Beer Meets Girl

Beer and Book Pairing!

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 11:41:17 -0400

Do you pour a snifter of Old Rasputin before cracking open Anna Karenina? Do you long for a crisp rye pale ale with your Mark Twain? Do you pop open a cold Bud Light while thumbing through the Yellow Pages?

Well then you are way weirder than I thought. And this event is clearly for you!

Free Beer Tour pairs novels from three badass writers with equally badass selections from Lagunitas Brewing Company. I’m thinking there will be much literary beer cross-conversation. Just think - when you catch me saying something pretentious like “it was aggressively bitter upfront, but the denouement was surprisingly subtle and it had a very clean finish” you won’t know what the hell I’m talking about!

Cicerones, this is the final frontier. What greater challenge exists than pairing great beer with great literary works? I don’t know. I guess I’ll let you know when I’m contemplating Neo-Dadaism while sipping gingerly on a Ballantine tallboy.

This is why I love Sam Adams

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 10:18:38 -0400

This is why I love Sam Adams:

A note to beer snobs:

Say what you will about Sam Adams, Jim Koch is an American Beer Hero. Remember that time he sold hops at fair market value to smaller breweries during the 2008 hops shortage?

Well he’s at it again, this time with the Brewing The American Dream program, which provides microloans of up to $100,000 for startup breweries.

But the program goes beyond just a simple cash infusion. Keep in mind, the average craft brewer is 1 part artist, 1 part scientist, and zero parts businessperson. So Boston Beer Company employees are also volunteering their time and expertise to provide much needed advice and training for new breweries on the business of beer.

Driving home the culture of camaraderie (even amongst the big guns) in the craft beer industry, Koch says they do this to foster “a healthier and stronger industry because of the collaboration.”

Kinda brings a tear to your eye, don’t it?

Suburban Suds

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:58:00 -0400

Suburban Suds:

I’m pretty excited to report that we’re beginning to see more of that sweet sweet craft beer momentum here in Massachusetts! According to Norman Miller of The MetroWest Daily News andwickedlocal.com, A trio of brothers have announced plans to openJack’s Abby Brewing- a full scale production craft brewery (I think) - out in Framingham this summer.

Their brew capacity remains to be seen, but judging from the 4500 square foot warehouse they’re nestling into, this ain’t no nanobrewery.

Just don’t expect to see sixers down thepackiequite yet. For now, they’ll be kegging exclusively, so I’m guessing we’ll start spotting Jack’s tap handles around the local beer bar scene before fall.

What I’m most excited about though, is this “tasting room” business. They’ll be serving up 2 oz. samples of their brews onsite (presumably paired with some good beer conversation), and they hope to be slinging growlers by next year.

Aaaand on a personal note:

An area long thought (by me) to be The Weirdest Neighborhood in Framingham, this new brewery’s location holds a special place in my heart.

This strip of route 135 has attracted a storied legacy of oddball businessmen, from the awkward army-issue bespectacled bike guy at Simple Living Cycles, to that leathery old used car dealer at Framingham Auto Mall with the big gold rings on every finger, to the late great Bill’s Grill, home of the $3 half-pound burger, and forever immortalized byZippy the Pinheadhimself!

Seriously, I can’t think of a way to make that neighborhood any crazier… except maybe by filling the air with the rich malty aroma of boiling wort. So, cheers to the Hendler Brothers. Keep Framingham weird. And beered.

…Man, all this ‘Ham nostalgia is making me revisit my ill-advised dream of reopening The Happy Swallow…

Wicked Friggin Pissa, Massachusetts.

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 11:56:00 -0500

Wicked Friggin Pissa, Massachusetts.:

According tobeernews.org,a recent court decision in Massachusetts has ruled that “laws designed to encourage the development of small breweries” are unconstitutional.

Apparently this includes the self-distribution that was previously allowed for the small-volume guys like Berkshire Brewing Company.

I would really prefer that our best craft breweries not be swallowed up by the 3-Tier Beast. Wouldn’t you?

Twitter: 1 Santa: 0

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:05:00 -0500

Look what arrived in the mail today! A gift from my awesome friend Brandon, who apparently ordered it yesterday when I tweeted about it!

The Naked Pint is a survey of all things beer: from styles to flavor profiles to pairing to homebrewing. It’s penned by two well-respected cicerones from LA who also happen to be ladies. And if there’s one thing I’m for, it’s women in the beer industry in a non-cleavage-bearing role.

In fact, I’m so excited about this read that I’m pretty sure I can excuse the blatant thematic sexualization and the goofy typeface they chose for the body text.

Life and Limb and Limb and Life

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0500

Is this the age of The Collaborative Beer?

All the cool kids are doing it, and none so fervently as Dogfish Head.

Seriously, they’ve bedded all the big guns: Avery, Allagash, Russian River, Lost Abbey… okay, that was for one beer. But even little pistols like BeerAdvocate and Cambridge Brewing have gotten a piece of the Dogfish action.

But will Dogfish know how to handle a seasoned Craft cougar like Sierra Nevada?

Bostonians have only to wait until Friday, when Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head’s little-known love child, Life & Limb, pours for the first time, side by side with its brother, Limb & Life, from the taps at Cambridge Common.

Life & Limb is a strong dark beer brewed with all manner of tree saps, boasting a formidable 10% ABV and 50 IBUs. I’m guessing it’ll be heavy bodied, rich and malty, with a moderate hop backbone. Limb & Life, however, is a “small beer” made by sparging the mash of its predecessor. (Just like Anchor Small) It’s kind of like making a second pot of coffee out of the grounds you used this morning, only less gross. And with booze. The result is a lighter-bodied, sessionable beer with a much more doable 5% ABV.

But this is mostly conjecture - based on the penumbra of a description I found on the Life & Limb website - which is beautiful, by the way (see if you can spot the Dogfish dogfish and the Sierra scroll on the homepage!). I’ll be sure to post a full review after imbibing on Friday.

In any case, if what comes of this collaborative trend is delicious, interesting new beer with a hybrid vigor all its own, then by all means, let this outbreeding enhancement continue, unbridled, until a race of superbeers evolves and takes over the world!

"All during my morning meeting, I was daydreaming about wearing rubber boots and taking hydrometer..."

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:10:58 -0500

““All during my morning meeting, I was daydreaming about wearing rubber boots and taking hydrometer readings.””

- JudithPrietht

The Top 50 Craft Brewers in America (by sales)

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:14:11 -0500

The Top 50 Craft Brewers in America (by sales):

thanks to ultrasupergenius via reddit

Correct me if I’m wrong, but as far as I know, only about half of the breweries in the top 10 have distribution in Massachusetts. That’s okay. My taste in beer, like my taste in music, requires a profound appreciation for the Long Tail

"If you say the words ‘beer can’ in a British accent, it sounds like you’re saying..."

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:03:07 -0500

“If you say the words ‘beer can’ in a British accent, it sounds like you’re saying ‘bacon’ in a Jamaican accent.”

- bendynachos, viareddit

So Come with Me and We'll Go See the Big Rock Candy Mountain...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:10:02 -0500

Ah, paradise. Where the Hobo is Lord!

Speculation has been rampant amongst tattered itinerant beer tramps: Lord Hobo, a mythical 40 tap beer bar owned by Daniel Lanigan (of Moan & Dove fame, and less impressively The Other Side) may in fact be opening at the site of the old B-Side in Cambridge. At some point. Maybe.

Thanks to Andy Crouch’sbeerscribe.comwe are now one step closer to… uncertainty.

Perhaps more importantly, Brother Crouch has also graciously supplied a link to the nascentmenuwhich includes such mystery items as “Pretty Things we’ll see” and “Dogfish Head surprise,” but all in all looks pretty freaking awesome, everybody.

And the food… oh man. If they can pull this off, a choir of angels will descend from hobo heaven to sing its praises. Lord Hobo has the potential to rival Allston gastropub (and my current favorite),Deep Ellum. And the fact that they intend to offer chips and curry might just put them over the edge. This is a standard pub fare that no Boston beer bar seems to understand should be a mandatory menu item (unless you countStone’s Public Housein Ashland).

So we have the who, the what, the where, and the why. We’re just waiting on the when, Lord Hobo. We don’t care about the how.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains you never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol come a-trickling down the rocks
The brakemen have to tip their hats and the railroad bulls are blind
There’s a lake of stew and of whiskey too
You can paddle all around ‘em in a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

I’ll see you all this coming fall in the Big Rock Candy Mountains

The Newest Débutante from Pretty Things

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:49:32 -0500

is no big-haired blonde Texan sweetheart. Word on the street, or at least on Twitter, is that the newest inamorata currently being tended to by Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project is a femme fatale, a mysterious dark maven aptly named Babayaga.

She is a Winter Stout.

The question remains as to whether or not they will be continuing the Belgianesque tradition they have garnered so favorably in their first year of production here in Massachusetts. Or will they delve headlong into the American waters they tested this summer with American Darling, their only purely American style beer (and lager) to date?

Whether she’s subtle as a Belgian, bold and mouthy as an American, or serious and hard-nosed as a Russian, this black beauty is sure to win the hearts and minds of all of her pink-cheeked, fireplace-bound Northeastern suitors this winter.

Keep us warm, Pretty Things.

Say hello to my gigantic friend. I came home from work today...

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:39:00 -0400

Say hello to my gigantic friend.

I came home from work today expecting to find a cardboard box about as wide and half as tall as me. What greeted me in the stairwell was decidedly squatter than I had anticipated. A corrugated cube, of sorts. Assembly required? <shake> Uh… no. Some… one else’s shipment? Uh oh. I tentatively jabbed my car keys into the packing-taped seam and pealed open the box to reveal my brand new 35-quart stainless steel brewpot (hell yes)!

My ambivalence soon gave way to opportunistic excitement as I hefted the monstrosity onto the stovetop and its girth covered, yes, not one, but two burners! Yeah, she’s a little shorter, a little fatter than she looked on the internet. But who isn’t? This can only be good.

Like any cook, I’m worried about getting a good boil on six gallons of water. I’ve only made one homebrew thus far - a summer ale with a manageable three gallon boil. But for my next brew, I want to try the 60-Minute IPA clone, straight out of Dogfish founder Sam Calagione’s book, Extreme Brewing. It requires a full boil of all six gallons, and an ebullient one at that.

I was all ready to set up a propane burner in the back yard, but now it appears as though I can turn out a perfectly good wort in the comfort of my own kitchen. I can blast that sucker with two gas burners, plus - the extra surface area provided by the pot’s ample diameter can only work out in my favor, bubblewise. I suppose I should do a trial boil with my stop-watch and six gallons of plain ol’ water, but I’m prepared to say this is excellent news. Today is the first day of fall in New England, and from here things only get… colder.

I’m a lady who LIKES her beer. Typical of my millennial...

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:21:24 -0400

I’m a lady who LIKES her beer. Typical of my millennial instincts, I have a hard time being excited about things in earnest, without the cruel dampening effect of a sour, generational cynicism, or at least some amount of absurd irony. But beer, well, what is it to be so fervently devoted to the craft, culture, and enjoyment of something so easily stigmatized as a terrible vice? For me, it is perfect.