Bostonist had barely recovered from the New England Real Ale Exhibition when we realized that May 12th-18th was American Craft Beer Week. Established in 2006 by House Resolution 753, this week celebrates craft brewers as "a vibrant affirmation and expression of American entrepreneurial tradition" and their promotion of "the Nation's spirit of independence through a renaissance in hand-crafted beers like those first brought to colonial shores by European settlers and produced here by the Nation's......

Bostonist would like to offer some advice for future New England Real Ale Exhibition attendees: (1) Buy tickets in advance. (2) Bring plenty of friends, and make sure they do (1). Bostonist did (2) but not (1), and consequently spent two hours over the course of two evenings waiting in line to see the inside of the Dilboy Post VFW just once. There's some incredible beer in there—eighty firkins of it (which is a......

It's easy to lay off the meats when there's a product recall. But the beer? What will people do now that Sam Adams is going through a product recall? The Boston Beer Co. is recalling certain bottles because of glass in the brew. The company posted the following message on its website: During a routine bottle inspection at one of our breweries, we detected possible defects in a small percentage of bottles resulting in the......

You've always meant to start that wine tasting group, right? It's just about the last New Year's Resolution that we haven't broken. Well, now's the time. Introducing Third Thirsty Thursday. The concept is the spawn of the Interweb's wine darling Gary Vaynerchuk. "When you and the rest of your crew each bring a bottle, it's the best way to get started with wine," he said. Your first opportunity is next week Thursday, March 20. Continue......

Music Hometown keytar heroes Freezepop have returned from touring the world (okay, Florida, and the Rust Belt) to once again rock Cambridge, with the help of the The Information, The Main Drag, and Michael Hensley. Middle East Downstairs, 8 pm, 18+, $14. Beer Harpoon will hold its St. Patrick's Festival at the brewery on 306 Northern Avenue. Wear galoshes because the floor may well be slick with beer. Harpoon Brewery, 5:30 to 11:00 pm,......

Music Atlas Sound, featuring Bradford Cox going solo during Deerhunter's hiatus, hits the Middle East tonight, riding a wave of praise for his new project. Cox's hometown weekly, Atlanta's Creative Loafing, raves, "Let the Blind contains Cox's most haunting and sad songs to date. It throbs with delirious depression, and is bursting with powerful, barely contained emotions." For those of you who can handle strong emotions in the bleak winter, Cox is your fella.......

--More fire department turmoil: A panel of union firefighters determined that the alcohol and drugs found in the bodies of firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne in August's Tai Ho Restaurant blaze did not cause their deaths. But the fire commissioner begs to differ. [Boston Globe, background: Bostonist] --While it's good that the mayor is throwing his efforts behind saving Hendry Street from the foreclosure crisis, the housing problems in Dorchester aren't limited to......

Music --The Magnetic Fields, on Valentine's Day? Could anything be better for a first date, or any sort of date? They even work well for a broken heart. Well, only if you got tickets in time. Check the Craig, as this one is a hot ticket. Somerville Theatre, Davis Square, 8:00 pm, $27.50. Good luck getting in! --Drown your Valentine's Day sorrows with a night of indie rock and dancing at Viva Viva's Valentine's......

Awkward Lectures Cory Arcangel's best known artwork Super Mario Clouds turns the world's first scrolling video game into a digital environment of placid repetition. It percolated on the internet and spilled into the Whitney's Biennial, making Arcangel a digital art superstar. But his true calling may have been as a lecturer. Whether the topic is hacking old electronics or copyright; his willful ignorance of art history or his place in it, Arcangel always entertains.......

This Valentine's Day, there's no shortage of options for those whose preferred wining & dining is beering & dining. Cambridge Brewing Company's skeezily-named Night of the Aphrodisiacs starts at 5 p.m. and includes a four courses "with every course built around an aphrodisiac and in some cases two or three": truffled artichoke, oysters, mango, anisette-honey, pinenuts, figs, coriander, chocolate. The beer menu includes Bostonist's beloved Weekapaug Gruit (an ale made with the herbs brewers used......

Music Cat Power will be at the Orpheum. Last time Bostonist saw her, she seemed a little plowed and, with her dark glasses, she resembled country singer Ronnie Milsap. Since then, she's been hanging out with Karl Lagerfeld. She's different every time, but the music is always memorable. 7:30 pm. It's cosmopolitan night at the MFA, and we aren't talking about drinks. The uber-sophisticated Keren Ann and Dean & Britta will perform. MFA, Remis Auditorium,......

Another break-in happened at Romney Headquarters early this morning in the North End. At first blush, it could have been political. The two men arrested by the BPD were from Cambridge, which doesn't exactly show Mitt Romney the love. The pair pled not guilty. According to the DA's Office, they were caught driving from the parking lot after a security guard said he saw them trying to steal computer equipment. When police "removed" them from......

One of your favorite childhood treats is all grown up now. The classic Root Beer Float has taken a decidedly adult turn with the Beer Float. For best results, pair your favorite Stout or Porter with some creamy vanilla ice cream and you've got a delicious dessert that's you need to be at least 21 to enjoy! For wicked local flavor, try combining your favorite locally made brew like this Berkshire Brewing Company Drayman’s Porter......

For the past few months, Bostonist has engaged in a scientific experiment. We've been sniffing around T stops to find out which ones are the most pleasant and which ones are an offense to the olfactory nerves. Each day this week, we'll evaluate the odors you will find at various T stops. And here it is--the complete list of T stops with the most distinct odors: Aquarium: High tide, dolphin pee Airport: Pleather luggage,......

Art House Silent Art Auction Thursday, November 29, 7:00 pm Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, $15 More info The Brattle Theatre is holding its fourth-annual silent art auction so you can do some good for local culture and make your apartment less ugly. Bids start at $35, which is pretty cheap for getting your foot in the door as an art collector. The Brattle has previewed some of the works so you can glance at them ahead......

Two Boston University professors broke the stereotype of uptight, elbow-patched instructors last week when they let their students bring beer to their advertising class. Unfortunately, these cool professors are now in trouble. Angela Marie Latona at the Daily Free Press reports that Lawrence DeLamarter and Dave Schaefer (wait--any relation to el cheapo Schaefer beer?) let students bring beer so they could build an advertising campaign around the product. Their next classes were cancelled. That is......

Here's the overall numbers straight from the BPD and the Herald: Arrests reported by the BPD: 22 Arrests reported by the State Police: 15 Number of cars vandalized on Newbury Street: 13 Dumbass jumping off a streetlight: 1 Beer spillage: Unfathomable Winning a World Series: Priceless While the vandalism was inexcusable (must one set a fire in the middle of the street? really, now?), it definitely could have been worse. Arrests, car damage, and car......

Update: Someone from 1190 KEX News Radio in Portland, OR, just let us know that, while Sam Adams, Mayoral Candidate, isn't using a domain that would annoy Sam Adams, Beer, this very second, his current website "will likely be moved" to www.samadamsformayor.com. And if he wins, his domain will be www.mayorsamadams.com. You could not buy this kind of publicity. The makers of Sam Adams are irritated because another person who happens to be named Sam......

--Hmmmm … a loud party in Allston/Brighton ends with 6 arrested. It couldn't have involved college students, could it? Officers spotted some partygoers toting cans of Natural Ice Beer. Police arrested two people for "Keeping a Disorderly House" and four people for underage drinking. All are guilty of bad taste in beer. --Brookline police are searching for a sexual assault suspect who attacked a woman in her home on Naples Road early Sunday morning. The......

The Weekly Dig just unveiled its new website design. Anything would have been an improvement over the crappy, sluggish site the Weekly Dig had before. You could go make a grilled-cheese sandwich and eat it in the time it took for a page to load. The new site is far more sprightly in terms of performance and design. However, we didn't pay as much attention to the design as we should have because of the......

Sam Adams is the flagship beer of the Boston Beer Company. On the tour of the brewery in JP, they'll tell you that there are a couple of reasons they call themselves "The Boston Beer Company" – the two most compelling – the name was available when Jim Koch started the company and they're located in Boston. A deal was announced today that will put the Boston Beer Company in a position to purchase a......

Elizabeth Hand will be reading from Generation Loss: A Novel at Harvard Book Store on Wednesday, May 23, at 6:00 pm. Novelist Elizabeth Hand has woven together art, music, and mystery in the story of photographer Cass Neary. Neary wanders through a fictionalized version of the New York punk underground, complete with cameos by Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, and she takes photographs of strung-out kids. Eventually, her collection, "Dead Girls," propels her into the......

Some people use the Marathon to showcase their physical skills. Others use it to showcase their drinking talents. The BPD rounded up eight people (!!!) for boozing it up along the edges of the marathon. Most of them got charged with drinking in public or drinking as a minor, but one guy from Brookline probably drew attention to the group because the law got him for "crossing the Marathon route and interfering with runners." --Today's......

--Finally, we have some light blotter news - old-school public drunkenness. The BPD has cheered us up with one of their funniest headlines in recent memory: "Overnight Accommodations Granted to Wild Reveler." At the Breezeway Bar in Roxbury, someone was crossing the line between happy drunk and angry drunk. The angry drunk was trying to attack one person and then "started tapping officers on the chest." Unfortunately, the BPD did not use its favorite phrase......

The Sam Adams Boston Lager you're drinking was likely brewed in Cincinnati, or soon, Latrobe. The tour facility for the Boston Beer Company is within stumbling distance from the Stony Brook stop on the Orange Line – it's a good thing because they're just about to start up the summer season where the free tours happen pretty much every day, not just a few times a week. Today the Boston Beer Company, the parent of......

--As Quinntessa Blackwell died, the victim of a shooting in broad daylight, she uttered the words, "Cedric." And the young man who got shot at Centre and Highland was named "Cedrick." The revenge motive automatically springs to mind. Local media started putting two and two together right away. Boston isn't Dodge City, and, no matter how the movies glamorize it, vigilante justice isn't the best idea. Besides, what if the killer or killers got the......

After this weekend's roundup of 22 teenagers at a ragin' house party, police officers appear to be sensitive to kids being kids. (We wish they would be more sensitive to kids stabbing each other, but we digress.) The latest teen-party-related arrest earns serious points for creativity. Two underage drinkers set up a plan to steal beer from refrigerators in open garages. The Walpole Daily News Transcript writes, "Police think two local teenagers allegedly caught stealing......

The Boston Beer Company is headquartered here in Boston. The test brewery is only a few drunken steps from the Stony Brook station in JP, the marketing and admin happens downtown out of the design center on the South Boston waterfront, even if the bulk of the beer is brewed out of state. The flagship is still Sam Adams Boston Lager and the company felt something was missing – their own glass. We've been drinking......

We know the Herald meant well with the following headline: "Lowell Carpenter Nails Alleged Perv." In short, a good Samaritan who happened to be a carpenter stopped another guy from romancing himself in front of little children at the ice roller rink. Nice pun, Herald. But "nailed" has so many other meanings - the literal meaning, the Stephen Colbert meaning, the dirty meaning, that the Herald's poetic license made Bostonist take pause. Elsewhere in the......

A couple of bars in the Faneuil Hall area tout their age and history as part of the Boston's cultural landscape. The Boston Beer Company has created a whole brand identity using Sam Adams as an iconic brewer and patriot. Yet, it's still difficult or just downright expensive to get a liquor license in the city. The bill was passed yesterday by state lawmakers that will allow 55 new permits to be issued within the......