About the beer:
Regular readers will know that I take a special interest in the tradition of using flowers, spices, and unusual ingredients in beer. Before the Reinheitsgebot and other regional regulations on beer production, this practice was fairly common. Brewers used a wide variety of ingredients as flavoring, bittering, and even fermentable agents – some that we might find unusual, even distasteful today.
As a Bostonian, I’ve grown accustomed to having a stellar craft beer selection and culture readily available. So I was excited to see what the first leg of my trip, in which I visited New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, North Carolina, Maryland, and Delaware, (spanning a decent portion of the Atlantic) would have in store. All the breweries I visited are producing an interesting and well-executed selection of beers to their local communities and beyond. What fascinated me the most was the realization that most breweries on this side of the country share a couple of common threads:
About the beer:
Craft beer is all about options. With the rise in popularity of higher alcohol craft beers some are turning their interests towards other options in the form of an up and coming category in the craft beer community – session beer. Awareness over the session style of brewing has risen over the last two years with many American breweries creating some tremendous crafted ales, all of which carrying significantly lower ABVs than the stereotypical craft ale.
The term “session” finds it’s origins in the UK and refers to the allowable drinking periods that were imposed on production workers during World War I. The licensed sessions were 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 7 to 11 p.m. Workers would find a beer that they could adequately quench their thirst with during these restrictive “sessions” that were imposed by the government without getting legally drunk.
With this groundswell of awareness and rich history to live up to, enter Notch Session Ale, an independently brewed ale which is the brain child of Notch brewer and founder Chris Lohring. In collaboration with his friends at Ipswich Ale Brewery of Ipswich, MA, Chris is brewing low-gravity American style session beers that pack immense amounts of robustness and flavor without heavy alcohol content.
About the Beer: Oyster stouts are a very rare style of beer, but they’re more than worth your while if you can get your hands on one. The dark, grainy texture of stouts are a perfect pairing with oysters and other shellfish so it was only natural to bring the two together in a beer. The Harpoon Brewery in Boston uses real oysters from nearby Island Creek oyster bar for their take on the style.
On Tuesday the Beeriety team joined some great folks for a lovely evening at The Haven, Boston’s premiere Scottish Pub. It was a fun evening with great beer and great conversation and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The highlight of the night was the Haven’s own Special 70 session ale brewed by Notch brewery, which debuted just last week. It’s another great brew by the folks over at Notch, who’ve yet to produce a beer I haven’t enjoyed. The Special 70 was featured in a flight of four ales that folks were able to buy during the event-
About the beer: Longtime readers of Beeriety will recall that recently a friend and I brewed up a very unique style of beer called a braggot (pronounced “bracket”). This style of beer, which has its origins as a mead, comes from Wales, but is associated with the United Kingdom at large, as there are multiple takes on this ancient recipe across the British Isles. I had never tried a braggot before brewing one, and seldom thought I would ever get the chance. Imagine my surprise when perusing my new favorite craft beer store, the Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont, MA, I came upon the “Slippery Slope” by The People’s Pint, a small brewery located in Greenfield, MA.
If a little sign wasn’t hanging from the top of the building, you’d never even know Brooklyn Brewery was there. Since 1988, Brooklyn has distributed its beer from New York to Texas, and many states in between. On site, Brooklyn only brews about 20-30% of its product, concentrating mainly on their big bottle series (such as the Local 1 and Local 2), along with some more experimental brews. Our tour guide walked us through a quick educational lesson about the main ingredients in beer, the brewing process, and then walked us through the history of the brewery, highlighting the story behind their logo. The tour itself is very short, but everyone is encouraged to stick inside the brew house for 10-15 minutes, take a look at the equipment, and ask more questions as needed. You can even bring your beer from the pub to the tour!
Today’s post comes from Justin K. Thanks Justin!
The New England Real Ale Exhibition (NERAX) runs from March 30th through April 2nd in Somerville, MA. This festival showcases cask ale from British and American breweries. (For a detailed explanation of what cask ale is read Beeriety’s article here.) Because cask ale has a relatively short shelf life once it’s tapped the show focused on having new beers go up each day. If you were to attend Wednesday night and again Saturday you would see two very different beer lists.
About the beer: This week’s Beer of the Week/Crafted Can comes out of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Though I’ve never spotted this in the Boston area, Sly Fox seemed to have a good place with the New Jersey market where I found this pack. This lager is an attempt at a popular style in the German/Bavarian market. Dunkel, which is German for “dark,” is a style that’s known for it’s smooth, malty flavor, along with notes of chocolate, coffee, caramel, and/or toasted malts. This lager specifically uses Munich, Pils, and German Roast malts along with several types of Bavarian hops.
About the Beer: Off the coast of Massachusetts, on the tiny island of Nantucket, lies a brewery called Cisco. Though a small brewery, Cisco exports beer to most of the eastern seaboard, including all of New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and even down to Florida. However, those outside of the Massachsetts area might be a little less familiar with the brew we’re going to look at this week: The Lady of the Woods.
