beer tasting

You are currently browsing articles tagged beer tasting.

It’s finally open! Dorchester Brewing Co.’s opening was much-anticipated and long-awaited for many of us Dorchester residents, and I was so excited to get a sneak peek last week at the ribbon cutting with Mayor Walsh.

Dorchester Brewing Co

I was even more excited to learn how much local love the brewery team has; so much of what has gone into constructing the brewery and making it beautiful has to do with local Dorchester people and businesses. Dorchester Brewing Co  Mayor Walsh was on hand for remarks and has provided some great support along the way; he really let the brewery team shine though, and shine they did.

Dorchester Brewing Co

Dorchester Brewing Co The Dorchester Brewing Co. space is gorgeous and made from materials reclaimed from the original warehouse. I love that they have games and a patio along with two tasting bars and will be host not only to house beers but beer collaborations with brewers who don’t have their own breweries.

Dorchester Brewing Co

 

Dorchester Brewing Co It will be a space for community and creativity, what Dorchester is all about.

Dorchester Brewing Co {I love these wooden doors!}

Dorchester Brewing Co

And I can see myself hanging out at this tasting bar many times in the future.

IPA

beer tasting

The staff was fantastic, and the beers we tasted, Clapp’s Cream Ale and Mass Ave IPA,, were delicious. I don’t even like IPAs, and I loved this one. It was so balanced and easy to drink with lovely pine and citrus notes.

 

Dorchester Brewing Co.

The integration of the old and the new dotted the space, and hope for the surrounding community as well as the space within was everywhere. I was so impressed with everything; the brewery really went above and beyond all of my hopes and expectations.

Dorchester Brewing Co.

Aiming to be a gathering place and a place even for families, Dorchester Brewing Co. will have a b. good food truck outside most of the time, giving beer lovers a healthy-ish local option for pairing food with beer. I love b. good fries and bowls!

b good food truck

While I am bummed we sold our condo a few blocks away, as a Dorchester resident for 10 years,  I am so excited to have this inspiring and fun new business as ours. Welcome to Dorchester!

Tags: beer, beer tasting, brewery, Dorchester, dorchester brewing co, events

We just got back from a long weekend in Chicago that was literally jam-packed with food, fun, friends, beautiful weather, and all of the other things this incredible city has to offer. I forgot how easy Chicago is to get to and how easy it is to get around. I love it.

One of the must-do items on our list was to visit the Goose Island Beer Co. for a brewery tour. Because the brewery is a little out there, we ended up taking a quick taxi ride to ensure we were on time for our tour.

The space is in a warehouse area, and it is really hard to miss. You drive right up and see this big goose taking up the entire corner of the building.

Goose Island Brewery Goose Island tap room Goose Island brewery tour Once inside we checked in for our tour and had time to check out the beautiful tap room, where we decided to share an Oktoberfest while we waited. It was a delicious decision.

 

Goose Island Oktoberfest Goose Island tap room If you’re not finished with your tap room beer, you can get it in a plastic cup to bring along for the tour, but if you are empty, don’t fret. The tour includes three sizeable tastes of beer. I liked the tour in that it was interactive and the beer tasting was split up throughout rather than saved until the end.

Goose Island Brewery Tour

Our guide was funny and entertaining as he brought us through to see the brewers in action while we tasted a Goose Island IPA. I am often overwhelmed by IPAs, but I loved the pine notes in this beer. It was herbal, outdoorsy, crisp, and well-balanced.

Goose Island IPA

Our tour included a stop in the Innovation Room, where new beer ideas are constantly being tested and tasted and in the wild fermentation room, where Brettanonmyces, a wild yeast strain, is used to make the beer. The yeast is so active that the room is specially designed to not let any air out. If the yeast got out, it could get into the other types of beer, eat the alcohol, and ruin them!

In this room we learned about their vintage ales and tasted one of my favorites of the weekend, their Sofie.

Goose Island Matilda   Goose Island beer Goose Island Matilda I also enjoyed the Matilda over the weekend. Both the Sofie and Matilda were very festive beers, effervescent with fruit notes and a nice body.

We ended the tour in the barrel room at Goose Island, which is just for the purpose of the tour. Their actual really big barrel room is not at the brewery. We learned about a hard-to-find favorite, the Bourbon County Stout, but didn’t taste it, since it is so hard to come by. I’ve had this beer in the past though, and it is amazing (and provides a lasting impression via a pounding headache if you have more than one).

Goose Island Barrel Aging Goose Island Beer Tasting

The tour was a great value at $12, and it helped us to discover some beers we might not have tasted otherwise. I think I have been on enough brewery and winery tours to kind of know the basics and that ends up making me a little less engaged in the tour part. I’m far more interested in the tasting. 🙂

Tags: beer, beer tasting, brewery, brewery tour, Chicago, Travel

Our weekend in Mystic was full of great food and drink. We were surprised and delighted by the sheer number of options available, and we did our best to try them all. For more on wine and food in the Mystic area, check out these posts:

Engine Room Mystic

Jonathan Edwards Winery

Mystic Seaport

Oyster Club Mystic

Saltwater Farm Vineyard

Our very first stop during our weekend in Mystic was at the American Velvet Mill for some beer tasting at Beer’d Brewing Co.

Beer'd Brewing Co.

We were surprised at the activity going on in the Velvet Mill; it was really cool! There was a farmers market going on in the wide open warehouse space, along with little artists studios along the sides. We peeked in at paintings and potters making pottery. You could easily spend an afternoon wandering around this lively space. It’s right near the Long Island Sound, tucked away in a residential neighborhood, and well worth a visit.

American Velvet Mill

Beer’d offers free tastings of their beers on tap, and then you can buy pints to drink there or growlers to bring off site.

Beer'd

 

Beer'd

The space at Beer’d is charming and rustic and backs up to the brewery, so you can see where all the action happens.

Beer'd We went through the tasting and then went for pints of our favorites, the roasty, chocolate-y P2 Precious Porter and the Whisker’d Whit Belgian, which was citrusy and refreshing. We’re big fans of stout, and while they didn’t have the Roulette Russian Imperial Stout available for tasting, once we expressed interest, they found us some sizeable samples. It was amazing, one of the best beers I have ever had, super dark with strong coffee notes and a perfect bit of bitter, like coffee and cacao.

Beer'd

We left with a few yummy growlers full for home and a great first impression of Beer’d. Everyone who worked there was so warm and welcoming as well as really excited about the beer. It’s a fun place to hang out and people watch, and we would definitely visit again on our next Mystic getaway.

Tags: beer, beer tasting, brewery, Connecticut, Travel

« Older entries

new restaurant
WordPress SEO fine-tune by Meta SEO Pack from Poradnik Webmastera