The flagship location of Craft Beer Cellar recently opened a huge new store in Belmont (“recent” is a relative term, my sense of time is all messed up since the pandemic). In addition to the beer store, they have a specialty food shop and their own on-site restaurant and beer hall, named Trinktisch. In addition to an array of food choices, it is no surprise that Trinktisch also has a well curated beer list. In addition to quality beers in a variety of styles from all over the world, the team at Craft Beer Cellar teamed up with True North Brewing to develop their own house beer for Trinktisch ..read more

When you ask a beer geek about the most important countries for lager beer the inevitable answers will be Germany and the Czech Republic. This makes sense, many of the most popular lager styles originate from regions that now fall within the borders of those two countries (regardless of what their country/principality was called when these beer styles were first developed). In reality, many of the countries in central and eastern Europe, and also many in other regions of the world, have rich traditions of brewing and enjoying lager beer styles. A great example is Poland, a country that brews t ..read more

Life has been especially crazy in 2022. Between my normal stuff that keeps me busy (a demanding job, home ownership and two energetic young boys), some health issues (nothing serious but my appendix deciding to rupture was a pain), some added pressures and even a few new hobbies (I’m teaching myself to play guitar), my life has been beyond crazy. Something had to give, and it should be obvious to my regular followers that I am posting less frequently on Hoppy Boston, plus spending much less time on social media. For a while I considered winding the blog down all together, but ultimately I deci ..read more

While summer, fall and winter each have beer styles that are strongly associated with the season and it’s corresponding weather, spring is a little more challenging. Some of that it the drastic changes in weather, especially in New England where a typical spring feels like it shifts between freak blizzards and ninety degrees in a matter of days. One of my favorite beer styles for the spring are bock lagers, which is kind of a cheat, since it covers a number of sub-styles that are quite different. A heavy and malt-forward dopplebock could keep you warm during that freak blizzard, a paler and ho ..read more

Earlier this week Spencer Brewing, the only Trappist brewery in the United States, announced on their Facebook page that they were ceasing brewing operations, making the difficult decision that the brewing industry was no longer viable for them. This is really disappointing news, it is never good to lose a local brewery, especially one as unique as Spencer. To be a Trappist brewery the beer needs to be produced at a Trappist monastery, using traditions that go back over 1000 years. Many of the most celebrated beers in Europe, from Orval to Westvleteren, are brewed at Trappist breweries. Needle ..read more

I drink beers in a whole range of styles, but my favorite style by-far is IPA. I’m a hop-head, haze bro, and every other term you can find for a lover of hop-forward beers. With that being the case, some may find it interesting that one of my all time favorite breweries is Allagash Brewing in Portland, ME. While Allagash is highly respected amongst brewers, beer geeks and many casual drinkers, the are well known for their creative ales that showcase traditional Belgian brewing techniques, with a focus on flavors imparted by expressive yeast strains balanced by malts, adjunct additions, and hop ..read more

Some people will drink any style of beer during any time of year, pounding pale lager in a blizzard and sipping imperial stout in mid-summer. I am not one of those people. While there are some beers I will drink all year long (cough*IPA*cough), I tend to drink a lot of dark beer in the winter and load up on lighter and mire refreshing beer for the warm days of summer. That means my dark beer drinking is winding down with the nicer weather moving in, so I am trying to clear the stouts and porters out of my beer fridge to make room for some saison and pale lager. It’s a tough job, but somebody n ..read more

I typically hate writing negative articles, anyone who regularly reads my posts can tell that I spend lots of time talking about beers I enjoy and very rarely write about beers that are mediocre or poor. If I don’t like the beer from a brewery I will just not buy it or write about it. One exception I try to make is when I can use the blog as a forum to call out a brewery/brewer/owner for bad behavior. If the last year has proven anything it’s that there are too many crappy people working in beer and it’s hard to stay informed about the issues with different breweries. Unfortunately, even under ..read more

Earlier this month we had St. Patrick’s Day, one of the few “holidays” of the year that are not only beer-centric, but also devoted to a specific beer style. While some people might prefer Irish red, pale lager doused in green food coloring, or even whiskey, most people immediately associate St. Patty’s with Irish stouts. The most popular and well known Irish stout is definately Guinness, even a devoted local beer drinker like me thoroughly enjoyed a 4 pk of Guinness draught stout earlier this month. In addition to that Guinness I’ve also been sampling plenty of local takes on this classic bee ..read more

The two beer styles that modern craft brewers have taken the most creative liberties with are clearly IPAs and stouts. Imperial stouts in particular have been subjected to every conceivable adjunct addition and aged in every type of spirit barrel you can find. Baltic Porters are kind of like the lager version of an imperial stout, with high ABVs and loads of dark roasted malts, but fewer breweries have experimented with this style. One great local exception is Jack’s Abby, who brews their delicious Framinghammer Baltic porter and then makes a rotating variety of creative off-shoots with differ ..read more