Some changes to Hoppy Boston in 2015

I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. I’ve always thought it was a very arbitrary thing, if I need to make some changes in my life why should I wait until the new year? So take it as a coincidence that I am announcing some changes to the blog during the first week in January. I am planning on rolling out a few new types of posts in an attempt to diversify the content a little. There were too many weeks recently where I would knock out 3-4 beer reviews and I felt like it was getting a bit stale. I will still review beers, the goal of this blog continues to be to sample any and all great/new/interesting beers made in New England or imported from away, and report on my favorites to the readers. I hope that these new types of articles will help accomplish this goal while keeping things fresh, interesting and fun.

This summer I signed on to write a beer column for Gourmandatory, a new website focusing on restaurants, food and drinks in Boston, New York and Maine. I wanted to write articles that were different from what I was writing on hoppyboston.com, so I pitched some ideas that were received enthusiastically from the editors. I wrote a series of articles for an August launch, which then got delayed again and again until the project was shelved this past week. I was somewhat disappointed, I thought it was a good opportunity to expand the reach of the blog and get more people excited about local craft beer, but what can you do. I believe that the new article ideas are still solid, so I am going to use them to supplement what I already write for Hoppy Boston. There are two new types of articles you’ll see in the coming months:

Head-to-head beer reviews: An article that compares and contrasts two (or more) beers that are related by style, locale, or other factors. I hope each article will answer a specific question in addition to relaying info about the beers. How does a new release compare to a classic beer of the same style? Two local breweries just put out double IPAs, which one should you grab? Is this unicorn beer really that much better than another beer that is widely available?

Brewery Overviews: Once a month I hope to write an in-depth article highlighting one New England brewery. I’m going to start a new tab that links to all of these posts, so that eventually it will be a one-stop resource for information on all of the local breweries. The style and sections are a bit of a work in progress right now, and I’ll keep each article updated as necessary.

These articles will be a little longer than my current posts, so I might post slightly less frequently. I am also planning on injecting a little more commentary on the local scene and any important news. As always I am open to any feedback, let me know what you think of the new article styles. I’ll post the first head-to-head beer review tomorrow, a comparison of saisons from Allagash and Trillium that was going to be my first Gourmandatory article. Thank you all for reading the blog in 2014, and I hope you enjoy the content in the year ahead!

 

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