This summer featured a small piece of return to normalcy, namely multiple trips up to Maine to visit my family. My parents house is right on a lake in mid-coast Maine, and the trip is a favorite for the whole family. While summer days in a serene setting is cause enough for excitement, I also […]
A couple weeks ago my wife and I had a date night to celebrate my birthday. A babysitter came to the house (my youngest son’s preschool teacher), and we grabbed dinner on a restaurant patio. We finished up a bit early and wanted to grab a drink, and since we were in Maynard already I […]
How is summer over already? I honestly can’t believe that it’s September. It has been a mixed bag this summer, some great vacations, and we’ve been able to do much more than last summer, but the lingering threat of the delta variant has caused the pandemic to drag on and kept things from feeling anything […]
We are a year and a half into this pandemic and in some was it feels like we’re stuck in the same place we were last summer. I know it’s gotten better in many ways, especially with the development of multiple safe and effective vaccines, but I was really hoping we’d be back to “normal” […]
With the meteoric rise in popularity of NEIPAs, and with many brewers eschewing other formerly popular styles in favor of the hazies, there has been some inevitable backlash against the style. In ranges from people who like NEIPA but want more variety to haze-haters who have every complaint in the book when it comes to […]
Sam Adams was famously late to the IPA game. When IPAs were first taking off as the dominant style in American craft beer Sam Adams owner Jim Koch expressed a disdain for the style and refused to make them an integral part of the brewery. Eventually Sam Adams gave in and started making IPAs, but […]
A quick bit of Hoppy Boston news: I am now contributing to the NewsBreak creator platform, posting new Hoppy Boston articles on NewsBreak in addition to the blog. For new followers you can find out a bit more about what to expect in this post. Anyone who uses the NewsBreak app to get their local […]
I think it is crucial for every brewery to have a “calling card” style, a beer style or set of styles that they consistently excel at. If your brewery make awesome pale lagers, saisons, or sours than fans of that style will become regular customers, and will eventually try the other beers you create. While […]
My beer thoughts column is relatively short this month, between my “real” job and my family commitments I just don’t have a ton of time to hang out on beer social media right now, so it makes it harder to compile these lists. I am hoping things will get back to some state of “normal” […]
Want to know how far I’ve fallen behind in my beer reviews? It is almost the end of June and I am finally getting around to reviewing a maibock, the balanced pale lager style literally named for the month of May. What can you do, my life is especially crazy right now and Hoppy Boston […]
