NH BrewFest Raises $19k

I got the following press release from Redhook related to their New Hampshire BrewFest we gave away VIP Tickets for. I was happy to hear the event was such a success, and that local organizations were the beneificiaries of significant donations

Here's the presser:

New Hampshire BrewFest Raises $19,000 for Local Organizations
New England Beer Lovers Turned Out in Record Numbers at Redhook Brewery

Portsmouth, N.H. – Nov. 22, 2011 – The third annual New Hampshire BrewFest, hosted at Redhook Brewery on Oct. 15, attracted a record number of attendees and raised more than $19,000 for the Master Brewers Association of the Americas New England Chapter and Prescott Park Arts Festival. The BrewFest featured more than 120 quality brews from 31 breweries as well as food and music. This year‘s BrewFest saw record breaking attendance of more than 4,000 tickets sold with both sessions selling out days before the Fest. Each organization will receive $9,556, nearly $2,000 more than the previous year.

“This year’s BrewFest was a great success and showcased New England’s diverse brewing talents. We want to thank Redhook Brewery for being an exceptional host,” said Jason Perkins, president of Master Brewers Association of the Americas New England Chapter. “The proceeds will go toward an annual two week training course scholarship for brewers, send a brewer to the MBAA National conference, and continue to bring in brewing experts for our quarterly meetings.”

The Master Brewers Association of the Americas works to improve members brewing skills through scholarships and professional training sessions.

“We are proud to be supported by the NH BrewFest; an event that encourages the art of craft brewing,” said Ben Anderson, executive director for Prescott Park Arts Festival. “The funds go directly toward our programs, and have allowed us to continue to grow and expand our offerings, as well as help keep all of our events free of fixed admission.”

As a nonprofit organization, the Prescott Park Arts Festival has presented music, art, theater, and dance to families on the banks of the Piscataqua River for the past 36 years, and was just voted Business of the Year by the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce.

Harpoon Beer Dinner @ Jerry Remy's

Jerry Remy's in Boston's historic Fenway area will be hosting a Harpoon beer dinner on December 14th. It's looking like a fun event with great food and drink. Tickets are $48 per person, plus tax and gratuity, but Friends of Harpoon can receive $5 off the ticket price.

Here are the full details about the event:

Harpoon Beer Dinner at Jerry Remy's Fenway (Boston, MA)
Location: Boston, MA
Date: 14-Dec-2011 Wednesday
Time: 06:30 PM - 10:00 PM

Delicious beer and food have always gone perfectly together, so make sure to come and enjoy the expertly crafted menu at Jerry Remy’s Fenway on December 14th at 6:30 PM during the Harpoon Beer Dinner!

Executive Chef Jacqueline Kelly and Harpoon brewer Jesse Brenneman worked together to create a menu that highlights the flavors of both the food and the beer.

The menu is as follows:

Welcome
Roasted Whole Garlic Bulbs on German Style Wort Bread

Appetizer
Beer and Cheddar Soup, paired with Leviathan Barleywine

First Course
Ceviche of Pacific Northwest Steelhead Salmon, paired with UFO Pale Ale

Second Course
Korean Style Pork Buns with Yuzu pickled onions and salted bacon mole, paired with Harpoon Munich Dark

Third Course
Roasted Long Island Duck Breast Hen of the Woods with Herb Spaetzle, paired with Leviathan Triticus

Dessert
New York Style Chocolate Stout Egg Cream

Is your mouth watering yet? Tickets for the dinner cost $48 per person, plus tax and gratuity. Stop by Jerry Remy’s Fenway or call them at (617) 236-7369 in order to make reservations!

We also have a great deal for our Friends! Just mention that you are a Friend of Harpoon when making your reservation and bring your card to the dinner and you will receive $5 off your ticket price.

You won’t want to miss out on this delicious event!

Location:
Jerry Remy’s Fenway
1265 Boylston Street
Boston, MA

Tuesday Night Tasting - Goose Island Brewing Co: Christmas Ale

Goose Island Brewing Co. – Chicago, IL
Christmas Ale 2011 – American Brown Ale
6.2% ABV, 12 oz and on draft

We first tried the Goose Island Christmas Ale when we visited their Wrigleyville brewpub in Chicago last December, but saw the four pack at Luke’s in Rockland over the weekend. It instantly brought us back to one of our favorite cities to date, and despite their recent agreement to be sold/distributed by InBev (which was incredibly sad news), we had to pick it up.



This year’s Christmas Ale has a rich cherry brown/garnet color, with a light off white, fluffy head. The head lingers for a bit, before dissolving into the beer. We used a snifter style glass to taste the beer, and in the right light it actually looks like a Christmas bulb, which helped us get even more into the Christmas spirit!



The beer has a mildly floral nose, with slightly sweet and spicy notes. You can catch a glimpse of cocoa and ginger, and the brew also has a nice malty balance.

Although the 2011 Christmas Ale is a brown ale, it definitely has a sweeter flavor to most browns. It certainly has the malty characteristics you find in the average brown ale, but it finishes sweeter. Sarah feels that it might be a bit to hoppy, but I think it could use a slightly bigger hop profile. It does end with a moderate bitterness factor though. As the beer warms, as in most cases, the malt begins to dominate as well as increases its sweetness.

The mouth feel of the beer is mild. Despite the color and ABV, this beer is not all that heavy. The sweetness lingers, but not in a bad way.

The Goose Island Christmas Ale comes in a four pack, but is also available on draft (may be difficult to find in the general Boston area). With a mild balance and moderate ABV, you can definitely handle one or two pints or bottles in a single sitting.

Tuesday Night Tasting - Throwback Brewery: Fat Alberta

Throwback Brewery – North Hampton, NH
Fat Alberta Imperial Stout brewed with Peanuts and Cocoa Nibs
10% ABV, 78 IBU, OG: 1.101, 22 oz and possibly soon on draft

Although both Sarah and I tried Fat Alberta, as well as the full line up of Throwback’s beers when we visited Annette and Nicole in March, this was our first try of their beers at home. On our way back through New Hampshire’s seacoast on Sunday, we decided it would be fun to stop by Throwback to pick up a few bottles of Fat Alberta, and to our surprise it was PACKED. Little did we know, the brewery was having an actual launch party for the beer that day.

But, on to the review…



The color of this Imperial Stout is a dark espresso toned body, with a thick, fluffy, chocolaty brown head. The head itself fades rather quickly, but is a really nice color! The aroma…well, the scent of roasted peanuts immediately hits your nose, but is pleasantly blended with a rich chocolate aroma. We have to say, it’s quite inviting.

The flavor of the stout is of rich dark chocolate covered peanuts. Perhaps the hops (notice the high IBU) help give it the slightly bitterness of dark chocolate, but it’s incredibly subtle – fear not if you’re not big into a bold hop profile, because this is nowhere near beers like that.

Sarah and I have slightly altered views on the flavor. Sarah says that the Fat Alberta has an earthy, nutty peanut flavor, which is enhanced by the beers dark chocolate flavor. She also says (which I do agree with) that it’s rare for a “flavored” stout to taste like what it’s supposed to. Southern Tier tends to do a great job at matching their beers to what the label says they’re supposed to be. Unfortunately, other brewing companies fall short of doing that.

While I didn’t entirely disagree with Sarah’s assessment, I thought the peanut flavor to me is creamy like you get with peanut butter. It's not sweet though like in peanut butter, which is probably balanced by the dark roasted malts.

We both thought the mouth feel is moderate to full, but without being too heavy. Most "regular" stouts are rather lighter bodied (despite their color) and low in alcohol, but this is an Imperial Stout and is a bit heavier. Still very nice.

The Fat Alberta Imperial Stout is seductively drinkable. It is incredibly smooth going down, and simply tastes amazing. Be careful though, as the brew clocks in at 10% ABV and can easily sneak up on you. If you're drinking this by yourself, you can probably put down the bomber, but it's also a great beer to share with a friend!

Make Mine a Mead!

Mead, also called honey wine, is made primarily from water, honey, and yeast – and then different flavorings like vanilla, cinnamon, orange or berries and spices or whatever kind of flavor combination sounded interesting/delicious to the mead maker. It has basically the same alcohol content as wine and to me it tastes a little like those honey-straws I used to see as a kid – which come in the same wide array of flavors. Only the mead has alcohol in it, so in that way it is actually a step up from the honey straws.

Adam and I spent Saturday night in Portland ME and one bar we had heard a lot about was Novare Res Bier Cafe – famed for its Belgian beer and local brew selection. I was immediately drawn to the Blueberry Mead from Maine Mead Works because when in Maine, one must try something that involves blueberry. It was incredible and led me to order the Dry Hopped Mead immediately after, also a stellar choice. I knew that I would be leaving Maine the next day with at least a couple of bottles of mead to try.

After checking out of the hotel on Sunday morning, we popped next door to Downeast Beverage Co. to purchase some souvenirs. Lucky for me, they had a nice supply of mead from Maine Mead Works (though not the blueberry – boo!). I selected the Lavender Mead and the Dry Hopped Mead to come home with me and could not resist opening up one of them last night.



The Lavender Mead from Maine Mead Works smells deliciously of, guess what? Lavender! Not in your face guest soap Lavender but mild and sweet and almost a little spicy lavender. In fact the slight “edge” that Lavender has really cuts the sweetness of this honey wine. It was very fragrant and smooth – which is why I thought it would be best served in a tulip style glass (the glass pictured is actually an “Ice Wine” glass we purchased on our honeymoon).



I think this would be a great addition to a tea party, maybe served with Madeleines or scones. It is also, and I speak from immediate recent experience – an excellent before bed beverage.

Stay tuned this week for more reviews from our trip to Portland, including our experience at Baxter Brewing Co. in Lewiston, ME and Throwback Brewery in North Hampton, NH!

Visit Maine Mead Works
51 Washington Avenue
Portland, ME
(207) 773-6323

2011 Infinium Pre-Release Party

Last Thursday night the Boston Beer Company celebrated the upcoming release of the 2011 Infinium Ale by hosting a pre-release tasting at their brewery. This is the fourth event over the course of the previous week, and the second one I attended, and could’t have been more fun.

I brought my buddy, and occasional Guest Blogger Mike Micalone, as well as my buddy Mike Talley along with me, and from the moment we walked in I knew we were going to have a great time.


Mike Talley next to a 134 bbl wooden fermenter

There was a special pre-gala portion of the event set aside for media personnel, such as bloggers, as well as the spot local celebrity, which was held inside the Barrel Room Collection room within the brewery itself. Meg, one of the reps Mike Micalone and I have run into at the AHA Rally, MA BrewersFest, and Beer Summit/Sam Adams Octoberfest, guided us to the room, where we saw some familiar faces. Brian Aldrich from Sea Coast Beverage Lab, Sean from 2Beerguys.com, Becca, Lindsay, and Heather from MA Girls Pint Out were all inside enjoying the Infinium and light spread that was laid out.

After about 15 minutes of socializing, Jim Koch came into the room to everyone’s delight. He right away came up to myself, Mike Talley, Brian, and Sean, introduced himself, and asked for feedback on this year’s Infinium. He was genuinely interested in finding out our thoughts on it, which I thought was incredible, considering whom he is.



Jim then gave a brief speech, giving the 30 some odd people in the room an idea of how they came about collaborating with Weihenstephan on the beer (which was quite amusing), the process of making the beer itself, and the specific purpose behind the particular style of beer that Infinium has developed into. After his chat on the beer, he then introduced three of the Boston area’s finest mixologists, who had each concocted “beer-cocktails” specifically using the 2011 Infinium Ale.

Ran Duan, Mixologist at Sichuan Garden Restaurant and Bar created his Sowa Market Shandy, which consisted of cardamom pomegranate syrup, lemon juice, celery bitters and Infinium. Adam Lantheaum, of The Boston Shaker, made his Germania's Toast with Jo Snow cardamom rose water syrup, aphrodite bitters, and Infinium. Lastly, Bob McCoy, of Island Creek Oyster Bar prepared his Winter Shandy with cinnamon syrup, fresh meyer lemon juice, angostura bitters, soda water, and of course Infinium.


L to R: Ran, Adam, and Bob

All three of these gentlemen spoke as passionate about their beer cocktails as Jim Koch himself spoke about his Infinium Ale. It was really cool to see how psyched Ran, Adam, and Bob were about mixing these drinks for us, and they were all some really interesting drinks for sure. They're not the typical drink I would go for, but it was a great opportunity to try something new.
After everyone gave their speeches, the rest of us continued to mingle, take pictures, and meet some new people. There were some folks from Yankee Brew News, as well as Brewing News, which all have a vast knowledge of the regional breweries and brews, which was nice to chat back and forth of where we had each been as well as spots I need to check out. As it turns out, and I knew to a certain extent, that there are many places in Vermont that I must visit in the next year or two.

Dan Hausle of WHDH TV, Channel 7 in Boston made an appearance as well, sans camera crew. I introduced myself and managed to chat with him for a good 10-15 minutes. As it turns out, Dan is a craft beer lover, and according to his profile on the WHDH website he's also a homebrewer (I wish I knew that last night). It turns out he's from Buffalo, NY as well, so it provided a good opportunity to talk sports as well (and make fun of him for his teams performing rather poorly at times).

After hanging out in the Barrel Room for a while, we headed into the brewery and other tasting rooms to get a few more samples of some of the other fine offerings by Samuel Adams. While in the tasting room the Mikes and I met Chris, a military veteran who currently works as the building manager at the Boston Beer Company's corporate headquarters, who happened to be helping out pouring drinks. We shared a few funny stories about trips to Cooperstown, NY and where to find Old Fezziwig on tap - we're still waiting to see where in the Boston area you can find it (I've never seen it on tap). Once we find out, we'll make sure to share with you!

Overall, it was a great evening. Jess, Meg, Chris, and Jim all made this night a really enjoyable experience that I hope to partake in again sometime soon.

Infinium Ale will officially be released next week, and should retail for around $20. Last year I managed to try a few bottles, and really enjoyed it. This years is equally as good, if not better than last year's release, and is definitely a bottle you can enjoy with friends.

Tuesday Night Tasting- Baxter Brewing Co: Stowaway IPA

Baxter Brewing Co. - Lewiston, ME
Stowaway India Pale Ale
6.9% ABV, 12 oz cans and on draft

This was the second beer I've had from this all-canery brewery out of Maine, with the first being their Pamola Xtra Pale from a few months ago. I have to say, I couldn't be happier with the Stowaway IPA. The first time I had it was back in September when I was in Portland, ME, and found it on tap. It's equally as good in a can!



The Stowaway pours a pale mix of orange and red hues. It's nicely carbonated with a light, foamy head that rests peacefully on top of this hoppy treat. The aroma is vibrant! It's hoppy, floral, and you can pick up the maltiness of this brew. It even has a faint sweet scent to it as well.

The flavor is down right enjoyable, which backs up the aroma with a great balance between the malt, hop, and bigger characteristics. It finishes with a nice floral and slightly malty ending, certainly not dry, but gives you a feeling that you just want more!

The mouth feel on the Stowaway IPA is moderate. It's quite bold, which is what I like in an IPA. The balance between the ABV and IBU fits in perfect for this brew.

Without a doubt, the drinkability level on this beer is high. This is by far one of my new favorite regional IPAs, and Baxter Brewing has a winner and keeper with this beer. Any hop head must try this beer, so keep your eyes out for it. Baxter's beers are popping up all over Massachusetts, so it shouldn't be difficult to find.

Sarah and I are spending this weekend up in the Portland, ME area, and have plans to make the trip to Lewiston to visit the Baxter Brewing Co brewery. I'm also excited as I'll be able to pick up their newest release, Amber Road, while we're there. I've been told it's a great time, and I don't doubt it!