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!

CBC 20th Anniversary Party

This weekend Cambridge Brewing Company is throwing a party for their 20th birthday/anniversary. The party starts today (Friday) at 5pm at their brewpub in Kendall Square, Cambridge. They will also be celebrating tomorrow starting at 5pm. Number of cool things about this little celebration: 1) they will be turning the outdoor patio into a beer garden with tents, live music and CBC goodies to give away (looks to be raffles and stuff). Second awesome thing about this party is the beer list. According to the BeerAdvocate post, there will be 31 different beers served over the weekend...that is damn impressive. I'm hoping to get over there tonight for a few.

Boston Beer Works

Looking for a place that brews their own beer and serves up some good bar food? Look no further than Boston Beer Works, with conveniently placed locations by North Station and Fenway. My roommate and I were walking randomly around Boston, trying to find some good places to get some drinks. The first place we came across was the Elephant and Castle; the second was Boston Beer Works by North Station.


This was the first time either of us had been here and it was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, so I can't say what this place is like at night. It seemed like a cool place to go before games at the Garden (people were already there boozin' for the 7 o'clock Bruins game). We took a seat at the bar and ordered up some large glasses of the Bullfinch Bitter...you get two sizes to choose from for beers - a classic 16oz. pint or a 22oz. glass. The Bullfinch Bitter wasn't the greatest, but it was pretty good; it seemed to lack a bit of flavor. They had about 15 other microbrews, so I'm sure they had some good ones other there.

We got an order of the spinach and artichoke dip, which was pretty damn good. But for some reason they decide to give you about half a pound of dip, which would surely result in a heart attack if one tried to consume the whole portion. In all, I would make a trip back to Boston Beer Works to try some more of the beer and food menu...and I would check out the Fenway location just because it is more convenient.

Cheers!