The advantages of selling beer directly to the consumer have been well documented, but most breweries quickly realize that there is a limit to the amount of beer they can move on premise without distribution. The Mass Brew Brothers recently wrote an article on the top 25 breweries in Massachusetts by volume, and the vast […]
At the beginning of my last article on the New England Craft Beer Hall of Fame I mentioned my mixed feelings about Twitter, the social media site that features a ton of hate and trolling but also awesome people coming together over their shared passion for a common interest. Beer Twitter has some trolls, accounts […]
It has been an eventful month for Night Shift Brewing. First they launched their new light lager Nite Lite in cans, with the goal of syphoning business away from the big macro brands. It will be very interesting to see what kind of sustained market that beer attracts. Next they announced that they are opening […]
Breweries can find themselves in a tough position when they brew a “flagship” beer for a while and then decide to change the recipe. The need to change the recipe can happen for a number of reasons, a new brewer who wants to make a mark, changing tastes of a customer base, issues with availability of […]
I am a huge IPA fan, but I am getting a little burned out on all of the hop bombs. Most breweries are making multiple IPAs and adding huge doses of hops to everything, it feels like half of the bottles on the shelves at any good bottle shop are IPAs. I understand why this […]
Spring is here (according to the calendar, you wouldn’t know it with the snow storm in Boston today) and I am starting to turn my fridge over to favor lighter bodied and hoppier offerings. To get that process going I have selected American pale ales as the style of the month for April. The APA style can be […]
I am starting a new feature on Hoppy Boston, each month I will pick a different beer style as the focus of my reviews. I’ll still mix it up to keep pace with interesting new releases, but the style of the month will dominate. I am going to try and stick to some less-heralded styles, I want to find more […]
Today is the two-year anniversary of the launch of HoppyBoston.com! I feel like the site has come a long way over the last two years, and I have a bunch of ideas to help take the blog into year three. Thank you all for your support, I am still having a blast writing Hoppy Boston and […]
The business world can be brutally competitive. In most industries each company views any other business that produces a similar product or service as a potential threat. An immense amount of effort is spent on protecting business secrets and trying to corner as large a share of the market as possible. When a competitor falls on hard times it is […]
I am unabashedly pro-Maine. Maine is the state where I was born and raised, and where I went to college. I love the Boston area and consider it my home now, but Maine will always be a special place to me. Now that the weather has started to improve I am starting to plan some summer […]
