Bon Appetite magazine has named Portland, Maine it’s restaurant city of the year, with many breweries gaining mentions in the profile. Carla Jean Lauter has some picks of places the magazine profile missed. Speaking of Portland, the Mass Brew Brothers make their picks for the best beer city in each New England state. All six […]
Birthdays only come once a year (unless you were born on February 29th, then only once every four years, which must be really weird), so it is important to take some time and celebrate. If you are a beer geek that celebration needs to involve some of your favorite brews, ideally shared with some of […]
When it comes to certain beer styles I’ve always been a seasonal drinker. I don’t have hard and fast rules, but if I’m drinking an imperial stout it is probably cold outside and brown ales are perfect for a crisp fall day. Pale lagers can work with any season, but my consumption of pilsners and […]
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 […]
Hoppy Boston 