Drinking in Boston: The Inaugural Beer

A few beer events coming up that you don’t want to miss:

Obama’s Inauguration day! Cambridge Common (which still appears to be the only home of Sixpoint Brewing’s Hop Obama) is holding a celebration on January 20th. Perhaps even more exciting than a pint of Hop Obama is one of Ommegang’s Obamagang Inauguration Ale that Cambridge Common hopes to be serving that night. The beer is described as “a stout gone porter with kriek lambic.” Sounds a little kinky, but definitely worth trying. They also promise that the party will morph into an “Obama-style” dance party (we imagine he’s as great a dancer as he is orator), and they promise they will have PBR in bottles, perhaps for the cheap patriots in the room.

Cambridge Brewing Company is holding a fest of its own a few days later on the 29th: the 5th Annual Barleywine Festival. The 2009 celebration includes not only several of the CBC’s barleywine concoctions, but also a menu of tapas to compliment the beers created in a collaboration between chef David Drew and brewmaster Will Meyers. One of their barleywines, Arquebus, won a gold medal at the 2008 Great American Beer Festival, so we have to trust that Mr. Meyers knows what he’s doing.

Lastly, the widely renowned and celebrated Extreme Beer Festival…is sold out! Gasp. Though this Bostonist is disappointed for those missing out, she is also ecstatic in the “extreme” that people are catching on to what amazing festivals BeerAdvocate hosts. …And that beer is finally getting the respect it deserves. So, if you find yourself now desperately wanting to go to the beer fest (on February 20th and 21st) but didn’t get tickets, don’t break down just yet. Outside of Craigslist, you can also try the “Official ‘I Need EBF Tickets’ Thread” on BeerAdvocate’s Beer Forum. Good luck and better beer!

Photo by VoxEfx on Flickr, used with Creative Commons License