My wife and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary this week. Well, “celebrated” might be a slight exaggeration, with our little guy around and not much for babysitting options yet we didn’t exactly go out and light the town on fire. Instead we did lunch at the always delicious Redbones BBQ with our son in tow, […]
Author: ryanbrawn
Allagash Confluence 2015
The Maine beer scene is thriving. There is amazing buzz around many Maine breweries and the wide array of beers they are producing. When I visit Maine I always have a laundry list of breweries I want to visit and beers I want to try, and some of them are definitely selected based on hype generated through social media and conversations […]
Bissell Brothers The Substance
I believe that the best way for a small brewery to stand out in the increasingly competitive beer market is to focus on one type of beer at the outset, and perfect that particular style. Usually this means one category, for example; hop-forward beers, Belgian ales, lagers, session beers, etc. Bissell Brothers Brewing in Portland, ME […]
What I do when I try a “bad” beer
I hate writing negative beer reviews. I have an idea of how much work it takes to brew bee, and how much time, effort and passion each brewery puts into their brand. I take no joy in ripping on their creations. I’ve been asked why my reviews are generally so positive before, the simple answer is […]
Foundation Epiphany
During my recent trip to Maine I was able to visit an array of breweries, but there were a few I was disappointed to miss. The sheer number of breweries that line the Maine coastline is impressive, and it is hard to balance visits to old favorites along with checking out new spots. One favorite that […]
Maine Beer Co. Beer II
Every summer I make at least one trip up to Maine to visit family and friends. Ideally I make multiple trips, but with the new addition to the family it looks like my recent 4th of July weekend trek to the north could be it for this summer. With that in mind I felt the need […]
Don’t listen to the haters, IPAs are still awesome
I occasionally listen to local sports talk radio. Well, to be fair, I listen to Toucher and Rich on 98.5 almost every day, but that is a general entertainment radio show with a sports focus. On a less frequent basis I also listen to hardcore, sports-are-our-entire-lives-and-the-only-thing-we-care-about sports talk radio. The conversations on these shows are […]
Kent Falls Field Beer Saison #3
The main purpose of my pit stop in Connecticut a few weeks ago was to grab a number of local beers that weren’t available in Massachusetts yet. I hoped to get some background on these breweries to help plan for my future trips south, but I also wanted to know more about these breweries before they start to expand distribution […]
Overshores Simpel and Blanc de Blanche
I just finished an awesome trip to Maine where I visited a number of breweries and tasted some delicious beer. I will get around to writing about some of these beers over the next few weeks. For now I still have a little backlog of articles to finish about my trip to Connecticut in mid-June. I might have gone a […]
Allagash Curieux
Tomorrow my wife and I are taking the baby to Maine for a long weekend at my parents’ house. I love trips to Maine, especially in the summer. Since we are traveling with an infant we are going to need more frequent stops, so I have formulated a bit of a plan. Why stop at […]
Hoppy Boston 