Hill Farmstead Flora B/B

I was in the mood for a single nice beer on Friday night after having hit it pretty hard the night before.  Usually when I am in a mood like that I will generally reach for either a stout or sour, since they are more complex than the IPAs or hoppy ales I usually drink.  I have two of the Hill Farmstead Flora B/B's hanging in my cellar, so before dinner I popped this in the fridge to cool it down a bit. I typically prefer water or wine with food, so after everything was cleaned up, I popped open this bottle.  An approachable 375ml that Hill Farmstead uses for its lower yield beers, attractive label, pours a nice fruit purple/red with moderate foam.  The foam dissipated fairly quickly.  Lots of HF funk on the nose, some fruits.  Taste was pretty nice, fruit is restrained, unlike some American wild ales.  I contemplated this over the 45 minutes or so I drank it, and really enjoyed it the whole time.  I look forward to my next bottle.

Drie Fonteinen Brewery: Oude Kriek

Drie Fonteinen is one of the traditional lambic brewers/blenders out of Belgium.  They are located near Brussels in Beersel, BE.  Gueuze is produced by blending aged and young lambic.  Kriek is similar, except that cherries are included.  This 375ml beauty is incredibly tart and sour, while still being drinkable and interesting!  I love this beer and always buy it when I see it on the shelves, even though it is not a cheap purchase.

Trips to Night Shift Brewing and Mystic Brewery's Tasting Room

Having spent the last two weekends in Boston, I felt it was necessary to swing by the local breweries and pick up some libations.  It happened to come to pass that Mystic Brewery was opening it's Tasting Room the weekend before the one that passed, and as a fan of their beers, it was a no brainer for me to swing by.  The night before, I picked up a small 355 ml bottle of Saison Renaud, to whet my whistle.

A Saison, brewed with pilsner yeast, it was a very crisp saison and infinitely drinkable.  Still enough funky Belgian essence to be complex.  A great entry level beer.

The next morning I made it out to Chelsea by 12:30 and there was a small crowd gathered in the tasting room.  We did not have a ton of time to spare, but as I checked out the board, I quickly settled on one choice.

A 32 oz "growlette" or Boston Round of Flor Ventus, an American Wild, made with flowers.  Quite a tasty wild, and apparently it sold out within 2 hours.  Certainly a bargain at $10/32oz.  As a note, I felt that Mystic's beer prices were EXTREMELY fair, and the fact that they allowed 32 oz fills for half of the price of the full 64 oz fill was awesome.

Next I traveled onto Everett and popped into Night Shift Brewing, it is fairly inconveniently located in a small industrial area.  There is not much parking, but I had Marina sit in the car while I ran in and grabbed a 32 oz growler of Night Shift's Viva Habanera.  I really enjoyed this rye beer brewed with Habanero peppers.

I enjoyed both of these beers and the experience so much, I made sure that I made another trip this past weekend.  During the week, I was reading reviews of the event and I came across something from the Beer Nut.  Although I was only there for a few minutes, my beautiful wife Marina was captured in a photograph.  

There she is in the black jacket at the bar.  I am behind the bearded fellow.

Anyways, as I mentioned above, I decided to refill both growlers.  From Mystic, I chose the An Dreoilin Saison, and it was fantastic.

From Night Shift, I chose the Somer Weisse, a lemon ginger Berliner Weisse. Clocking in at 5.2% ABV it was much more of a standard American Wild, either way it was quite delicious and I polished it off rather quickly.