Boston-based brothers Jason and Todd Alström founded BeerAdvocate with the motto “Respect Beer.” This weekend, they’ll celebrate some of the world’s most venerated barley-based elixirs at the BeerAdvocate’s 7th annual Belgian Beer Fest. The event kicks off on Friday, September 9 with the intriguingly named Night of the Funk, which has already sold out, followed by open Saturday, September 10 sessions from 1 - 4:30 p.m. and 6 - 9:30 p.m. at the Cyclorama. It’s the biggest fest they’ve thrown yet, with 78 brewers pouring well-over 200 beers from brewers and importers at over 40 booths. The selections also include some specialty beers brewed by New England’s own Allagash in celebration of the Fest. So why all the hoopla around Belgian beers? “You'll have to attend the fest to find out,” Told told us. Tickets for Saturday sessions are on sale now, $50 per session; $65 VIP.
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“Um, excuse me? Where’s the Natty table?” said one girl to another, both clutching tasting cups and joking their way to the next booth over. Natural Light was certainly not present at last weekend’s American Craft Beer Fest, but 88 other breweries were, each with two to six different brews to sample. Below are a few of our favorites.
Somewhat surprisingly, tickets for all three sessions of BeerAdvocate's American Craft Beer Fest seem to still be available online. The festival has sold out quickly in past years, so if you've never been this is a good opportunity to try tons of beers and get a little tipsy in two-ounce increments. And even if you're not able to snag tickets, never fear: a few Boston Beer Week events are still "on tap" (ha, ha). [Tickets]
Ever find yourself at a bar with so many beers on tap you struggle to make a decision? You wish you could try every one without falling off your stool or otherwise doing something you'd strongly regret the next morning. You leave three or four later, full and warm, but feeling as if you've missed something. The cure for this is simple: The American Craft Beer Fest!
April may be known for its showers, but it makes up for lousy weather in beer events. There are a number of events celebrating the worthy elixir this month from tastings to all-out beer festivals. Below are a select few to wet your taste buds.
When the weather vacillates between vicious snowstorms, chilling
rainstorms, and frigid days of skating down the sidewalk, there's only
one thing we want to do: hibernate. Unfortunately, the real world
beckons, and we must trudge on. Here are a few events in the next
few weeks to get you out of the house.
It’s that holly jolly, manicky panicky time of year again. At this point, with just less than a week to finish up your holiday shopping, it’s a little late to be puttering about on the Internet. But have no fear, there are other options when buying for the beer lover on your Secret Santa list. First and foremost, there is the option of going to an actual physical store to buy something (gasp!).
Chocolate and beer. What would the world do without the Belgians? To celebrate their accomplishments in at least one of those categories, people will be flocking to The Return of the Belgian Beer Fest next weekend, October 16th and 17th.
The weather may be bad for sunbathing, but it’s always good weather for drinking beer! Several events are slated for July in the New England area that will properly celebrate the beverage.
We’ve been living a carefree, tax-free lifestyle in the world of liquor for a while now. That all could change soon. Lawmakers finalizing the 2010 budget are proposing a hefty tax on alcohol. They have raised the general sales tax from 5% to 6.25% and are now applying that to the sale of all beer, wine, and alcohol sold in stores.
It’s summer time and you know what that means: beer festivals sprouting up all over the place. In the next two weeks you can join BeerAdvocate at their always-amazing American Craft Beer Fest, visit the Harpoon Brewery, or ride your bike over to Redbones.
Next week the annual Craft Brewers Conference comes to Boston. This means nearly 2,600 people in the brewpub or brewery businesses descend upon the city to learn about brewing and share information about craft beer. This means a lot of lecturing, schmoozing, and, what else…? Oh, yeah: drinking.
A few beer events coming up that you don’t want to miss:
In light of the fact that there are only 22 shopping days left until Christmas, here are a few ideas for the beer lover on your list. First, as you know, we love beer books. And books make a great gift. Consider anything the late, great Michael Jackson wrote or even the book of what we like to term “beernography,” The Beer Book. BeerBooks.com is a great place to get ideas and is organized neatly so you can distinguish histories from homebrewing guides or from beer appreciation guides.
Every time this Bostonist sits down with a porter or a stout, eyebrows rise in surprise all around her. Is that little girl taking on that big dark beer all by herself? Does she really like strong beers like that? Does she know that's going straight to her hips? Is that a porter of some kind... or a Guinness?
Belgium is a beautiful country. It brings us chocolate, freedom fries, waffles, and a weird molecule sculpture. It brings us the intoxicating idea of the European Union, and the even more intoxicating beverage known as beer. We had the opportunity to savor the incredibly diverse and complex varieties of beer at Saturday’s little Belgium-in-Boston, Beer Advocate’s Belgian Beer Festival.
Bostonist made it to the Night of the Funk at this year's Belgian Beer Fest.
We’d just like to remind you of how lucky you are to be living in New England. Why, you ask? If it’s not the weather, the traffic, or the football team, whatever could it be? Well, the beer, naturally. For whatever reason—possibly the weather and the traffic—New England has a high concentration of amazing breweries and brew pubs. You can hardly finish a drunken stagger without falling over one.
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.
On the heels of the Boston 375 Colonial Ale, brewed in the tradition of beers crafted back when Boston was founded the Boston Beer Company, maker of Samuel Adams beer, will soon launch a new pack of beers called the Brewer Patriot Collection. The four included are the Traditional Ginger Honey Ale, James Madison Dark Wheat Ale (we've also heard described as a red wheat), George Washington Porter, and the 1790 Root Beer Brew. The George Washington Porter is brewed with the same molasses that was used in the Boston 375 but is decidedly darker in color and richer in flavor.
"I keep seeing the word 'hoppy' and misreading it as 'happy,'" says one of our drinking companions, leafing through the NERAX beer list. "You're not misreading," Bostonist replies, between sips of Bishop's Farewell. Our first pint at the New England Real Ale Exhibition is golden, fruity, and, in the end, bitter.