Although the craft beer marketplace is getting very crowded and competitive, I think there are a number of opportunities for smart breweries to stand out by doing things that are a little different. One underutilized style is hop-forward but well balanced and easy drinking session beers. There are obviously some great examples of these, but […]
After focusing a lot of my winter writing (and drinking) on bold, boozy, and malty dark beers I switched gears this spring, as I usually do once the weather starts to warm. I drank a whole hodgepodge of styles over the last three months, hop-bombs, Belgians, lagers, I even wrote up the first English style […]
Over the years I’ve dabbled a bit in homebrewing. Right after college my roommate and I bought a starter kit and tried to make a few batches of beer, the results varied from decent to so bad that a group of guys in their early 20’s dumped it out. My buddy went to medical school, […]
In honor of Hoppy Boston’s 5th anniversary I am giving away official Hoppy Boston t-shirts to 3 lucky winners. The shipment will also include some other Hoppy Boston gear, a coaster, stickers, and a new Hoppy Boston koozie. If you want a chance to win just follow these simple steps: Follow Hoppy Boston on Facebook, […]
With all of the breweries that have opened in the last few years, and all of the new ones opening or in various stages of planning, the local beer market is very competitive. Some argue that we are reaching saturation, I’m not sure if that is true, but a brewery needs to make stellar beer […]
I’ve thought a lot about what my brand would look like if I ever started my own brewery, there is zero chance I ever would take that leap but it’s fun to imagine. Idea number one would involve my day job as a chemist, maybe naming each beer after a different element. The second idea […]
For a long time I avoided most types of wheat beer. I’ve never been a fan of hefeweizens and only like a few Belgian style witbiers. My experience with American wheat beers was mostly with Sam Adams Summer Ale and similar wheats. I am not a Sam Adams basher, I love a number of their beers, but […]
I make 2-3 trips a year up to mid-coast Maine to visit family and friends in the area where I was born and raised, the first trip this year was over the holiday weekend. Even with the additional demands of traveling with a child, I am usually able to make some beer-centric stops on the way, […]
The decision to focus my reviews on non-IPA styles this year leaves some significant grey areas. Many different beer styles have “hoppy” forms, and some of these have been given the “IPA’ designation (usually for marketing purposes). For example some beers are labeled as hoppy amber ales while others are called red IPAs, even though they are essentially the same style. I think the […]
My favorite addition to Hoppy Boston in 2016 was the monthly Random Beer Thoughts and Links articles that I started writing in September. It is a good forum to share ideas and opinions that come to me over the course of the month and deserve a mention without necessitating a full column. I also enjoy sharing the […]
