BYO Blogs

Home
Home This is where you can find all the blog posts throughout the site.
Tags
Tags Displays a list of tags that have been used in the blog.
Bloggers
Bloggers Search for your favorite blogger from this site.

Posted by Chris Colby on Thursday, 05 July 2012 in BYO Brew Blog

Boston Beer: Still Revolting

When I moved to Boston, for graduate school in 1991, I remember seeing Sam Adams T-shirts saying, “I am a revolting beer drinker.” I thought the shirts were clever and was intrigued by the idea of trying a locally-made beer. The only other locally-made beer I’d had to that point was drinking Schell’s while visiting a friend in New Ulm, Minnesota in the late 80’s (before Schell’s started making craft beers).

When I first tried it, I didn’t know what to think. It was very different from any beer that I had ever had, but different in a way I liked. A couple of weeks later I knew all about craft beer. (There was much less to know at that point.) Beer came in many styles and flavors, and many small American brewers were brewing beer rivaling the best imports, which I was also discovering at the time.

For Bostonians, local and regional beers — including Sam Adams, Harpoon, Catamount, Dock Street and others — provided flavors and aromas that had been absent from American palates up to that point. I also learned how to brew my own beer that year. For me, and many beer drinkers at the time, there was a beer revolution going on.

This last week, I’ve been in Boston and — judging from the beers I’ve tried — I think that Boston beer is still “revolting.” A lot of breweries have opened up in Massachusetts recently, and there are some interesting stories relating to some of them. To pick one example, Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project describes themselves as “tenant brewers” — renting open time slots in existing breweries to brew their beer (in a way that’s similar to Mikkeller). Their flagship beer, Jack D’or, is a pale, “Belgiany” beer reminiscent of a saison.

Jack’s Abby — which despite it’s Belgian-sounding name actually specializes in German-stye lagers — has a nice beer out called Smoke and Daggers. They describe it as a cross between a schwarzbier and a smoked porter. I’m a fan of smoked beers, and this one was a winner in my book.

Other new Massachsetts breweries — including High and Mighty, Slumbrew and more — are making tasty beers that go beyond simply being another pale ale or IPA. Belgian-inspired beers are becoming more popular, "hybrid" beers (in which established beer styles are mixed) are showing up more frequently and a few beers being released make no attempt to align themselves with a style. (They are what they are — as beers in Belgian are.)

Even established breweries are making some interesting beers. Cambridge Brewing Company — which was just voted brewpub of the year (in some contest or other) — is now making a beverage that’s a blend of beer and sake. I really liked it, which surprised me since I’m not a big fan of sake.

In some ways, the Boston beer scene is settling down. Sam Adams is now very familiar and is distributed across the US (and even exported to other countries). Harpoon is big enough that I can get their IPA (and UFO brand) in Texas. And, of course, some of the early breweries are gone. (Catamount was gobbled up by Harpoon back in the 90s after their new brewery was built and they weren’t selling enough beer to get by. I don’t know what ever happened to Dock Street.).

On the other hand, the newer, smaller breweries are trying to keep the revolution moving forward . . . or at least pushing some boundaries and fermenting change in the beer scene. [Not that the "big guys" are set in their ways, I enjoyed a Harpoon Bacon Bock (and experimental beer; they released one keg to the Sunset Grill) while I was there and Sam Adams continues its experimental program, especially in the area of exceedingly high alcohol beers.]

So Boston, which was the seat of one famous revolution, continues to play a role in the ongoing craft beer revolution.

Last modified on Friday, 08 March 2013

Chris Colby

I learned to brew beer right around the same time that I discovered good beer. I started graduate school at Boston University in 1990 and quickly began enjoying the local brews — particularly Harpoon Ale, Sam Adams Boston Ale and Dock Street Amber (from Philadelphia) — that were popping up. There was even a brewpub, Commonwealth Brewing, with three or four regular brews and a new “seasonal” beer every other month or so. I also tried out imported beers, whenever possible. Coming from South Dakota, where Beck’s was an exotic import, this was an eye-opening experience.

A couple of graduate students in my department brewed beer and I was immediately intrigued. I learned the basic extract brewing method from them, but was hampered for a long time by substandard equipment — especially the lack of decent-sized brewpot — and having to brew in a small Boston apartment.

My early brewing efforts were also hampered by my lack of knowledge. As a graduate student in biology, I could have easily dug into the advanced homebrew literature at the time, but I figured I had enough things to study and just wanted a nice, easy hobby that ended up with me drinking beer. And, even though the stuff I made wasn’t great, it did get drunk on poker night with no complaints.

I got a nudge in the right direction from a friend of mine, John Weerts. I went to college with John and would see him over the holidays as my folks had moved to Kansas City, where he lived. I taught him how to brew on one of those occasions, but then he struck out on his own. He joined is local brewclub (Kansas City Bier Meisters), stepped up to all-grain brewing and started making some really good beer. Years later, he visited me in Boston and brought along a keg of rye beer, which was fantastic. I immediately knew I was missing out on something.

On my next stop at my local homebrewshop (The Modern Brewer), I bought every book they had, including George Fix’s “Principles of Brewing Science” and Greg Noonans “Brewing Lager Beer.” Armed with the knowledge from these books, a new brewpot, and a ridiculously cobbled together all-grain set-up, I brewed a mini-mash version of a porter recipe of mine. It was the best beer I had made so far.

Fast forward to today, and I still think that gaining the right knowledge is the most important step to brewing great beer. (My brewing set-up is still almost comically jury-rigged, but it works.) I have read a number of professional brewing texts (and recommend the two volume “Malting and Brewing Science” set by Briggs, Hough, Stevens and Young), keep track of many of the great homebrewing forums out there, and am a member of the Austin ZEALOTS homebrew club.

The best way to gain brewing knowledge, however, is to brew. And, I normally brew about 20 batches per year. In the 15 or so years I’ve been a homebrewer, I have brewed ales, lagers and sour beers. I have tried most of the common traditional brewing techniques and experimented with new techniques (including my reiterated mashing techniques). Although primarily an all-grain brewer, my interest in extract brewing has been rekindled due to new techniques (such as the extract late procedure) and I have recently experimented with ways to improve partial mashing (especially making dark beers with a partial mash procedure).