Boston has been a hotbed of new brewing companies lately! It seems like every week we have a new brewer or a new beer from a Boston-area brewer hitting the shelves. It was only recent that Pretty Things and Notch Session were new and now those are established brands with people like Backlash Beer Company, Mystic Brewery, Idle Hands Ales, Night Shift Brewing and more springing up. We love it! And the latest to release their beers? Somerville Brewing Company (aka Slumbrew) out of, you guessed it, Somerville, MA (which is super-local to the Drink Craft Beer homebase)!

Jeff and Caitlin (pictured holding their brews below) from Somerville Brewing Company had their first big tasting today at Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont, MA (where I picked up my bottles), and there was a serious crowd (see the picture two below)! I managed to sneak in a few words with them, so you should see an interview on Drink Craft Beer soon, but left them to tend to the teeming hoards wanting samples of Flagraiser IPA, Happy Sol Hefeweizen and Porter Square Porter (not being released for three more weeks). But, with all that said, I know what you’re thinking...how is the beer?! So, without further ado...

Somerville Brewing Company Slumbrew Happy Sol Hefeweizen

As a hefeweizen should, this one pours with a big white head with amazing cling that looks fluffy like a sunny day cloud. The beer is hazy hazy hazy orange. It looks almost like thick orange juice, which makes sense!

You can really pick up the wheat and the yeast in this one! There’s a great balance between these two ingredients, it’s not a banana bomb like the style can sometimes devolve into. It smells smooth, yet a little minerally or chalky from the wheat, which is awesome. Oddly, the blood orange barely comes out at all, maybe just a little citrus aroma. Again, awesome, as too many people make fruit beers where the fruit is RIGHT in your face. Great to see some restraint on this one!

The balance comes from the smell and right into the taste! The yeast and wheat blend really well and the beer has a smooth, dry quality that you can only get with wheat and a not-over-the-top alcohol level (this one is perfect at 5.5% abv). The orange is handled amazingly, with just a hint to the 1,000 blood oranges that gave their lives for this batch of beer and the coriander could be merely a part of the yeast spiciness for all I know. It’s always great to see brewers use ingredients that don’t smack you over the head with their presence! The orange comes out mostly in the aftertaste as a light almost-glaze on your tongue. This would go great with a lot of different foods, like chicken or fish. This and some Chinese take-out? Sign me up!

Somerville Brewing Company Slumbrew Flagraiser IPA

The Flagraiser has a clear amber body with a sizeable cream colored head that last and lasts! Big bubbles settle to a decent covering that doesn’t go away with an almost solid looking top to it. If you can’t tell, it’s looks damn appealing!

There are some serious hops in this thing! Great aroma! It’s almost like walking into the hop room at a brewery, it’s not crazy bright citrus or pine tree...the air is just thick with hops. There’s a bit of sweetness in here, too, so you can tell that this one will definitely have a bit of a malt backbone to it, which is especially nice at the nights get colder here in Boston in October!

Upfront there’s a bitterness, but it’s not harsh at all. The malt swoops in right away to balance it and what you get is a bitter IPA that cradles your tongue in a hammock of sweet, smooth malt. Rather than citrusy or piney, as I mentioned, these hops are just dank. They were dank when I smelled them and they taste dank too. It’s pretty awesome, as that’s a tough flavor to nail! The aftertaste is all bitter, with a little of the hop citrusy flavors that many have come to expect from American hops. I’d say drink this one with some steak that has a hefty coating of salt and pepper. Delicious!

As a secret (not-so-secret) sidenote: Try blending these two brews 50/50. What you get is a mildly bitter, orangey, wheaty IPA. Cheers!

To our dismay we awoke this morning (Friday) to find a light dusting of snow covering the ground. While it's a little early for snow in our opinion a chill in the air always puts us in the mood for some bigger, maltier, heavier beers.

Imperial stouts and barleywines that we may not have even thought of picking up a month ago suddenly seem just a bit more tempting. Between the two of us, we each have our preferred cold weather libation, which got us thinking...What do you prefer when the weather turns cold? We want to know, so vote below then tell us what you voted for and why on Twitter, on Facebook or in the comments below the poll. Cheers!

Boston has been seeing a lot of new breweries lately. Also, we've seen quite a few new saisons being brewed. Combine these two trends, and you've got Backlash Brewing's newest beer, Convergence, the second beer they've released and a so-called "Super Saison" because of its higher alcohol than regular saisons.

I remember talking to Helder (owner of Backlash Brewing) about how the head on his first beer, Groundswell, didn't come out as big and pillowy as he would've liked it to...well Convergence does not have that problem! While it doesn't quite have the gigantic head we'd expect from an authentic Belgian ale, we didn't expect it to. That said, it's got a serious 2-3 finger white, fluffy head that doesn't want to die. Well done on that! Sitting on top of the surprisingly light, golden beer with just a slight haze, this is the spitting image of what a delicious brew should look like...I wish we didn't have to take pictures, because I just want to drink it!

As far as smell, what is a saison supposed to smell like? A little spicy and yeasty? A good hint of grain? Dry? Yes to all of those, and that's exactly what Convergence smells like! At 7.5% abv we're happily surprised to find no alcohol in the nose, either. If the image made us want to drink this, the smell is making us want to gulp it!

With higher alcohol saisons (think anything over about 5% abv, it's a workers beer after all), the first thing we worry about is the beer tasting sweet and thick. Perish that thought with Convergence! It's fairly dry and pleasantly light on the palate. The wonderful yeasty goodness that we look for in saisons is here in spades with a carbonation of micro-bubbles that coat the inside of your mouth like a carbonation carpet. As you think on this one a bit more, you'll find a bit of fruit in the taste as well as pepper from the yeast. Honestly, and this is high praise, you can taste a bit of Belgium in this beer. It's one of the better U.S. takes on the saison style and we're happy to have tried it. Massachusetts has been a major hot bed of saisons lately, and this hangs with the best of them. It’s a great alternative to the lower alcohol Notch Session Saison, especially with the colder nights of New England winters coming. Grab some now, before it’s off shelves!

The first beer fest either of us here at Drink Craft Beer ever went to was when Jeff poured beer at the 2005 Maine Brewers Fest for the now defunct Sparhawk Beer Company. Since then, we've gone to, and worked at, many fests and traveled the country looking for great craft beer. With that said, the Maine Brewers Fest still holds a special place in Jeff's heart as his first fest. It's not a fest for beer geeks where there are tons of rare, never before tasted beers. It's a fest for people who love to drink craft beer and want to get a feel for the local Maine beer scene.

We've scored two tickets to the Evening Session of the fest and we're giving them away to one lucky winner! The fest takes place on Saturday, November 5th and the evening session is from 6:30-10pm. To enter to win, all you have to do is sign up for our email list below. We'll pick one winner and email you to get an address to send tickets to. Winner will be announced on Thursday, October 20th.

This fest sells out every year, so make sure you don't get left without tickets! There's also a VIP event on Friday evening where you'll get to meet and interact with a bunch of the brewers! Go to the Maine Brewers Fest website to buy your own tickets.

You must be 21 to win. You only win tickets. Transportation, any lodging you need, or anything else is not included.