VIDEO – Well, we thought we were done for the year, but ended up scoring a last minute seat at what turned out to be one of the best beer dinners we attended this year. The dinner was aptly called the night before the night before Christmas and was held at the Sierra Grill in Northampton Massachusetts. The theme was a vintage Christmas, and so some creative spins on a traditional Christmas dinner were paired with vintage Dogfish Head beers and creative “Christmaswear”. Dogfish Head founder and president, Sam Calagione was at the dinner, along with his family and friends from the area (as Sam is from the western Massachusetts region).
If you haven’t been to a beer dinner at the Sierra Grill, put it on your to do list in 2010. They put together some of the best pairings we have ever tried. The owner of the Sierra Grill, O’Brian Tomlin, is a true craft beer evangelist. The tap list on any given day is top notch. Their chef Ralph Webb is extremely creative and loves to prepare food with beer. The combination makes for a killer beer dinner and this one was no exception. Courses included a goose stew with duck sausage, paired with Dogfish Head 2007 Immort Ale and Lobster Eggroll with Dogfish Head 2008 Pangaea. There were two entrees presented, a Bison Prime Rib and a Roasted Smoked Pheasant, both served with Dogfish 2007 Burton Baton. Finally the dinner wrapped up with a Christmas cake (you need to watch the video to hear the chef describe what went into this!) paired with a 2008 Dogfish World Wide Stout.
We also had the opportunity to get some great interviews with Sam, his father and his wife. So we have split the videos up into a series that we will be posting throughout the week. Consider it our “After Christmas special”. We hope you all had a great Christmas and wish you a happy new year! Cheers from here for the beer!
Hello everyone, December marks the our first anniversary here at hereforthebeer.com. We want to thank all of the wonderful people that we had the opportunity to meet this year. We hope that you enjoy our montage (the first good use of the song as far as we are concerned)! We look forward to an even more interesting and exciting 2010 on here for the beer … Cheers!
VIDEO – We are really lucky to have such a killer beer bar within a short drive of us and our Inn. So we were admittedly nervous when started hearing rumors of “the Dove” being sold. I am sure all of the Moan and Dove regulars shared our sigh of relief when we heard that the bar was being sold to Jason “Di-Cap” DiCaprio, long time bartender and generally awesome guy.
So as of last night, it’s official. After nearly a year of disasters, where everything that could go wrong did – the Moan and Dove has now officially changed hands. The previous owner, Daniel, has moved on to the city (Boston) and has opened a new beer bar in the old b-side lounge which we can’t wait to check out.
We stopped into the extremely crowded Moan and Dove for the “changing of the guard” celebration and shot this quick video with our flip video camera (hence the less than wonderful quality). It was great to see the area beer community out in support of Di-Cap and the Dove.
In the video Jason shares his story about his history at the Dove and the transfer of ownership. He also emphasizes that the Moan and Dove is what it is because of the wonderful and passionate beer community that makes it possible.
Congratulations Jason from us at here for the beer. We look forward to many great pints (and eventually earning our mugs) at the Moan and Dove. Cheers!
In this video we take a trip out to the amazing Sunset Grill and Tap in Allston, MA for the official US launch of Duvel Green. This is the first time duvel has ever been available outside of the bottle and it is available in pubs right now. Duvel is a great bottled beer that has been around for a long time, with the unfortunate effect being that it has almost been forgotten by some (been there done that). So the Duvel Green brings a welcome reintroduction to this brand.
In this episode we get to chat with Simon Thorpe, President & CEO of Duvel. We also chat with Jake Feltenberger, Marketing Manager for Duvel USA/Ommegang Brewery and Marc Kadish President, Chef and Cellar Master of the Sunset Grill. What a great group of guys. It was certainly a fun night and one delicious beer. You can see Tim’s Duvel Green review here.
Be sure to try the Duvel Green and keep watching here for the beer. Cheers!
1st Place – Most Viewed Video (8,700 and counting)
1st Place - Spirit of Big Brew
Thank you so much to the Masholes for hosting us and working with us on this project. If you are in western Massachusetts and interested in home brewing – hook up with these folks on their facebook page!
In this episode, my friend Timberly and I check out an AHA National Home Brew Day event with the Masholes, a fun group of home brewers in Massachusetts.
Six home brewers brought their equipment to one house and throughout the day brewed six different beers. Gathering as a group gave these home brewers (and the thousands of others who participated in similar events around the world) an opportunity to explore different techniques and share tricks of their craft. Of course, it also was a great opportunity to share the fruit of the labor, the beer! With the Masholes we found a group of people who were brought together by a common thread, the love of craft beer and the passion for creating it. We’ve said it several times, beer should be fun – and the Masholes have definitely figured out how to have fun while brewing good beer.
If you are in the Western Mass area and would like more information about the Masholes check out their Facebook page. If not, you can get information about home brew groups in your area at the Brewers Association website www.beertown.org Hope you enjoyed meeting the Masholes, we certainly did! We will see you next time on Here for the Beer.
Please Note: As you know, we don’t usually use YouTube, but the AHA is running a contest, for the best and most watched video from National Homebrew Day, so we are throwing our video in. So please, share this with your friends, family and fellow beer enthusiasts. Lets make the Masholes famous! You can see more about the contest on the Big Brew section of the AHA website.
Update – YouTube has banned this video as “Inappropriate” and therefore I suppose we are out of the contest…(Thanks to the AHA for keeping us in!) But we have uploaded it to our regular source, Blip.tv and hope that you enjoy it.
In this episode we speak to Jeremy Krusas, Head Brewer at the People’s Pint in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Jeremy explains his inspiring story of how he became the Brewmaster at the People’s Pint. We take a look inside the brewery and than the Pub. Tim and I frequent the People’s Pint about once a month as it is only 25 minutes south of Brattleboro, VT. We do some of the shopping for our B&B in Greenfield, so we pop into the People’s Pint for dinner and drinks before. There are plenty of places to eat in downtown Greenfield, we choose the People’s Pint because of the fresh food and fresh beer. They use farm fresh products from local farmers and organic produce when ever possible, which is something we also stand behind. We also love the sense of community in this pub, you can always find a host of locals bellied up to the bar to chat with. The People’s Pint also supports the local art community by displaying rotating art from local artists throughout the Pub. We are happy to support this local brewery and pub.
The People’s Pint is open Monday – Friday from 4pm-12am and Saturday – Sunday from 12pm – close (Note: the kitchen closes at 10pm). I would suggest giving them a call to ensure they are open if you are traveling a far distance, they are privatly owned and have been know to close up for vacations. Another tip you should know is that they do not accept credit cards so make sure you have cash, if you forget there is an ATM across the street. Perhaps we will see you at the People’s Pint someday, if not we will see you here next time on HerefortheBeer … Cheers.
The Northampton Brewery in Northampton, Massachusetts opened its doors in 1987, making them one of if not the first microbrewery in New England. Now over 20 years later they are celebrating their Grand Re-Opening. After 20 years of wear and tear it was time to give the Northampton Brewery a face lift. In the video owner, Janet Egelston, explains that they choose to use environmentally friendly materials to complete the renovations.
Not only did the Northampton Brewery get a little work done they also recently went and got themselves a new Head Brewer, Donald Pacher. He has been the Head Brewer at Northampton Brewery for just a little over 1 year. He has brought new life to the beers there. We had the privilege to sample the two beers brewed just for the Grand Re-Opening … Beyond Mean Green and Hopzilla. In the video, beer writer George Lenker (a.k.a The Beer Nut) gives us his take on the Hopzilla.
This was one happening party! We enjoyed good food, creative beer, and live music by The Primate Fiasco a local Dixieland Band. We look forward to stopping back and tasting some more of Donald’s creations. If we don’t catch you at the Northampton Brewery we hope to see you next time right here on HerefortheBeer.
We attended the Dogfish Head 75 Minute Simul-Cask aka Johnny Cask at The Sierra Grille in Northampton, MA. At precisely 7:50pm the beer began pouring. The 75 Minute IPA is a mixture of the ever so popular Dogfish Head 60 and 90 Minute IPAs with a special whole leaf cascade dry-hopping session. After hopping, the beer was transferred into firkin’s where fresh yeast and Maple Syrup were added. What a fun event this turned out to be. We love the creative ways that Sam and the Dogfish Head team bring beer lovers together.
We were invited to this event by the owner of The Sierra Grille, O’Brian Tomalin. Though we went for the beer, we left with a great first impression of The Sierra Grille. The food was excellent, served in a tapas style. The menu offered a wide variety of reasonably priced small plate options , including $3 desserts. Don’t worry if you have a big appetite the menu also offers about 8 full entrees. The beer selection was top notch including, among others, HE’BREW Jewbalation Twelve and Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA.
We would like to thank The Sierra Grille for hosting this event and look forward to stopping in again. We would also like to say hello to all of the awesome beer lovers who attended, we enjoyed meeting you all. If we do not see you at The Sierra Grille, we will see you next time on Here for the Beer!
Amherst Brewing Company also know as ABC, is located in downtown Amherst, Massachusetts. In this college town where cheap beer and dollar shots would be expected, ABC is a refreshing change. Mike Yates, head brewer at ABC, was kind enough to spend a little time with us and show us around this innovative brewery and pub.
Though this place looks like a small operation they amazingly have enough space to produce about 8-10 beers on draft, one on cask, and they even have enough room to regularly produce a lager. For the new beer lovers, lagers typically take about 3 weeks to ferment, which makes it a difficult style for may small breweries to work with as they often need the tank space.
One of ABC’s most unique creations is the Heather Ale. This beer is a 2003 and 2004 silver medal winner for them at the Great American Brew Festival. What makes this beer so interesting is that the hops are replaced by the flower Heather. It take about three times the amount of Heather to make this flavorful beer than the amount of hops used in most of their other beers.
In all we really enjoy ABC. They have a solid menu with typical pub fare. We have enjoyed their burgers, sandwiches and salads many times. (The Amherst Brewing Company is just about 30 minutes south of our Brattleboro Vermont Inn).
The best tip I can give you while their standard line up of beers are great, when they are running something seasonal it is usually a new recipe and pretty darn creative. Most recently we enjoyed the Super Stout. This chocolate oatmeal stout served on cask was absolutely delicious. On other trips we have enjoyed the Gold 250 an impressive Imperial IPA. The beers at ABC are well balanced and highly drinkable. We would like to thank Mike and his assistant John for showing us around ABC and continuing to produce consitent and delicious beer…we will see you next week!
