Final Thoughts on the American Craft Beer Fest

Attending the American Craft Beer Fest came at a cost... A 4 hour round trip with today's gas prices, 45 minutes in line, $40 spent each (not including parking, food, and the previously mentioned gas), soar feet and some serious exhaustion and even a little dehydration...

Was going to the American Craft Beer Fest really worth it? I've had a full night's sleep to and plenty of time to ruminate over it and I can honestly say, YES IT WAS!

I posted my initial thoughts last night here, but I think Kenn summed it up perfectly when he said...

"It's not about spending $40 for 4 hours of 'little beers'... it's more about the experience..."

Kenn enjoying the experience...

Getting there not half the fun, but not bad...
Logistically, getting to the fest was a breeze, traffic was light, parking was ample, and the ticket purchasing and line waiting portions of the day were very tolerable. Parking was ample, anywhere from $10 - $12 for the day, or if you had plenty of change in your car, you could fill a parking meter and get enough time for the session for about $3-$4. Next year, consider bringing quarters.

The mean man scares me daddy...
I caught a brief glimpse of Todd Alström, while I was purchasing my ticket, and really wanted to say hi and snag a photo op with him. But he was really busy, and I wasn't sure he ever forgave me for that time I mistakenly broke his forum rules and "pimped my blog" there. He had given me a stern talking to, and there's only so many Mia Culpas a guy can give... Actually, I'm kidding... Todd was very gracious, and forgiving... I'm really just a little afraid of him and his facial hair, not to mention that crazed look in his eyes... LOL!

Who are these people?
Waiting in line gave us a chance to size up the crowd we would be spending the early afternoon with. We decided that if you "added everyone up and divided by how ever many folks were there" you'd get an average guy in his mid to late 30s with moderate to high beer knowledge, looking to broaden his horizons a bit and have a good time, essential someone much like myself. Now don't get me wrong, there was also a fair amount of female beer drinkers in the crowd, as well as some older and some younger folks. One guy commented that this would be the place to go if you were a single lady looking for a guy. Especially if your idea guy loves beer. So there you go ladies, this may be the venue for you!

Tons of beer and tons of people...

Can you feel the excitement?
There was a very tangible sense of excitement in the crowd, waiting for the doors to open and the event to begin. Everyone was nice, I did not encounter a single drunken idiot, not even in the mirror! As the crowd got larger, and the room got a little louder, folks remained calm, jovial and courteous. If someone bumped into you, they smiled and said they were sorry. Unplanned discussions on various beer related topics would pop up between small groups of friends and complete strangers alike. It wasn't uncommon for a random person to say, "Hey have you tried this beer yet? You gotta try it, it's perfect!"

There was a wide variety of beers and breweries to choose from. Some had longer lines than others, but the lines moved quickly. The good folks serving up their beers were more than happy to discuss the finer points of products to help educate.

Unsung heroes we salute you!
The real unsung hero of this fest were the lowly rinse bucket swappers. Now I don't know if that's and official title, but that's what I called them. In between samples, you go to one of the many rinse stations set up through out the fest. There you find 4 cooler jugs of clean water to rinse out your sample cup with. After swishing a little clean water around, you dump it into a bucket. Those buckets quickly filled with a mixture of beer, water, and what ever other unpleasant substances folks decided to dump in them. And they filled up quickly. This is where the lowly rinse bucket swappers would swoop down and save the day by changing out those nasty buckets and refilling the all important water jugs. With out them, the fest floor would be a sticky, stinky mess and it would be nearly impossible to get a quality untainted sample. Heroes I tell you, heroes!

What did we get out of this day?
We got the chance to hit the open road, leave town and have a little adventure. Once at the fest we got to try a wide variety of beers in styles we may not have been overly familiar with. Kenn learned that he really enjoys Porters and Stouts, but not so much the Imperial Stouts. I got to try some interesting things like blended beers, oak aged beers, etc...

Beers of note from my point of view were:

• Terrapin's Oak Aged Rye Square
• Opa Opa's Raspberry Wheat
• Clipper City's IPA (shockingly balanced enough even for Kenn's IPA hating self)
• Allagash's Tripel
  
• Bear Republic's Crazy Ivan (a blend of their American Red and their IPA, delightful)
• Ithca Beer's Cascazilla (smooth, hoppy and well balanced)
• Ommegang's Bier de Mars (an amped up version of their Rare Vos).

My thoughts on twittering the event
So I gave Twitter another try, and sorta twitter blogged my way through the fest... Looking at the text messages I sent, I'm not sure if this little service I provided was of any use or entertainment value to anyone who may have checked it out.

That being said, it served a purpose for me. I didn't need to take extensive notes to remember the event. The twitter updates serve as memory joggers for me the next morning. That being said, there's only so much you can say in a sentence or two while typing on your cell phone, especially if you have clumsy monkey hands like me...


I may try to do something like this again, in the future, but I'll need to have some twitter updates planned. In other words, an outline to follow and twitter on. Cover the scene, what is the atmosphere at the event, twitter that, and then check that off my list. What was my first beer of the event, twitter that with a 1 sentence review, and check that off the list. Ask Garrett Oliver something deep, twitter that and his response, then check that off the list, etc.

My free-form Twittering amounted to a lot of gibber jabber to someone that was not there next to me all day long. I need to take a more organized approach next time. But all those people, all that beer, it was all very distracting, and a lot to encapsulate via twitter updates... Besides, the more I typed, the less beer I could enjoy...

Next time I'll bring extra video cards and get a couple short interviews as well... It was a learning experience, but over all, still a lot of fun...

American Craft Beer Fest: Good Times

I just got back from the American Craft Beer Fest in Boston, and boy are my arms tired! Somethings I learned the hard way:

• Sandals are not the best thing to have on your feet if you're going to be standing and walking around all day
• Twitter updates from your phone to your blog sound cool, but in retrospect, may not be all that interesting to those that read your blog
• Beer "celebs" are really just normal people
• 4 hours of unlimited 2 ounce beers is really more than enough time
• After 8 samples, it becomes hard to really appreciate the subtle nuances of the beer

Twitter updates seemed like a good idea, but in retrospect, I'm not sure...
What do you think? Was it worth while doing the Twitter thing?

All that aside, I had a blast! If you get a chance to attend one of the beeradvocate.com sponsored beer fests in the future, I recommend you take advantage of the opportunity. This was a great chance to sample a wide variety of beer, and hang out with some great folks!

Look, it's Garrett Oliver, no really, that's him! He poured me a beer!

My first stop was the Brooklyn Brewery table. Garrett Oliver poured me a beer and we chatted very briefly. Kenn tried to get a photo of us, but my camera was a little slow, so I got the photo below with Garrett right before he went on stage to give his talk. A very approachable guy, but I'm not sure what he was thinking with that cowboy shirt. Are those hops? LOL! That being said, my second chin decided to pay me a visit for this photo. Good times!

What's worse the shirt or my double chin???

The folks at Flying Dog Brewery continue to impress me with their kindness. I recognized Steph, that kind and generous young lady from Flying Dog, that continues to send me samples for my reviewing purposes. They were kind enough to let me go behind the counter, breaking a ACBF rule, so I could get a photo with them. Thanks guys, you're the best!

Flying Dog Brewery, by far the nicest people I've had the pleasure
of meeting in the beer industry to date!
Thanks for all the samples Steph, please keep them coming...

I have no idea who the folks pictured above are, but I was very impressed by their pretzel necklaces. Although if one had a pretzel necklace and the other a mustard necklace it may have been a little more impressive. A few folks had these edible pieces of jewelry on them, a great idea for the fest. A few other folks had necklaces that would hold their sampling cups for them, brilliant! I really needed something to keep my cell phone close but out of hand...

Ken enjoying a beer from Sherwood Forest Breweries...

The four hour window for the session created a false sense of urgency. "We only have 4 hours, we need to try everything, and fast!" In reality, 4 hours was more than enough time to try what ever you wanted. But I think if I were in charge, I'd make it an all day event for the same price. I think folks would take their time more and really think about what they were drinking. I'm not saying folks weren't, but with four hours, and so many beers to sample, I could see how the samples could creep up on you...

American Craft Beer Fest's dark secret, the hidden crappers!
All that "recycled "beer has to go somewhere folks!
Out houses inside... Who da thunk it?!?

What no one wants to talk about... The dark underbelly of the American Craft Beer Fest consists of a rows of secret out houses. In door out houses, no less... Oh the horror! Actually, I would have expected that finding a place to relieve myself would be a challenge, but not the case. These guys are pros and planned accordingly...

While exploring the dark underbelly of the fest, I decided to do a quick interview of two fest volunteers. "How do you like working the fest, is it something you'd do again or recommend to others?" They seemed to like working the fest, but my camera card ran out of space. We may never know how this interview ended... But seriously, there were a lot of folks working to make this a great event. Some even had the pleasure of dumping out the rinse buckets... Not glamorous, but critical none the less. Let's give all those worker bees a big round of applause!

Kenn's brother showed up, he's a real beer geek...
Is that a secret family hand shake?

Kenn and I have very different tastes in beer, but with so many choices, it really didn't matter. We even found a few beers we could agree on...

A very special moment, Kenn (who likes malty beers, and I (a recently converted hop-head), found a beer we could both agree on... Terrapin's Oak Aged Rye Square, bold but balanced! Good stuff!


Kenn, the English teacher who likes a good stout,
enjoys a Shakespeare Stout from Rouge...

While Kenn was getting cultured, I had to try the Hop Obama. I never pass up a novelty that involves politics and beer, even if the brand of politics differs from my own. But I gotta ask, where are the McCain Ales? What gives here people? Conservatives dig quality beer too... I decided to reach across the aisle and try one of these tasty, left leaning, hoppy brews. Not bad, not bad at all! I had a Presidential IPA (a beer made in honor or Bill Clinton) last week in AR, and now this week a Hop Obama... What has become of me?

This is me, having a Hop Obama... Tasty, good stuff...
"Yes we can," enjoy a beer despite our political leanings!
Ah, look at that hopeful look in my eyes...
I like the beer better than the politician.
Why don't they make conservative beers?

This was a great event, but I'm tired. This is a short post, because I'm frankly out of energy...

Next year, if I attend, I'll get a hotel room in the area and make a night of it. I will say that 4 hours of beer sampling exhausted me. I must be getting old. I could have used a nap after the session, to get my second wind, before taking on the city. Kenn and I hiked over to the Bell in Hand for one more beer and some wings before heading home.

Kenn hydrates at the Bell in Hand...

All things considered, I'd say a good time was had by all... If you get a chance to try a fest like this in the future, by all means do so... It offers you a great opportunity to explore your beer tastes, try new styles and new breweries. Give it a try! Some final thoughts (a day later) here.

Cheers!

American Craft Beer Fest (via Twitter)

I'm heading out to Boston this morning to take part in session 1 of the American Craft Beer Fest with a couple of friends. 75 American brewers, 300 craft beers! What more could a guy ask for?

Stay tuned for updates via Twitter...
I've never really used Twitter, minus a few times I goofed around with it as a proof of concept. But today I will try to update my blog, via my cell phone and Twitter, in part to chronicle my adventure, and also to take electronic notes that I will use to flesh out for a full on blog post later in the week. (If I have the time that is...)

This little exercise in electronic media may or may not be of interest to anyone out there in the beer blogging world. I notice I some how gained 4 followers on twitter, although I really never did anything with it. so maybe, at the very least, you four lonely souls will gather some sort of insight into what makes this guy tick...

At any rate, I've moved my Twitter updates to the top of my blog, just above this post as a matter of fact! (Unless you looking at this days later after I've posted again, but you get my point.) If you get bored, stop in and keep tabs on me and the American Craft Beer Fest!

Cheers!

American Craft Beer Fest: Good Times

Final Thoughts on the American Craft Beer Fest

Harpoon v. Brooklyn breweries Super Bowl bet video

Harpoon Brewery in Boston challenged Brooklyn Brewery in New York to a Super Bowl bet...and lost. With the Giants win over the Patriots 17-14, Harpoon had to let Brooklyn tap their lager at the Boston brewery.

Either way, this is a pretty cool deal. I think it's great that the two companies could have a fun bet. It's good that they don't take themselves too seriously. Besides, this is good publicity for both companies, a win-win...

This Aint the Bud Bowl: Brooklyn Vs Sam

About a week ago, I asked the question, what beer will you be enjoying during the Super Bowl this year. I decided to take RealSimple.com's lead on this and do something creative with beer this year. Rather than matching up Brooklyn Brewery's Brooklyn Lager vs Sam Adams Boston Lager, I wanted to pit Brooklyn vs an offering from Harpoon.

The two breweries actually have a fun bet going on the game...

When it was determined that the New England Patriots would be playing the New York Giants in the Super Bowl, Harpoon president Dan Kenary dialed up his friend Steve Hindy, president of Brooklyn Brewery, and arranged a wager. The wager: if the Patriots win the Super Bowl, Brooklyn will pour a keg of Harpoon IPA in their tap room and if the Giants win, a keg of Brooklyn Lager will be tapped in Harpoon's Boston tap room.

"It's going to be a great game on Sunday and I wish Steve and all the Giants fans at the Brooklyn Brewery good luck," says Kenary. "I look forward to having a Harpoon IPA in the Brooklyn tap room with Plaxico Burress next week."

On Monday, the brewery that has won the wager will ship a keg of their flagship beer to the losing brewery for tapping on their draft system. The beer will remain on tap until the keg is empty.

Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, Harpoon's Lagers are limited to an Oktoberfest (not currently available), and their Kellerbier (not currently available). Please correct me if I'm wrong here. And matching a :ager vs an IPA just didn't seem fair with what I have planned.

So, I ettled on Brooklyn Lager vs Sam's Boston Lager. Not to worry, I'm no snob, and I like a good Sam just as much as the next guy. Besides, Sam Adams was both a "brewery and patriot." And Brooklyn makes a Giant beer...



Call it my version of the "The Bud Bowl" minus the crappy beer. I plan on having the guys that come over tonight do a mini review and blind taste test during the half time. I'll try to post some quick video clips and let you know who wins.

It'll be interesting (at least to me) to see which beer comes out on top, and if the winning beer matches the winning team! Keep in mind, I live in CT, in the center of the state, a little place I call "FunkyTown", which is smack dab in the middle of NYC and Boston. It's basically the "DMZ" for New York and New England. This should be interesting... I hope...

Check back after Half Time!!!

What beer will you enjoy this Super Bowl? Why not a Home Brew?

It's almost time for the big game again... If you're like me, when you hear Super Bowl, you probably associate the term with a few things besides football like: funny commercials, hanging out with friends, lots of pizza and wings, and of course, beer! But what kind of beer?

Let's face it, the Super Bowl is basically a big beer commercial, isn't it? I mean if you're not pigging out and slurping down a few bottles of beer in your living room, then you're probably at the local sports bar doing the same, hopefully in moderation. Hint, if your dog starts demanding sausage, you've probably had a few too many, avoid the angry squirrels...



OK, I love the big beer commercials, too funny, but sadly, I would venture to guess that most beer drinking Americans suck down a fair share of mediocre macro beers during the big game. You know the usual suspects like Bud, Bud Lite, Coors, Bush, etc...

What about you? What beer will you be enjoying this Super Bowl Sunday? Will you go for a cheap macro or will you pull out the stops and get something with a little more quality this year?

RealSimple.com has some unique picks for matching beers to NFL teams.

Whose cider you on? At your Super Bowl party, give your guests a selection of beers that reflect the names, the mascots, or the hometowns of the competing teams

In this case, they'd recommend:

New England Patriots: Samuel Adams Boston Lager VS New York Giants: Brooklyn Lager.

Well that makes sense. Not a bad idea all in all, but some of the other beer to team match ups over at RealSimple kind of stink. No offense to my good friend Lando Calrissian, but Colt 45 is some nasty stuff...


Teach your friends a thing or two this year...
Here's another thought... If you home brew, chances are you have some left over beers kicking around from your last batch or two. Invite some of your friends over for the game and have a homebrew tasting during half time. Take the opportunity to teach your non-beer-advocate friends some of the finer points of enjoying beer. Use these references from our friends over at beeradvocate.com to help educate your buddies! (How to taste beer, How to pour a beer, How to review a beer, etc) You could even do some homebrewing during the big game, if you're so inclined...

What ever you drink, do so in moderation, enjoy the game, and drive safely...

Homebrewbeer.net's Boston Beer Tour Part 3

All roads lead to beer...

Check out Part 1 and Part 2 if you haven't already done so...

My original plan for the Boston Beer Tour included some stops at historic pubs along the way. A great way to sample some of Boston's bar scene, while learning a little about Boston's past. But, the best laid plans of mice and men...

After our Boston Brewery (Sam Adams) tour, we skipped Doyle's Cafe and high-tailed it across town to the Harpoon Brewery. Some of our fellow travelers were too anxious to wait for the next tour. I was a little annoyed at my master plan being altered, but that's par for the course when it comes to group activities and group dynamics.

The gang in the Harpoon tasting room.

Beer Tour Tip # 1
If you're really into beer, and the plan, beware who you take with you. And if your friends are single guys, keep in mind the single females that are with you will have more influence than you will. That maybe true if the genders are swapped, but I couldn't be sure. If anyone has any insight, feel free to chime in.

What did we miss? Not really sure...
Doyle's Cafe has supposedly seen quite few famous people, including politicians, enjoying a good pint. It's also served as the backdrop for different TV shows and movies. My thought was it was near the brewery, it's recommended by the brewery, it's a well known cool place to grab a brew and some good bar chow, and it's historical. Why not stop in? I thought a bite to eat would slow the pace of the day down just enough so we could get Harpoon with out the fear of too much beer, too early in the day. But "they" wouldn't have it... So off to Harpoon we went, while I bit my tongue...

It was intended to look like we were holding the sign up,
instead we look like Barker's Beauties from the Price is Right.

We got to Harpoon a little early for the next tour. Too early for the anxious females in our group, although they were in a hurry to get there and skip Doyle's Cafe. If we stuck to my plan, we would have had a good lunch and then made it to Harpoon for the slightly later tour at exactly the right time, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

When we last left our hero, he was battling the diabolical Lobster...

A brief interlude
We were there early enough to walk down the street and grab a beer at a small deli, but not early enough to sit and eat. The funny thing was, they wouldn't serve us beer unless we ate something. So we ordered a small order of coleslaw and a handful of plastic forks.

May I have this dance?

We didn't eat the coleslaw, but after a few dances with the giant lobster in front of the place, we drank the beers over a brisk walk back to Harpoon. This was a little challenging as we had to avoid the attention of the nice Boston Police Officer in the next parking lot who would probably take issue with us drinking beer on our walk. We got back to Harpoon just in time for a quick pit stop and then we were ready for the tour.

Behold the power of beer!

What ever you do, don't push the red button!

"You mean the brewery is all mine now Mr. Wonka?"

Onto to the Harpoon tour!
Now to be clear, Harpoon doesn't really do tours, not really. We could look at brewery floor from behind a red rope, and the folks that worked there gave us a run down of the company's history and current state of affairs. After that, they opened the tasting room and gave us nearly unlimited free samples of 12 different beers they had on tap. (Remember kids, drink in moderation, it's about quality and no quantity!!!)

Harpoon has this cool wall of beer set up.
Beer cans from a tone of different companies, it was beautiful, I had to take a few photos.

Man! We look a little light in the loafers in this pic!

It was at this point that Dave, Erik and the ladies chipped in and purchased me a cool Harpoon tap handle as a thank you to me for planning the day. What a cool surprise! Frankly I was touched... I felt like Sally Field wining the Oscar, "You like me, you really like me!"

"You like me, you really like me!"

Just a cool photo I took of a ship just out side where we had lunch

The gang at lunch, and more or less the untimely end of my Boston Beer Tour...

When the party, I mean tour, was over, we went to a restaurant down the street, instead of the Bell in Hand, the next stop in my original plan. Apparently the girls were in a hurry to eat, and then move on. Much to the chagrin of my buddies, they had other plans for the evening. Plans that didn't include the rest of my beer tour, or any of us, but did include visiting an ex-boyfriend and crashing at his apartment after a night on the town with him. We discovered all of this as we ate our lunch. They were rushing us, so they could move onto phase 2 of their diabolical plan.

"Don't make me destroy you!"

Now don't get me wrong...
Dave and Erik weren't trying to have a romantic interlude with our female friends. And the girls were a lot of fun, I'm exaggerating here for comic effect. (mostly) A little artistic license if you will. But they did kind of alter our plans significantly and they did end up more or less ditching us for the ex... But to be honest, we all had a hand in ruining the day. It all happened the night before...

Beer Tour Tip # 2
Don't go out really late the night before an all day beer tour. Because that's exactly what we all did the night before this tour. A friend's sister was leaving for her home country the next morning, so we treated her to an American night out on the town. Completely stupid. The lack of sleep, the heavy meal, it all kicked in, and it was time to take a nap.

The plan is all history now...
I had planned on taking the lead from this guy, and finishing the day off with a historic walking beer tour. We weren't going to take his tour, but we were going to wing it and do it on our own. Instead, we ended up getting a couple hotel rooms, napping and then hitting a dueling piano bar near Fenway (LOL!). The next morning we drove home. Anti-climactic isn't it?

On our way to the hotel we drove by "Cheers"...

Looking to the future...
I still think the over all plan is a solid one. And I will make another attempt at the historic beer tour starting with the Bell in Hand. But I think I'll hold off until next year. Now, I have my eyes focused on Connecticut and New York City.

Stay tuned!

And they lived happily ever after, the end...

Waiting eagerly to crack open my brew

My most recent attempt at home brewing is nearly complete. The beer has been bottled and has been conditioning in basement for about a week or so now. I should be able to crack one open in next Sunday and see how I did. Although I'm told a few extra weeks of conditioning would make it all the better.

In the mean time I've got to get back to the gym. After a 4 day stint on sick leave, and then a 3 day weekend of none stop work, there hasn't been a great deal of time in the schedule for me to workout, and I've been eating poorly the entire time. We ordered Chinese food last night, That General Tso gets me all the time...

I think I'll take my beer's lead and spend the next week conditioning. In this case I will not be sitting in my dark basement waiting for my taste to improve, but I will be working out and more closely monitoring my diet (beer included) over at my traineo page.

Stay tuned for my brew results and the final installment of my Boston Beer Tour.

Homebrewbeer.net's Boston Beer Tour Part 2

A photo in the dimly lit tasting room. We snagged the table next to the bar and shared it with an older couple and a younger couple. The great thing was the older couple was not intent on drinking as much beer as possible, leaving more for us! Those poor saps behind us didn't get a table because they dragged their feet getting into the tasting room! Suckers!

Another photo in the tasting room. Dave was trying to work the female tour guide/bar tender, hoping to score another pitcher. No dice, but good try Dave!

The Sam Adam's Brewery Tour

The Sam Adam's Brewery tour is simply a great time for any beer lover. But, before you get touring and sampling, you need to find the place. This is a challenge, even on my second trip to the brewery. (Check out the pics from my first visit here!) My buddy Erik purchased a GPS enabled cell phone the day before and we relied heavily on it to find our way to this beer lovers mecca. Honestly, leave home early, because you WILL get lost, even with a GPS. But the adventure getting there will only make you enjoy the tasting portion of the trip all the more.

Once you get there and park, you find your way to the proper building and get in line for a a mini walking and talking tour of the surprisingly small facility. The tour kicks off with a promotional introduction video featuring the man himself, Jim Koch. It's a little goofy, but it's clear Jim Koch's personality is the other driving force behind Sam Adam's success. (The first being the great beer!)

As the tour goes on you learn about Mr. Koch's family history of brewing and how his great-great-grandfather (a brewer himself from St. Louis) created the recipe that would one day be renamed Samuel Adams Boston Lager. A little later you get to taste some barley, which taste like grape nuts, and you get to smell some sample hops and discuss how the primary ingredients are used along with water to make some fine beer.

There's a brief discussion on beer styles, and the key qualities of beer including taste, aroma, complexity, body, smoothness, finish, and balance. After that, you get to look closer at some of the large vats used to make the beer. But by now the free beer, just a few feet away in one of the tasting rooms, begins to call my name. It's at that moment that I begin to shuffle closer to where I know, from my previous visit, the door to the free beer is.

Now, I want to stress here how important it is for you to take your time, learn from the tour and participate by asking questions. You might help one of your lesser knowledgeable tour mates learn a thing or two. Having said that, I have a trick or two in mind to help you score the most free samples you can get. I'll tell about them, but you gotta promise not to tell anyone about them or where you learned them. It'll be our little secret, ok?

In this group shot you can see the small sampling glasses they give you to sample the beer and also to take home as a souvenir. Not bad, not bad at all. They different words on them, like "taste" or "smell"... I have almost all of them now... How about you?

Getting more beer than your share

Step 1: When the tour starts and the video is played, stay in back.
Step 2: When the group moves towards the barley and hops, get to the front where the tour guide is. Now this is a great opportunity to ham it up with the guide, make a few people laugh and show off how much you know about beer. If that's your thing.
Step 3: As the crowd moves towards the middle of the facility and looks at the vats, get to the back, near the railing.
Step 4: turn around, pull out your ID card, and show it to the guide at the door once the tasting room opens.
Step 5: Haul ass into the tasting room and sit as close to ethe bar as possible.
Step 6: Share the beer with your table, but fill your glass again, before the pitcher moves on to the next table.
Step 7: Not everyone will finish their pitchers, be sure to be helpful and offer to pass them back up to the bar for the next round. (Don't forget to finish the pitcher before passing it up.)

And that's pretty much it. Honestly, it works! You won't get enough to get loopy, but that's a good thing, you have another brewery to drive to. You will get enough beer to really enjoy the quality products Sam Adams has to offer. Keep in mind, they give samples of about 4 different beers to give you a range of their products.


Important! While I did seek out more than my share of the beer, I didn't act like a jerk and nor should you! This is not some college bar hall, and you're not there to get drunk. So, take your time with the beer, and use the proper method for a tasting! Be polite to the others, and make sure everyone got to try the beer before you swipe and extra glass. Don't be a jerk! Now shut up and drink up!

Stay tuned for part 3 of Homebrewbeer.net's Boston Beer Tour. Next stop the Harpoon Brewery!

Check out this Sam Adams audio (pod cast) tour of the brewery!

Hombrewbeer.net's Boston Beer Tour Part 1

Living so close to Boston is great thing for a beer lover. Boston has scores of great pubs, bars and two major breweries. Back in Feb, I set out to tour both breweries and then check out some of the local pubs. Unfortunately I was pressed time, and only hit the Sam Adam's brewery and have few more pints at one of the local bars. But I vowed to return and tour both breweries in one day.

A couple of months ago, I returned to Boston with a few friends in tow and with a 2 phase plan.

Phase 1: Tour both Sam Adam's Brewery and the Harpoon Brewery.

Phase 2: Initiate a mini pub crawl touring some of the more historically significant watering holes in the city.

Sneak peak, the gang at Harpoon's tasting room!
From left to right. Erik, "Mo" & Nicole, Me in back and Dave on the right.

I'll be blogging about this trip as the week goes on, so stay tuned! In the mean time, check out this Google Map I made for my "Boston Beer Tour". The map is a work in progress. More to follow!


View Larger Map

Speaking of Sam Adams...

Check out these photos of "BigDog" Mike, Chris, Shridar and me when we took the Sam Adam's brewery tour a couple of months ago. One of the beers they let us taste was the Boysenberry Wheat, a LongShot winner from 2006, which was MUCH better on draft than it was from a bottle. Sadly, I didn't write a review for this tasting.


That's me and the guys having a toast over a few fresh glasses of Sam. The tasting room was standing room only at this point, but of course we had "front row seats" right by the bar. In fact the tour guide/bar tender snapped this photo.

Here's Chris pouring a glass of the award winning Boysenberry Wheat as Mike looks on...

From left to right: Chris, "BigDog" Mike, Shridar, and me in the Sam Adams brewery tasting room.

That's me and a sloppy pour, I was a little over eager to partake in the goodness. The brewery tour had my mouth watering.

Mike and Chris toast over a couple glasses of fresh and delicious Sam Adams Boston Lager.

Me and two empty pitchers of Sam... That's the tour guide in the background, he has a great job!

I'm planning on making another run up to the Sam Adam's brewery, followed by a jaunt across town to the Harpoon brewery. Two brewery tours in one day, with a great city full of great bars for afterwards. What could be better than that? Stay tuned!!!