Earlier this week I reviewed a couple of New England style IPA’s from Hill Farmstead, widely considered one of the best breweries in the world. Hill Farmstead makes some amazing hoppy beers and are rightly credited with helping develop the trendy NEIPA substyle featuring fruity hops, a soft mouthfeel and low bitterness. The thing that […]
There are a number of places that every New England beer fan should visit, and I’ve done a decent job knocking some of them off of my list. I do pretty well in Massachusetts and Maine (where I have family so trips are frequent), I have occasional stops in New Hampshire and Rhode Island and […]
Even with the massive popularity of taprooms there are still a large number of breweries who rely on contract brewing, where they rent space and time at a larger brewery to produce and package their beer. Most contract breweries don’t have a set location, all of their beer is sold through distribution. Recently some breweries […]
There is an interesting trend that has been developing for a while where breweries who brew a popular IPA are making multiple versions with tweaks to the recipe. The “double dry-hopped” and “dry-hopped with XXX” beers are pretty minor changes to the beer all things considered, but add a little variety to a breweries offerings. […]
I make 3-4 trips a year up to Maine, usually centered around visits with family in the mid-coast region. While the family needs take precedence over everything else I usually try to work in some beer related fun, usually stops at breweries or restaurants with good beer selections, or even just a quick trip into […]
Eventually I will hit a point in my life when I can plan weekends around trips to breweries again, but between a demanding job and the crazy life of parenting two young boys my road trips are limited right now. Breweries in Western Massachusetts that involve long travel are the toughest, it’s rare that my […]
Jeff Alworth at Beervana wonders if hazy IPAs are due for a fall. I agree with the plurality of people who answered the poll, hazy IPAs will continue to be popular but the current peak will fade a bit. I think many of the breweries who only make these beers to satisfy demand (and many […]
It has been a crazy year for Smuttynose Brewing Company. After issues with debt the brewery was put up for auction by a bank and eventually they found new ownership that was fortunately committed to keeping and growing the brand. Smuttynose is stuck in a tough spot along with many other regional brewers. These mid […]
My “real” job is as a research scientist in biotech, working on finding new treatments for cancer. The entire biotech industry seems to be centered in the Boston area these days, especially in Cambridge, so it was little surprise that this has been the location of my first two jobs after finishing my post-doc. There […]
I get asked regularly by friends and readers if I used the popular beer app Untappd. My response is typically that I have an account but I rarely use it. Occasionally someone will connect with me on Untappd, I’ll make an effort to check in a few beers and then fall out of the habit […]
