We've been fans of Somerville, Massachusetts' Taza Chocolate for a while now. We did a beer pairing with them in February 2008 and found their chocolate to be amazing with a variety of beers. When we heart that Watch City Brewing in Waltham, MA had partnered with them to brew a chocolate porter we knew we had to go check it out. The beer, dubbed "Chocolate Thunder" incorporates 45 pounds of Taza's 70% Dark Stone Ground Chocolate and 5 pounds of Taza's Chocolate Mexicano Vanilla Bean. This is  one really delicious beer! Any fan of Taza will be able to pick up the signature complexity of the chocolate in the brew as well as a raw subtle sweetness that helps round out the finish. While this is certainly no light beer it manages to be very drinkable and doesn't feel heavy. Aaron Mateychuk, the brewer at Watch City, has managed to blend the roasty malt flavors with the bitter dark chocolate notes without making the beer itself feel overly bitter.

Alex Whitemore, of Taza Chocolate, was on hand for the release. While this beer is amazing on its own, we were lucky enough to pair the beer with the chocolate which really brings it up another notch. While we can't guarantee the brewpub approves, bring in some Taza with you to the bar and do the pairing yourself, trust us on this one. The Chocolate Mexicano Salted Almond goes especially well with the chocolate in the beer, creating an almost peanut butter and chocolate experience.

On a side note, having tasted some of Taza's new chocolates, look out for an all new event with DrinkCraftBeer and Taza Chocolate coming soon. Stay tuned for more details. 

Some of you may remember my recent trip to Mayflower Brewing Company in “Professional Brewer for a Day: Mayflower Brewing Company.” In that article, I stressed that professional brewer is very different from homebrewing. Not necessarily in the chemistry of how the beer is brewed, but in how your day goes. I told you that it’s not just sitting around with friends while you have a few beers. It’s not barbecuing or relaxing and ordering pizza. The ingredients cost a lot of money and you have to know you can sell it. There is no down time, there’s always work to be done. I went on and on about how it’s different and it’s a job…

Well that’s going to make this one of the most ironic articles I’ve ever written. I was invited back to Mayflower Brewing Company a week and a half after brewing with Matt Steinberg for a special brew day. We ended up having a day of hanging out with friends and drinking amazing beer, plus we ordered pizza. When there was down time, instead of cleaning tanks, we socialized and drank fresh Mayflower beer plus rare or limited beers from Cambridge Brewing Company, Portsmouth Brewery and Rock Bottom Boston that head brewers Will Meyers, Tod Mott and Scott Brunelle, respectively, hand bottled or put into growlers.

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The Official Beer of St. Patrick's Day has always seemed to be Guinness Draught Irish Dry Stout. Well we wanted to see if we could find a better beer for this holiday's festivities. Obviously, it needs to be a stout. You must be able to drink it all day without getting too intoxicated or too full. After all, nobody likes the drunk kid and you don't want to be too full to eat the corned beef and cabbage dinner (at least you don't want to be too full to eat it at our party, it's delicious). Given this criteria, we're about to answer the question: Is Guinness the Best St. Patrick's Day Beer? We'll start with the benchmark:

We review its competition below after the jump...

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On Monday, March 1, 2009 I got out of bed at 6am. I proceeded to dig my car out of more than a foot of snow, with more still falling, so that I could drive an hour from downtown Boston to Plymouth, MA… only the drive took me two hours as I inched along at 25 mph on a 65 mph highway. You may ask, “Why the early morning? Why drive through a dangerous blizzard when the governor has told all non-essential workers to stay home?” Well, on this day I was going to Mayflower Brewing Company to brew with Matthew Steinberg, Director of Brewing Operations, so that I could see what a day in the life of a professional brewer is really like. The first thing I learned is that brewers can’t work from home. Also, in most cases, nobody can fill in for you. Beer has to be brewed and packaged, so you have to brave the elements and get to work. Have you ever had to drive two hours in a blizzard because you HAD to get a batch of homebrew done? 

To go back to the beginning for a second, this is a story I’ve been toying with for a few months now. I love to homebrew and have definitely thought, “Wouldn’t it be great to brew for a living?” I know a lot of my homebrewing friends have had the same thought as well. I mean, think about it… what do you do when you homebrew? Sit around in the backyard with some friends. Drink a few beers, either homebrewed or craft brewed. Maybe barbecue? Enjoy the weather while you mash, sparge, boil and cool. There’s a lot of downtime and it’s a great way to spend a relaxing weekend day. Imagine doing that 5 days per week AND getting paid for it?! I figured this vision was way too good to be true, so I asked Matt Steinberg if I could come spend a day at Mayflower and shadow him. I wanted to get the real story. You know what I learned? If it sounds too good to be true, it is. For ease of reading, and to prove my point, I’ve broken the story down into the normal steps of homebrewing.

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Terrapin Side Project Volume 1 - Hop Shortage Ale

Appearance: Orangy amber with very light white head. Heavy lacing as the head disapates
Smell: Floral hops with a nice fruity finish...this smells REALLY good.

Taste: Mmmmmm hops...delicious delicious hops. Very crisp and clean with a nice balanced malt sweetness. One of the best hoppy beers we've had in a long time. It's just bursting with hop flavor yet isn't overdone at any point. Its perfectly bitter, with a complex hop flavor and citrusy finish. If you were lucky enough to buy this drink it; if you see it buy it, it's that good. We really wish this was in 6 packs, and available all the time.

Portsmouth Brewery Kate the Great Imperial Stout February 2009

Appearance: Black
Smell: roasty

Taste: Roasty sweet chocolate, slight hint or dried fruits. Much sweeter than a lot of imperial stouts, but not too sweet. It actually comes over as incredibly smooth with a really nice mouth feel. Dangerously drinkable given then abv which is unknown but assumed to be around 10%. We'd split this 3 or 4 ways, it's really good, but the sweetness can get a bit overwhelming after 8 ounces or so, almost to the point it feels a little sugary.

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