Earlier this week Spencer Brewing, the only Trappist brewery in the United States, announced on their Facebook page that they were ceasing brewing operations, making the difficult decision that the brewing industry was no longer viable for them. This is really disappointing news, it is never good to lose a local brewery, especially one as […]
A couple weeks ago my wife and I had a date night to celebrate my birthday. A babysitter came to the house (my youngest son’s preschool teacher), and we grabbed dinner on a restaurant patio. We finished up a bit early and wanted to grab a drink, and since we were in Maynard already I […]
I’ve been thinking a lot about how I evaluate breweries recently. I think some of it comes with the pandemic and the struggles that breweries are facing right now. I am trying to support my favorite local places as much as I can, which means I need to think about which places belong on that […]
I made an explosive beer once. I was homebrewing a dry-hopped saison at my old apartment in Watertown. I pitched the yeast, got a nice strong fermentation, transferred to the secondary for the dry-hopping when it slowed to a crawl, then bottled it a week later. After waiting the nominal 2 weeks for the bottling […]
Warning: This column touches on the things going on in the country and the world right now, many of which have little or nothing to do with craft beer. I know that reading about beer is an escape for some people and they don’t want to hear about politics on their beer blogs, but this […]
Almost 6 weeks into staying at home and I have a lot of thoughts I would like to share. This might be a bit rambling, and parts will have nothing to do with beer, but there have been a lot of things on my mind recently and I feel like sharing them here. If it’s […]
I have been pretty steady with my Hoppy Boston posts over the last couple years, I usually drop a new post twice a week, typically on Monday and Thursday nights. Last week I did my typical Monday post, and had a headstart on a beer review for Thursday, but I never finished it. The COVID-19 […]
There has never been a better time to be a beer lover. With over 7000 breweries in operation in the US, with each cranking out rotating selections of beer, we have nearly limitless options across a wide range of styles and flavor profiles. Some beer drinkers are taking full advantage of their freedom of choice, […]
This Fall I was up at my alma mater for a big college rugby team reunion, which featured some extended social time featuring the current team and over 75 alumni from across decades of rugby. It was a great time with old friends and new ones. Being back on campus I noticed a few things […]
The Mass Brew Brothers recently posted two articles summarizing the changes in Massachusettes beer in 2019. The first covered the new additions to the beer scene, including the 28 new breweries, 9 new taprooms and 3 expansions that launched in the state this year. The second article covered the bad news, 12 breweries closed this […]
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