American Craft Beer Fest: Our 6-Pack Picks
With over 100 brewers pouring over 500 craft beers, there's no way you can try them all! We also know, however, that once you get in that room at the Boston World Trade Center and see all those taps the best laid plans can go to hell. With that in mind, we're going to give you our recommendation for our favorite 6-pack of beers that will be at American Craft Beer Fest. These are the six we're most excited about...the rest are up to you!
Bear Republic Nor'Cal Pale Ale
At 4.8%, this American Pale Ale has more depth of flavor than many IPA's twice its size! An assumed large dose of late hops gives it a great hoppy flavor and aroma that is matched by few craft beers, and the dry finish means you can drink it over and over again. Thanks to the lower alcohol, you'll be able to drink a few more samples than if you stuck to the Double IPA's and Imperial Stouts that have been all the rage in craft beer lately.
Boulevard Brewing Company Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale
OK, so we'll admit that we've never had this brew. But we love Saisons! And, from what we've heard, this is one of the best of it's kind brewed in the United States. At 8% abv it's no all-day-drinking beer, but we say you should try this out for sure!
Cisco Brewers, Inc. Pechish Woods
Again, this is one we haven't tried before. But it's a sour, wild ale with peach added. How could this be bad? Plus, it retails for right around $18 per 750ml bottle, so this is a great chance to check it out before plopping down that kind of investment. We've heard good things, and other sour peach ales have been good so we're feeling positive about it until we taste otherwise.
Mayflower Brewing Company Summer Rye
If you don't live in Massachusetts you don't have access to this self-distributed craft brewery. Their Summer Rye, a Belgian-style hoppy rye beer, was one of the first widely available session beers in Massachusetts and, at 3.8% abv, it's got the crispness you crave on a summer day and the flavor to stand up to the type of brews that get all the hype from those that don't know better.
Notch Session Brewing - Everything
This is perhaps Massachusetts' best kept secret...and at the rate Chris Lohring, owner and head brewer, is going it won't be a secret for long. Everything they brew is under 4.5% abv but is brewed superbly and full of flavor. For now only the Pils and Ale are bottled, but this summer he'll release the Saison (a cask of this, dry-hopped with hops grown by Drink Craft Beer's Jeff Wharton is tentatively scheduled to be at our 5th Birthday Party New England Tap Takeover at Stoddard's Food & Ale) which we're particularly excited about. That said, the Pils is a truly amazing interpretation of the unfiltered Czech Pilsner style. Keep coming back to this booth. You can because of the low alcohol by volume, but you'll want to because of how good it is!
Peak Organic Weiss Principal
Weiss Principal is this organic brewery's imperial version of a hoppy hefeweizen. It's far more drinkable than the 8% would suggest, but not so overly-hopped that you miss the defining characteristics of the yeast. We love Peak, and we think you should too!
Bonus Breweries
We realized that choosing only one 6-pack may have been a bit limiting, as there are just too many great brewers showing up at this event. Like we said, we know the best laid plans can go to hell fairly quickly, so here to breweries you need to check out without any specific beer recommendation...especially if you're not from New England:
Sixpoint Craft Ales
Smuttynose Brewing Company
Clown Shoes Beer Company (Massachusetts one-off brand that has grown into a real local phenomenon...they're expanding their markets every day. Know who they are before they hit your town)
Sebago Brewing Company
Lawson's Finest Liquids
Prodigal Brewing Company (Near-legendary former brewer for Thomas Hooker, his newest project focuses on German-style lagers)
Duck-Rabbit Brewery (Dark beer specialists)
The Tap & Haverhill Brewery (If you're from the area, beg John to brew the Berliner Weiss)
And there are just too many more...If we missed you, we're truly sorry but we'd have to list literally a half to two-thirds of the breweries here if we had to list all the "not to be missed" beer companies. There are great things happening in craft beer right now, so just come to the fest and enjoy the ride. It's going to be tough to make too many bad choices. And, at 2oz per pour, it's fine if not every choice is perfect.
We'll be at the Saturday 1pm session wearing our Drink Craft Beer shirts. Feel free to say, "hello." We look forward to meeting some of you. Cheers!
Add a commentDrink Craft Beer Turns 5!
Wow! We can hardly believe it ourselves, but this month (June 2011) marks 5 years since we started Drink Craft Beer. The whole thing started as a conversation between the two of us about starting a MySpace page about beer (remember how MySpace actually mattered 5 years ago?). Five minutes into that conversation we scrapped the MySpace idea and decided we would think a bit bigger...we were going to build a website! We didn't know how to build one and we didn't know what we were going to write about (aside from beer) but we knew we loved craft beer and thought it seemed like a great idea. Being a tad impulsive, we owned the domain name within 15 minutes of the conversation starting. And so, Drink Craft Beer, the very site you're on right now, was born.
Over the last five years we've had some amazing experiences. We've driven all over the country for beer (twice!), we've met a bunch of amazing brewers, we've tasted some phenomenal beer and, perhaps best of all, we've met a ton of really fun people! We'd like to think that this is just the beginning for us, though. In five years we've seen some amazing trends within craft beer and from where we're sitting things are only poised to get better.
What we really want to say, though, is "thank you!" Thank you to all of you who have made this site possible. We had no idea when we started this site that so many people would get involved. Thanks to the friends who have been roped into helping out at our events, thanks to the people who have come out to those events, thanks to those who read our site, thanks to you who follow us on Twitter or on Facebook, thanks to all the brewers and people who work in the industry, thanks to all the beer writers and beer people we've met who have supported us...and anyone else we may have missed, thanks to you too!
We can't have a birthday without a party, though, and you better believe that we're going big for our Number Five! We're finalizing the exact details, but we're happy to say that we'll be celebrating this event with a big night of New England Craft Beer at Stoddard's Food and Ale in Downtown Boston on Thursday, June 30th! We're going to take over their taps with an amazing selection of New England Craft Beer! We're going to have a charity silent auction! We're going to be giving away some really cool stuff! And more! So come enjoy a pint, or several, with us at Stoddard's Food and Ale in Downtown Boston the night of June 30th and help us celebrate Drink Craft Beer's 5th Birthday! Formal event page to come with more details. We're looking forward to celebrating and toasting face to face with many of the people who have made this Drink Craft Beer thing such a success!
RSVP here to let us know if you'll be coming to celebrate with us...it's not binding, we just want to have an idea of how many of you we'll get to meet!
Cheers,
Devon and Jeff
Oh yeah...and for those that have been here before you might notice the site looks a little different today. This is our little present to ourselves. HUGE thanks our good friend Brian, the awesome designer behind all of our branding, including the logo and new site.
Add a commentMemorial Day Beer Roundup - Kick off your BBQ with Some Craft Beer
Memorial day is special for two reasons. In many ways it signifies the kick off of Summer, the first of many great BBQs to come. But it also means the release of lots of great Summer beer! People often ask us what we’re drinking, so we’ve put together a roundup of what will be in our coolers this Memorial Day weekend.
Sixpoint Sweet Action & Bengali Tiger
Who doesn’t want a beer called Sweet Action? We’ve loved Sixpoint beers for years now, the trouble was they were tap only with the exception of the rare bomber. But as of this week everything has changed. Sixpoint is now canning many of it’s very tasty brews and, after trying them this week, we’re hooked. If a 16oz tallboy of craft beer doesn’t scream BBQ we don’t know what does. Sweet Action is a nice balanced beer, the cans we picked up were crazy fresh, you could smell the hops as soon as you popped the top. This isn’t a super bitter beer, but rather one with nice light hops and great hop aroma, another thirst quenching refreshing option for your festivities. We also picked up some Bengali Tiger, their IPA. The hops in this are nuts, it tasted like someone had just put some fresh lemon zest in our beer, we mean that in the best way possible. You can’t go wrong picking up either of these.
Notch Session Pils
Notch is a relative newcomer to the craft beer world, but brewer and founder Chris Lohring has been brewing for over 20 years. Notch Session has set out to make great American session beer (4.5% ABV or less). We love this new trend in beer, that’s not to say we don’t still love our double IPAs but you can’t drink those all afternoon (we imagine that may sound like a challenge to some of you). The Pils has been one of the great standouts for us, in fact it’s the best Pilsner we’ve ever tasted. It’s super crisp, hoppy and just plain delicious. Anyone who’s a fan of Victory’s Prima Pils should gives this a shot. This particular beer comes in at just under 4% ABV which is a good thing, because you’ll want more than one.
Narragansett Summer
By now you’ll notice we have three canned beers in our lineup, so you’re either thinking “what’s up with the cans?” or you already know the many virtues of canned beer and are on board. We’ll save the long speech today, but in short cans keep beer fresher (think mini keg). We LOVE canned craft beer and this is a great beer to help please some of the non-craft beer drinkers and craft drinkers alike. This is very light and refreshing, your friend who normally sticks to bud light will probably dig this. BUT WAIT you will too! They’ve added Citra hops to this summer brew which gives it an awesome aroma and nice subtle bitterness. Normally we don’t say keep your beer super cold, but in this case we do think it adds a little something, so don’t be scared to keep this one on ice.
Full Sail Session Lager
There’s always someone who just doesn’t like bitter beer, and you know what? That’s OK. Full Sail Session is just pure simple lager at its best. No pretenses, nothing fancy just damn tasty beer. There’s an awesome little surprise under each bottle cap, though. As you open each bottle you’ll find a picture of a rock, paper or scissors under each cap. We can absolutely attest that this turns into great fun, especially after the entire 12 pack has been consumed. The stubby bottles also stick out. Overall this is a fun and tasty addition to a BBQ.
Mayflower Summer Rye
This may be one of the greatest creations of mankind. Yes perhaps that’s an overstatement but it’s not that far off. At 3.8% alcohol you can sip on this all afternoon without comprising your horseshoes skills, an important thing for many Memorial Day BBQs. Low ABV aside, this beer is fantastically crisp and refreshing, we look forward to this one every year and can’t recommend it enough.
Peak Summer Session Ale
For those of you that like a bit more hops we haven’t forgotten about you. This beer is a Summer Wheat/West Coast IPA hybrid. At 61 IBUs this def has a great hop kick, tons of Amarillo hops mean great citrusy aroma and flavor. You’ll get hints of lemon and grapefruit from the hops and you’ll be reaching for a second before you even know it. This is another beer we look forward to every Summer so go get some while you can!
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Would You Rather Drink Craft Beer At A Bar Or At Home? Poll
When you're drinking craft beer, you for the most part have two options for where you're going to drink: at home (including a friend's home) or at a bar (assume a bar with a good craft beer selection).
At home you can drink whatever you want and you pick the selection. You choose who will be there, but it's hard to meet new people. You control what's on the TV and/or activities that are available.
At a bar, they choose what's on tap but often have rare tap only beers. Someone pours for you, cooks for you and cleans for you. It costs a little bit more. You have no choice over who else is there, but you can meet new people.
There's obviously a lot more factors that play into it, but what we want to hear is which do you prefer? Having some beers out at a bar, or a your or a friend's home? As usual, vote below, then let us know what you picked and why on Twitter, on Facebook or in the comments at the end. Cheers!
Add a commentDo You Homebrew Beer? Poll
With the 5th Anniversary of DrinkCraftBeer coming up in June, we'll be homebrewing our 5th Anniversary Beer tomorrow, May 14, 2011. (We crowd sourced the style to be a Black IPA session ale and the hops we're using: Citra, Amarillo and Centennial) This got us thinking, though. How many of our readers homebrew? A lot of people read our How to Homebrew Beer article, but how many of our fans on Facebook, followers on Twitter and readers of our site actually homebrew? Well now you can tell us!
As usual, vote below, then let us know what you picked and why on Twitter, on Facebook or in the comments at the end. If you're homebrewing this weekend, let us know what you're brewing too! Cheers!
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