HereForTheBeer.com » Beer Q&A

Slow Fest – A Celebration of Session Beer

Tim Brady — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:49:25 +0000

In April, the first ever Slow Fest was held in Boston, MA. Put on by Dig Publishing (the folks who publish Beer Advocate Magazine), Slow Fest was a celebration of low alcohol beers (under 5% alcohol by volume or ABV). As a big “session beer” fan (a term used to describe lower alcohol beers) I was excited to get a chance to attend this event.

The Slow Fest included over 30 breweries, including some that would surprise you to know brew quite a few low alcohol beers, like Stone and Victory. In addition, the Slow Fest incorporated an element of slow food to accompany the “slow” beer.

Slow Food is a movement that is centered around getting people to be more aware of where their food comes from and taking the time to enjoy meals. It’s essentially the complete opposite of “Fast Food”. A perfect pairing for craft beer, which despite a debate on the definition of the term, really is the opposite of mass produced beer.

The event was a great chance to try a lot of flavorfull beers, perfect as the temperatures rise and session beers become more of what I crave.

Hopefully they will do this event again next year. If they do I will certainly be there, and as always, I”’ be here for the beer.

American Craft Beer Fest ACBF Boston MA 2010

Tim Brady — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 19:49:56 +0000

In this quick episode, I take a trip out to Boston for the night to check out the East Coast’s largest craft beer event – the American Craft Beer Fest.

With over 80 breweries and 400+ beers available to sample, the fest is well equipped to handle the 12,000 attendees that will pass through in the weekend.

I had the chance to talk to the founders of Beer Advocate and this event, the Alström Brothers, Jason and Todd, about this 3rd year event. Even as the doors just opened, they shared expansion plans for next year. The Bro’s have really raised the bar on craft beer festivals and often tailor those events to the craft beer lover. In this case, they share that the ACBF is geared more toward introducing craft beer to those who may not make it an everyday first choice.

Overall the event had that feel to it, but not in a bad way. There was a strong regional representation, with most brands being from MA and the surrounding area. It gave me an opportunity to revisit some of my local favorites, as well as sample some new breweries I had yet to try. I attended the Friday night session, which is usually the quieter of the 3 sessions, and didn’t have to wait long to taste anything. I was impressed that the longest lines were at some of the smallest breweries, a testament to the crowd and the work that Beer Advocate (and other craft beer supporters) do to put focus on these smaller brands.

Overall it was a nice night out in Boston and it was great to see some fellow beer geek friends that I tend to only run into at these events. I look forward to the next Beer Advocate event, sure to be shared right here – on here for the beer!

PS – If you are interested in attending tonight, there are still tickets remaining on the Beer Advocate website.

Brattleboro Brewers Festival 2010

Tim Brady — Wed, 26 May 2010 22:55:12 +0000

We are happy to say that the first ever Brattleboro Brewers Festival was this past weekend and it was a great time. 40 breweries were represented, with many brewmasters and owners actually coming out to show their support and pour. Big breweries and small came together with great music from local favorites Peter Miles and Terrapin Island as well as great food from Vermont Country Deli (who actually created 7 dishes with beers from the festival), North End Butchers and Top of the Hill Grill. Thankfully the weather held out and it was a beautiful day for a festival.

Check out our video to see a quick overview of the event (we were pretty busy during and didn’t get to give it a real “hereforthebeer” production). There is also a great series of photos of the festival taken by Mallory Finnley over on her Flickr page.

If you were able to come out for the fest, we would love to know your thoughts – post a comment here or on facebook. If you didn’t make it this year, we hope that you will be able to make it next year. Keep an eye on the Brattleboro Brew Fest website or right here on here for the beer for the details. Cheers!

Northshire Brewery in Bennington, VT

Amy Brady — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:08:23 +0000

It’s been a great year for Vermont beer. Since January of 2010 Vermont has welcomed three new breweries including Northshire Brewery in Bennington, VT; The Brewery at Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, VT and Hill Farmstead Brewery in Greensboro, VT.

In this video we meet Earl McGoff from Northshire Brewery. Earl and his friend Chris opened Northshire Brewery as a passion project. The both continue to hold their full time jobs, opening the brewery in a garage building right behind their current employer. Talk about taking your home brewing hobby to a larger scale. These guys scored a used 7 barrel setup from a brewery in Florida and are just putting beers into the market this month.

Their flagship beer is the Equinox Pilsner, which is kept in the fermentation tanks for a full 8 weeks. Earl realizes that this is not the most cost effective way to produce a Pilsner, but in his opinion it is the right way to produce a Pilsner. At 4.2% ABV this is the perfect summer beer. We hope you enjoy meeting Earl as much as we did and if you would like to try this beer, stay with us at Forty Putney Road B&B where we have it on draft. Or you could just try it at one of the other few lucky pubs to have it. But why not make a weekend out of it with us at our inn :)

Speaking of making a weekend out of it – this weekend we will have the opportunity to meet Allan Van Anda the brewer at The Brewery at Trapp Family Lodge and Shawn Hill from Hill Farmstead Brewery at the first annual Brattleboro Brewers Festival and Pub Crawl. Tickets are still available, we hope that you will join us there!

Novare Res Bier Cafe Portland Maine

Tim Brady — Fri, 07 May 2010 18:57:15 +0000

We have been busy getting ready for the Brattleboro Brewers Festival recently and unfortunately that has put a damper on editing our videos. So that explains Amy’s winter clothes in this video from our great Portland Maine trip. In this episode we check out Novare Res Bier Cafe. A killer downtown beer bar hidden in the back of an alleyway in Portland.

We got a full tour from their beer manager Shahin Khojastehzad and shared a few great beers including the Rosé de Gambrinus from Cantillon which we had never tried (Side note, we are completely getting into the sour beers recently. Chris Lively would be so proud).

Novare Res has probably the coolest mug club we have ever seen, with a chained up gated room for mug holders to secure their belongings and chill on busy nights. The atmosphere, food and of course beer list, were all top notch.

Fun fact, the Novare Res was opened by the former Moan and Dove manager Eric Michaud. As a tribute to the connection, one bar stool from the Moan and Dove is at Novare Res while one of their bar stools is down at the Moan and Dove.

Well, back to preparing the beer list for the Brattleboro Brewers Festival, hope to see you there and if you stop by Novare Res (as you should) tell them that here for the beer sent you!

Novare Res Bier Cafe
novareresbiercafe.com
4 Canal Plz
Portland, ME 04101-4034
(207) 761-2437

Maine Beer Company

Tim Brady — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:14:08 +0000

A few ~~weeks~~ months ago we took a trip to Portland Maine and were lucky enough to get to peep into Maine Beer Company. Co-Founder David Kleban gave us a tour around the small startup brewery and talked to us about their beer and their plans.

The Peeper Ale (or Spring Peeper as it was called at the time) is a fresh west-coast style (their description) hoppy pale ale. The beer was certainly good, but it seems that David and his brother Dan will be hanging onto their day jobs for now, only brewing as time permits. The folks over at the Portland based beer blog www.blogaboutbeer.com did a nice post on the brewery and the beer, so be sure to check that out.

Maine Beer Company will also be at our first ever Brattleboro Brewers Festival this May, in Brattleboro Vermont. So if you are looking to meet Dan and David or to try their newest brews, be sure to swing by the here for the beer tent at the fest.

On a side note, sorry for the delay in getting these out there. We have some really exciting news (that we can’t share until the end of the summer!) that has kept us from being able to upload anything for a few weeks. We appreciate your patience (and the couple of “are you guys ok?” emails!) as we get back in the swing of things here.

We were lucky enough to score a few bottles of Spring Peeper Ale so I think we will be popping one open this evening in celebration of our getting back to the blog :)

The Brewers Plate 2010

Dan Keashen — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:49:51 +0000

The sixth annual Brewers Plate event was held for the first time at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Standing in the shadows of Franklin Field, brewers and restaurateurs from throughout the Philadelphia region came together in the name of craft beer and in support of the non-profit Fair Food. The gala was held among 4,000 year artifacts from ancient Egypt which provided a backdrop for Philadelphia’s foodies and beer geeks as they comingled in the name of charity.

“This is a huge event and the people are here for good beer,” David Hoffman, of Climax Brewing, said. “We have people here that are more aware of craft beer, and know that the Philly and New York area are turning out some damn good beer. This event shows that brewing ain’t all about the west coast and hop bombs – it’s about solid balanced beer.”

While Hoffman riffed on brewing in the region and served up his nut brown ale, he was well positioned next to Village Whiskey as they passed out samples of their bbq pork sandwich. The small speakeasy themed restaurant was serving up a perfect compliment to the surrounding brewers’ beer from Flying Fish and Dog Fish Head.

For the brewers and chefs, this was a place to present their creations and educate the consumer. Beau Baden, brew master from the Bethlehem BrewWorks, said the venue provided him with a unique opportunity.

“People that come to this event are usually curious and have a lot of questions,” Baden said. “This gives us a chance, as a craft brewery, to really showcase our beers and explain how well they go with the food selections here tonight. We can tell people how well spicy food can be complimented by hoppy beer, which sets this event apart from others.”

After a taste of the Boaks Russian Imperial stout paired with chocolate cupcakes and a solid Beligan Golden Ale from Triumph Brewing, it was time to go downstairs and explore the rest of the show.

A favorite attraction downstairs was a sampling of cheeses from the Pennsylvania Farmstead and Artisan Cheese Alliance, and the tremendous offerings from DiBruno Bros. Bill Covaleski brought two gems with him from his Victory Brewing Co. – the Smokin’ Oats Porter and St. Boisterous- a full bodied lager in the traditional Maibock style. Both beers provided an excellent pairing with the selection of cheeses and gourmet chocolates from John & Kira.

For the general public this event is a day to celebrate and unite craft beer and gourmet food from the region. Covaleski emphasizes that for the event organizers, the real focus of the day is on raising funds and supporting a nonprofit that works to promote healthy, local food systems.

All proceeds from the event benefited Fair Food, which is a nonprofit dedicated to bringing locally grown food to the marketplace and promoting a humane, sustainable agriculture system for the Greater Philadelphia region.

For more information visit the Brewers Plate website or keep an eye on here for the beer for the latest from the Philadelphia area from our newest contributor, Dan.

Kate The Great 2010

Tim Brady — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:41:03 +0000

VIDEO – This video is just a quick look at another fun filled Kate the Great day at Portsmouth Brewery in Portsmouth New Hampshire (check out last year’s adventure here). While the bottles were gone by 5:30am, the taps were flowing with what brewmaster Tod Mot called “his best work ever”.

We love “beer day’s” as they bring together a community of like minded (beer geeky) people and allow for a day of great beer conversation and sampling. Even though there was some talk of the desperation to get a bottle of Kate, the talk was more often about the individuals quest than it was of their disappointment. The moral of the story shared by most: be here really early next year if you want a bottle of this great beer.

In the end it was another great event hosted by Portsmouth Brewery and another tasty glass of Kate the Great for here for the beer. Who knows, one of these years we might just get out there early enough to meet this guy…

Shipyard Brewing

Tim Brady — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:50:01 +0000

VIDEO – Our trip to Portland had to include a visit to the legendary Shipyard Brewing Company. What we didn’t expect was to be offered the opportunity to chat with founder and Master Brewer Alan Pugsley.

Beyond Shipyard, Alan has been instrumental in the building of many breweries around the globe and introducing the distinctive Ringwood yeast to New England. Alan is certainly an icon in the brewing world, especially in New England. Pugsley built the brew house and helped to design Geary’s Pale Ale for D.L. Geary’s Brewery, which is the oldest brewery in New England and one of the original “micro’s”. Alan continued to design brewereies for Gritty McDuffs and Federal Jacks among many others, before launching his own brewery and brand – Shipyard Brewing Company – in 1994.

In this video we talk to Alan about the brewery, Shipyard’s plans for 2010, Pugsley’s work designing brew houses and Shipyard’s current large contract brewing operation.

In a related note, we received an email today from Shipyard sharing that the Pugsley Signature Series beers which are mentioned in the video will be available soon in 12oz 4 packs as well.

Be sure to check out all of our Portland adventures, and stay tuned to here for the beer for even more from our trip to Maine. Cheers!

Geary’s Brewing Company – Portland Maine

Tim Brady — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:19:23 +0000

During our recent trip to Portland, we stopped in at D.L. Geary Brewery and got to talk to David Geary about his beers and Geary’s brewery. Geary’s brews traditional styles and focuses on session beers, including their Pale Ale and Hampshire Ale. However, recently they have dabbled a bit in more “experimental” styles, “knuckling under the tyranny of the hop” as David shares and brewing an Imperial IPA and a crazy dry hopped creation which will be coming out this summer.

David gave us some of the background of the growing brewery and their need to expand (anyone have a 100 barrel system for them?). According to David, they are currently running a “22,000 square foot brewery in an 18,000 square foot building”. But you wouldn’t get that feeling (ok, aside from the row of storage boxes out back) as the facility is really well laid out and organized.

We really appreciated Davids matter of fact personality and his focus on lower alcohol beers with flavor. There is something to be said for how solidly rated every beer from D.L. Geary’s is on the major beer rating sites. While we all appreciate the occasional extreme beer, it’s the staples like Geary’s Pale Ale that are my go to, more often than not.

For more from our trip to Portland, check out the Portland Maine section of here for the beer or follow along with us on Twitter. For more about Geary’s check out their website (and yes, you can order your Geary’s thong here!).

HereForTheBeer.com » Beer Q&A

Slow Fest – A Celebration of Session Beer

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Brattleboro Brewers Festival 2010

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Northshire Brewery in Bennington, VT

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The Brewers Plate 2010

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Kate The Great 2010

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