Craft Beer Cellar Turns 1!

Happy birthday to Craft Beer Cellar! One year ago today, Kate Baker and Suzanne Schalow opened this quaint little craft beer store in Belmont to hundreds of thirsty patrons. One year later, they are still growing and celebrating the greatness that is beer!

Yesterday, Kate and Suzanne sent out an emailed newsletter detailing how they plan on celebrating. Here is a list of events for today, from the newsletter:

12 to 2 Peak Organic Brewing Company
Co-Owner Rob Lucente will be tasting us on their newest brew, Local Series MA, boasting all MA ingredients (take that ABCC)! Also, Rob should be properly honored for christening our space . . . he was the first person to bring us a beer, for samplin', of course.

2 to 4 Cape Ann Brewing Company
Tom Ryan, First Mate O'Sails, will surely have his fish net strung all over the darned place, but that's definitely one of things we love about these guys - they are passionate.

4 to 6 Mayflower Brewing Company
Christiana Bencivenni will be rockin' some Thanksgiving Ale, and should be noted for being the first person to bring us coffee, when we were still rippin' down walls.

6 to 8 Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project
Martha Holley-Paquette, Co-Founder, Dann Paquette, BrewMaster, and Anya, Captain of all Things Pretty, will be towin' the rubber on our anniversary, and what a class act of a brewery to do so; awesome in so many darned ways! PS: Our #1 selling beer since day one is Pretty Things Jack D'oR!

Aside from the tastings, the ladies have some other surprises in store for those who visit throughout the day.

Sarah and I first visited Craft Beer Cellar in February, and have been back several times since then. However, what stood out to me more than their incredible selection is that Kate and Suzanne are ridiculously generous and genuinely kind people. As you may recall, Sarah and I were asked to set up a beer tasting as part of the 2010 Cure Me I'm Irish event. In addition, we gathered up donations to be raffled and auctioned off. Suzanne and Kate didn't think twice about getting involved, and donated several gift certificates to their store, after literally meeting us once. We knew we had crossed paths with great people.

What also adds to their awesomeness was also contained within their email yesterday. It read, "...we've decided to get behind a couple of local organizations, in 2012, in hopes that the little we can give will help in some small way. The idea is very simple, we do good, and well, we do good by giving back. We'll be donating 10% of our net profits to these two organizations, for the year:

Belmont Food Pantry
https://sites.google.com/site/thebelmontfoodpantry/

and

Belmont Affordable Shelter Fund
http://www.town.belmont.ma.us/Public_Documents/F00010DFC/housingtrust/index "

This just really stands out as a good company helping their community, and it makes me happy to read that.

If you have an opportunity to get to Craft Beer Cellar today to take part in their one year anniversary, I definitely suggest you do. If you can't get there today, make it a priority to go sometime soon. You WILL NOT be disappointed, I guarantee it.

Happy birthday again to Suzanne, Kate, and Craft Beer Cellar!