Infinium Tasting at Sam Adams Brewery

Although I've been living in Jamaica Plain for over 6 months, I had never visited the Sam Adams brewery. So when I found out that Gilt City Boston was hosting an Infinium tasting and a brewery tour, we had to check it out! To make things even better, Jim Koch, the founder of Sam Adams, was giving the tour.

Jim Koch is an interesting man. Not only did he create the recipe for one of the best selling American craft beers, but he's got a good wit about him. Among his stories, jabs at the "big guys", and general banter, I managed to note some of the more interesting topics that came up on his tour of the brewery:

• The original Jamaica Plain brewery is actually leased by Boston Beer Company, they do not own the property
• Jim Koch comes from a family of brewers-generations before him were brewers. Jim Koch was the first to breakthrough the competition and maintain the profitable and productive brewery that stands today.
• It was apparent during the tour that the average age of attendees was somewhere between mid 20s to mid 30s. Jim admitted and made it clear that this demographic was the future of craft beer.
  
• Sam Adams 48 IPA, which was only released for the first time in 2010, is the only India Pale Ale to use hops from three different countries: Germany, UK, and the US.
  

However, the star of the night was Infinium: a collaboration between Boston Beer Company, the largest craft brewer in the US, and Weihenstephen, the oldest continuously operating brewery in the world. The beer was presented in Champagne style flute glasses, sporting the Infinium logo in gold lettering. The beer was brewed as a traditional ale under the German Reinheitsgebot, however it was finished and stored as a Champagne. This storage allowed the beer to finish light and refreshing, with a fairly high carbonation.

Thanks again to Boston Beer Company, Gilt City Boston, and Jim Koch for an awesome night and great beer!

Harpoon Brewery Tour and Filming at CBC

Thanks to an awesome girlfriend and group of friends, this past weekend was pretty kickass. On Friday night I was thrown a surprise birthday party, with friends who traveled from all over New England. Even a friend from the far corner of the US flew over to celebrate. Tiny glasses of Mexican liquor and easy-drinking beer was consumed...rather heavily. Although the night did a number on us, we arose the next day looking for a little beer adventure. Figuring as how you, the reader, are likely here for the beer, I thought I'd share our experience. What started off as a trip to the Harpoon Brewery ended up as a day dedicated to local beer and quite possibly an appearance on a new TV show.

I've only been to the Harpoon Brewery for their festivals and once for a beer tasting, so after 5+ years in Boston a brewery tour was long overdue. For $5 you get a solid 30 minute tour and 25 minutes of drinking in the tasting room, which includes 10 or so fresh Harpoon beers. The tour is what you'd expect, with an explanation of the Harpoon brewing process and walk-through of the entire facility. Highlight of the tour: you do get some super fresh Harpoon IPA straight from the conditioning tank, which we all agreed, is better than when it comes on draught. No where near as clear, little carbonation, and much hoppier...it is a treat.

One of the other reasons I wanted to check out Harpoon was because they were featuring the newest 100 Barrel Series beer in the tasting room, the Island Creek Oyster Stout. Just to clarify, this beer does not taste like oysters, although I believe they are thrown into the boil. I was more curious than anything else to try a beer brewed that was actually brewed with oysters.

After sampling an array of Harpoon beers, our 25 minutes were up and we took off from the South Boston brewer. Looking for some more fresh beer, one place came to mind: Cambridge Brewing Company. Upon arrival, the place was pretty quiet (which was awesome), and half the restaurant looked like a Hollywood set. If some of you haven't heard, some filming has been taking place at Cambridge Brewing Company for a new Discovery Channel show. They are filming the pilot episode at CBC, and the chosen host (dude with the racing striped goatee, who I did not get the name of) apparently owns a number of brewpubs across the country.

Besides the excitement of possibly being filmed for a TV show, the beer at CBC was (and always is) the highlight. Tripel Threat, Charles River Porter, Big Man Ale, Weekapaug Gruit, and Blunderbuss were the chosen ones during our trip.

As I received my last beer, a little treasure was put on rotation - 2007 YouEnjoyMyStout. As a personal favorite offering from CBC, the wonderful bartender kindly bestowed a little tasting upon us.

Sadly, our mini-beer adventure had to come to an end. What I thought was going to be a typical Boston weekend, turned out to be one for the ages. While the passion for beer is evident on this blog and typically the main focus, it doesn't come close to the feelings I have towards friends that made this weekend unforgettable. Cheers to all who made it so special!

BrewDog at Deep Ellum Tomorrow Night

Just received word via BeerAdvocate that James Watt from BrewDog, an amazing brewery in Scotland, will be at Deep Ellum tomorrow from 4 to 6pm for tastings. I've had a couple different BrewDog beers on trips over to England, including their Punk IPA and Hardcore DIPA, and it is great stuff. According to BA, they will have a barrel aged stout, new double IPA, a cask beer that looks to also be a DIPA (Zephyr), Atlantic IPA also from the cask, as well as other BrewDog "standards."

I am beyond excited for this. Come out and support BeerAdvocate (it is a BA sponsored event), Deep Ellum and BrewDog...hopefully they will find a new getaway home in Boston!

BeerAdvocate Sponsored Event Page - http://beeradvocate.com/events/info/23974