A couple things from me to start:
After my visit to Maine at the end of August I knocked out a quick photo-blog of the seven breweries I visited during the trip. I love the idea of doing a photo-blog for a trip like this but wasn’t completely satisfied with how it came out. On my next beercation I will focus more on my beertography and try this again!
I also recounted my journey from a Natty Light swilling college freshman to a beer geek and writer, and some of the key places, people and beers that moved the transformation along. This was a fun article to write and was inspired by some thought-provoking Beer Twitter threads!
Now, onto the links:
My favorite thing in beer this month was the #IAmCraftBeer movement, where people involved in all aspects of the industry shared selfies and stories about themselves and showed how strong and diverse the group of people who love craft beer are. The hashtag was started by Brewers Association Diversity Ambassador J. Jackson-Beckham in response to a horrible and racist e-mail sent to Chicago area beer writer Chalonda White. Dr. Jackson-Beckham has an uncanny ability to build a movement around positive energy that was showcased incredibly by the way she took something something gross like a racist e-mail and used it to spur this swell of people coming together and sharing tweet-length highlights of their lives. The changes the industry (and the country, and the world) needs aren’t going to happen overnight, but every step forward helps. Here is my #IAmCraftBeer post, I obviously used a selfie with the little man because he is way more photogenic than his Dad.
Speaking of diversity, Exhale has a profile of some of the talented women in the Massachusetts craft beer industry.
We are in peak Octoberfest/marzen season so there are a bunch of articles about the style. Kate Bernot has a history of Octoberfest and a explanation of the differences between marzen and festbier. Jack’s Abby wrote their own history of the style and the thought process behind their Copper Legend.
The Hoppy Tourist has an insightful guide to beer ratings called Consuming With Context: An Untappd Guide. I always knew there was a shift in scores based on style, but it is pretty revealing when the numbers are all laid out.
There is way too much negativity in beer media/social, so I really enjoyed this article on the Best Trends in Beer Right Now. I also agree with many of the choices.
The Maine Beer Box, a collaboration effort of Maine breweries to send beer to different European markets, has opened up interesting business opportunities for some of the breweries involved. As the beer market gets more saturated it will be interesting to see if more breweries start thinking outside of the box with their expansion plans.
Brewery openings/plannings: Trillium has opened their newest location in the Fenway neighborhood, and Boston Magazine has a first look at the space. Loophole Brewing is launching in Holyoke. Spicket River Brewery is open in the Lawrence Mills Building. Prolific Boston area pop-up Deep Cuts Deli is looking to open a deli and brewery in Somerville. Night Shift is expanding their capacity in Everett with a new 60 barrel brewhouse.
Brewery closings: Dirigo Brewing, the lager-centric brewery in Biddeford, ME is closed. It sounds like they are selling the space/equipment but the brand is done.
Congratulations to Smuttynose, they are celebrating 25 years in business this month!
Wormtown has hired Texas beer veteran Scott Metzger as their new general manager.
Allagash has achieved B Corp status, proving their commitment to giving to charity and supporting environmental causes.
Vinepair has an article on table beers, the underappreciated sessionable Belgian ales that pair wonderfully with a variety of foods.
Gary Dzen recaps a recent trip to Tree House and the beers he brought back.
Thrillist has an article on the 13 essential craft breweries of 2019 that features one of the best breweries in Massachusetts, and it’s not one of the wait-in-line places the haze-bros flock to. This article also wins the runner-up for the new Hoppy Boston award detailed below.
Clickbait article of the month! Vinepair ranks the 25 most important IPAs right now. By the way, I am officially making this a regular feature of the monthly links article, so please forward anything that deserves consideration for clickbait article of the month.
That’s it for September, thanks for reading and please send anything along that you would like featured!
Hoppy Boston 
