If you look at any list of the most popular or sought-out breweries in Massachusetts I bet you’ll find Tree House Brewing Company near the top, but my trips out to the brewery in Monson or now Charlton have been pretty rare. It has nothing to do with their beer, I have never had a bad beer […]
Author: ryanbrawn
Hoppy Boston Best Beers- Fall 2017
As I entered the fall I was a little burned out on hoppy beers and excited to mix in a bunch of malt-forward options. I was somewhat successful in the beers I drank, but local breweries decided to release a string of amazing IPAs this fall, and they ended up dominating my reviews. As a […]
Random Beer Thoughts: November 2017
The biggest local story this month was probably Harpoon buying out Clown Shoes. Here is the press release from Harpoon and from Clown Shoes. I think it is a good move for both breweries. Harpoon gets some added diversity to their lineup from a recognizable brand, Clown Shoes gets a physical brewery (they were contract brewed […]
Lamplighter Werewolves of Cambridge and Birds of a Feather
Lamplighter Brewing Company had it’s first birthday this month, and they have been celebrating with a series of special events and beer releases. It is crazy how quickly Lamplighter transitioned from an exciting new brewery in town into one of my go-to local breweries. Most places have a bit of a learning curve in their first year, […]
Idles Hands 34 and Six Seam
A couple weeks ago I received a big gift (from myself), official Hoppy Boston glassware. As soon as I decided to give the site a facelift and get a real logo I knew that I needed some logo-glassware and I found a online site that helped me make this dream a reality. I had avoided posting about the […]
Why Social Media is Critical for Breweries.
A couple weeks ago Carla Jean Lautner (@beerbabe) started a twitter discussion on the importance of every brewery having a functional and informative website. Lots of great points were made and it led me to think about all of the pieces that go into a brewery’s presence online. While I agree that a website full […]
Mystic Voltage and Echo
It is no longer news when a brewery starts canning their beers, in fact I’m struggling to think of any Massachusetts breweries with a significant distribution footprint that don’t can. One of the last hold-outs was Mystic Brewing in Chelsea. For years Mystic brewed a lineup dominated by flavorful saisons and other Belgian styles, mostly distributed […]
Spencer Monk’s Reserve Quadruple
When Spencer Brewery was introduced as the first the first American Trappist brewery I had dreams of a constant supply of traditional Abbey style ales from a local source. They started with a single beer, their Trappist Ale which is a very tasty Belgian pale, and I was intrigued when they announced they were adding a number of […]
Abandoned Building Lola’s Saison
The total number of breweries in Massachusetts has exploded over the last few years, there are now around 100 that have a physical brewery that you can visit for samples/pours/growler fills, plus a number more that contract brew. It’s honestly hard to keep track of all of them, although one great resource is the Mass […]
Bog Iron Campout Mild
English mild ales are a style that never really caught on with American beer drinkers, or at least they haven’t yet and I am not holding my breath waiting for that to change. Mild ales are a version of the English brown ale that keeps the malt forward profile but has a lighter body and […]
Hoppy Boston 