is back, this time on the label looking placid next to a cartoon version of Mr. Trash Wheel.
Mr. Trash Wheel’s Lost Python Ale will be available in six-packs and cases of 24. All proceeds will assist the Healthy Harbor Initiative with its cleanup efforts. The Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore’s initiative can use all the help it can get, with a target to make the polluted waterway swimmable and fishable by 2020.
Beer lovers will get their first taste at a release party on Earth Day, Saturday, April 22, at 7 p.m. at Peabody Heights Brewery, located at 401 E. 30th Street. Tickets are $25 until April 14 and include all-you-can-drink beer, a commemorative pint glass and entry to the event with live music and a food truck.
No word yet on a forthcoming beer commemorating Professor Trash Wheel. Perhaps this idea could be replicated when the newer machine in Canton reaches a certain garbage-eating milestone.
