It’s summertime in Boston again, which means it’s time for another American Craft Beer Fest. This year was a lot of fun. Team Beeriety got to try a lot of new beers and chat with a bunch of different beers lovers. We saw some familiar faces, but also made many new friends and tried many new beers. Here are five of our favorites.
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:
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!
Every fall countless pumpkin beers are released. With all the beers to out there to choose from it can be tough to know which one to get. To solve this problem last week the Beeriety crew conducted a blind taste test of 16 popular pumpkin beers. We were hoping to see what beer would emerge as the group favorite when labels, brands and preconceptions were removed. We had a blast, and learned a lot about pumpkin beer in the process.
On Saturday, October 16th @EatBoston hosted a lobster and beer fest dubbed the Boston Lobster Party at The Historic SoWa Power Station. 15 craft breweries set up shop and brought a plethora of kegs and bottles. In addition to all the craft goodness one can drink, there were 9 of Boston’s restaurants showcasing a number of lobster dishes.
If you are unfamiliar with @EatBoston and live in New England, you are missing out. Sure this isn’t your American Craft Beer Festival, but it’s a damn good time. Back in April they hosted the Boston Bacon & Beer Festival. See a trend forming here? The best food mixed with the best beer!
American Craft Beer Fest
On Saturday, Team Beeriety and some friends including Susie from We Are Not Martha headed down to the American Craft Beer Festival on Boston’s waterfront. It was an amazing array of 75 American brewers with over 300 different craft beers to sample. There was a lot of unusual beers and beer lovers at the festival and we did our best to check out as many of them as we could.
Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project
The beer was fantastic and while we all had our individual favorites, there was a general consensus that Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project was the break away star. Considering this small brewery run by a husband and wife team has only been around for about a year their beers show an astounding amount of sophistication and deliciousness. Their labels also live up to their name as some of the prettiest I’ve seen in awhile. They are surely a brewer to keep an eye on.
Brooklyn Brewery
Another favorite was Brooklyn Brewery’s Intensified Coffee Stout. Brooklyn has long been one of the most prominent craft brewers in America and this new brew showcases why. I’ve known and loved many coffee stouts, but never have I tried anything that so thoroughly captured the taste and mouthful of French press coffee and stout.
For a more detailed look at what beers grabbed our attentions take a look at our individual favorite lists:
Woody Chandler, Beer Monk
There was also plenty of interesting people in attendance, like Woody Chandler, the ‘beer monk’.
Pretzel Necklaces were all the rage
Several people also had curiously placed a necklace of pretzels around their necks, which I’d never seen before but seems like a great way to snack while keeping two hands free for beer. We’ll have more on the beer fest and exclusive interviews from the floor with brewers and attendees alike once we have a chance to sort through it all.
Until then check out the rest of the photos from the fest on the Beeriety Flickr account and let us know if you attended and what you were drinking in the comments!
