March 30, 2015

Brewery Tour: Boston Beer Works - Boston stop 3

March 30, 2015/ Evan

If you search for breweries in Boston, Boston Beer Works ends up being listed a few times. I figured it was a local bar chain and wasn't actively seeking it out. While wandering to a T station near Fenway Park, we stumbled across a little brewery in the window. Putting a brewery across from a baseball stadium makes perfect sense.

Our bartender Andrew gave us the low down on the place, and actually gave us a little tour. They have a fascinating business model for a brewery. They have six locations, each with their own brewery, and they each help make sure all core beers are on tap at all locations. During baseball season the Fenway location brews their Hub Light almost around the clock to keep up with demand.

Their fermenters line the far wall from the entrance and the bright tanks are in a walk-in cooler behind the bar. For the most part, the beers served on tap are directly from the bright tanks.

The Hub Light is a good light beer with almost zero hops. The Back Bay IPA is a nice east coast IPA, a little fruity with a solid hop bite upfront. They have a Rosemary wit, which we were both wary of, but it is very well balanced between the yeast character and the rosemary. We really wanted to try the Golden Road which is a Golden ale made with Mosaic and Sorachi ace, but it was unfortunately out. All of their beers are very accessible and not too outlandish. It was an interesting place. I can only imagine how slammed they get during games.

March 27, 2015

Brewery Tour: Cambridge Beer Company - Boston stop 2

March 27, 2015/ Evan

After Sam Adams and visiting friends, we headed up to Cambridge. Our first stop in Cambridge wasn't the brewery, but rather Lord Hobo.

The Epic Beer Festival in town brought a bunch of beer enthusiasts together, as well as bringing many interesting beers to local bars. Lord Hobo is well known for having an impressive line up of drafts and bottles. They also were featuring a few lines that would rotate through the weekend with beers from the festival. We got to try the Meadowlark IPA from Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project, and a few things from Enlightenment Ales that were fantastic and I completely forget the name of.

We got to talk to a few people working at Lord Hobo about their upcoming brewery in Wobern and their Boom Sauce IPA that has been advertised for a while now in Beer Advocate. They are still setting up the brewery, so it will probably be another two months or so before the first release.

After finishing our drinks, we headed down to the Cambridge Brewing Company. CBC came on my radar after reading about their Banryu Ichi, a sake beer hybrid.

We made dinner reservations and didn't get a chance to actually tour their facility. The bar and restaurant are built around their brewery, so you can view parts of it from just about anywhere inside.

We started off with some sweet potato fries and apple cider aoli while we went over their beer list. We got a few tasters to stretch dinner out and to experience as much of CBC as we could. Our flights included the following:

Belgian Blonde- Pepper and almost a green grassy nose. Well balanced between the hops and yeast spices.

Machinery of the night- A 6.5% barrel aged and blended sour. Had an light oxidized oaky aroma, not a puckering sour, and finishes with roasted malt on the back end.

Kafka's Hat- A Simcoe hopped IPA 6%. A nice and very fresh IPA. Light but not quite floral hop character, that I thought would pair very well with onion dishes.

Tripel Threat- 10% Belgian tripel. Very bready nose. Nice smooth malt texture that was almost creamy. A very solid example of the style.

Vienna Secession- 5.2% Vienna lager. This beer was all malt. The batch may have had a handful of hops in it and it finishes like a floral bread. Not a bad beer but not entirely what I expected from a vienna style lager.

The Grantchester Meadows- 4.9% gruit. Very herbal aroma with a malt backbone and a chocolate nuance.

Blunderbuss Barleywine- 13%. Smells slightly oxidized but still with a lot of hot alcohol. Malty upfront but finishes a bit hot. This would age well in a bottle but feels a little aggressive and young.

I had a nice pork chop for dinner and Lisa got the lobster ramen. Our tiny table could barely hold all the beers and our dinners.

They have a solid offering of food and beers. I could easily see us coming back here. Their experimental beers sound fascinating, I just wish we could have tried a few more of them. The Banryu Ichi hasn't been brewed "in a few years," according to our waiter. I think I will have to attempt one myself this summer.

March 25, 2015

Brewery Tour: Sam Adams - Boston stop 1

March 25, 2015/ Evan

This past weekend we ventured up to Boston. Winter still wasn't over, but we didn't let the weather deter our plans. We woke up early on Saturday for the morning mash in tour at the Sam Adams Brewery.

This is their only tour you can book tickets for, but keep in mind that it starts at 9:40am. None of the tours cost money, instead they take donations for local charities. Your ticket is a fresh label and you walk through a gutted tank to the brewhouse.

The group was lead to a small room next to the barrel room. Here our tour guide Jessica gave us the background of the brewery and the usual ingredient show and smell. This was the first brewery tour I have been on where they tell everyone to take a few hop pellets and crush them by rubbing your hands together. After everyone is covered in hops we are lead back into the brew house. This is the smallest of their three breweries, the other two being in Pennsylvania and Ohio. The tour group seemed rather large for such a small brewery. In Boston they do more experimental beers, especially the collection stored in the Barrel Room.

After the brewing process overview, the fun begins: day drinking at 10am in a brewery. The tour group is lead into the tasting room pictured below. On one wall they have a frame with a bunch of their Great American Beer Festival medals, on the other pictures of Jim Koch and other brewers. Jessica described the process for evaluating beers as pitchers of Boston Lager were passed around to the group. Boston Lager is definitely not a corn-infused macro brew, but it will never be the first beer I reach for. The second of the three tastings was Cold Snap, a belgian wit. Middle of the road yeast profile for a wit with a lot of spices thrown at it. It ends up a little all over the place, but is still an approachable beer.

The morning mash in tour is known to have special beers at the tasting portion. For our third and final tasting we got to try the 26.2, a gose brewed for the Boston Marathon. Jessica described it as a gatorade beer. For the style it wasn't too salty, very smooth and mellow. I have to say it surprised me. I think it's one of the best beers they have made, aside from their sour line (and the utopias).

Unfortunately the tour does not include going into the barrel room. You only get to view it through the window overlooking barrels and foeders. The tasting ends and you exit through the gift shop. They also point out that you can take your beer label down to a bar called Doyle's Cafe where if you order a Sam Adams pint, you get to keep the glass.

All in all the early morning trip was worth it. The brewery is a lot smaller than I thought it would be, but they still make it clear that they are a giant in the craft industry.