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.

Michigan Brews

On our hike up in New Hampshire, I mentioned that my uncle brought me some beers out from Michigan.  I sent him on the way with some Jack's Abby Lager and Mystic Saison.  None of these beers are particularly mind-blowing, just solid craft brew.  Below are them in reverse of order of what I liked best.

Bell's Brewing - Amber Ale:  My uncle said that this beer is as ubiquitous in Michigan as Harpoon IPA is in Boston.  I can see why, it is definitely a solid amber ale, great for outdoors and everything else.  With that said, there are many other better Bell's beers (almost all of them).  This bottle was also not particularly fresh, too bad.

Short's Brewing - Pontius Road Pilsner - Another decent beer from a well respected brewery.  They have actually distributed in MA from time to time, but they are known for making all manner of oddball beer.  This beer is actually a pretty straight forward pilsner, definitely an upgrade from the yellow fizzy stuff, but nothing mind blowing.

Founders - Dirty Bastard - Founders is a brewery that is actually 100% available in MA.  I have had this beer before and it did not disappoint, high ABV at 8.5%, this scotch ale is great for the fall/winter.

Bells - Two Hearted Ale IPA - Bell's most famous offering is their IPA.  It is absolutely fantastic, and this bottle was pretty fresh, so it had that great hop character I desire!  If this were available in cans 365 days a year, I could consider an exclusive relationship...

New Boston Craft Microbreweries

Boston is the capital of New England, a region with an extremely high concentration of craft beer drinkers, but always lagged behind as far as high quality breweries. Cities like Burlington, VT and Portland, ME have many more excellent craft breweries. There are a number of reasons for this, including the prohibitively high cost of real estate in Suffolk county and the surrounding area as well as local giants Sam Adams and Harpoon Brewery. However, since the summer, a number of new breweries have emerged and there are even more on the horizon.

Backlash Brewing is a new contract brewed company, which seems like the new business model for MA brewers, due to high real estate cost as well as the success of Clown Shoes and Pretty Things.  These guys are apparently brewing at Paper City Brewery in Holyoke, out in Western Mass, but distributing mainly in the 617 area for now, due to limited supply. Their first beer was Groundswell, a Belgian Pale Ale, and their second was Convergence, a saison.  I am hoping these guys do well, but I do not love their aesthetics, like the brass knuckles and the Russian Riveresque "Convergence" name.  I am a sucker for wax sealed bottles and the price points seem reasonable based on the quality.

Mystic Brewing is a production brewery located in an up and coming area of Boston that is still a bit industrial, Chelsea.  These guys seem to be the most ambitious of the new breweries, offering a Founder's Club, aiming to compete with places like The Bruery in LA.  They are currently brewing and distributing their Saison, which already has 25 reviews on BeerAdvocate (B+ rating) and several other beers are in the near future.  I am excited to try Entropy, which is a high ABV brew that should be complex and exciting.
 

Idle Hands Brewery is another brewery a little bit northeast of Boston, located in Everett, another industrial area.  They had a bit of an issue in getting their license, including the big issue with farmer/brewer licenses, which could have drastically affected the scene for small craft breweries in the Bay State, but ultimately was resolved favorably.  They call themselves a "nanobrewery" and like both Mystic and Backlash they seem to be focusing on Belgian styles.  Their two beers that I have seen offered so far are Pandora and Patriarch.  These guys are currently only doing growler fills ($10 + $5 for the glass) at odd hours.  Be sure to follow them on Twitter for more info.  I expect 22oz bombers in the near future.

SlumBrew is based out of the Somerville suburb that is the most rapidly gentrifying neighborhood near Boston.  Based on the colloquial nickname "Slummerville," hence SlumBrew.  These guys are about to have their first tasting on Friday Oct 28 at Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont, MA.  I really like the website, which obviously does not affect the quality of the beer, but it certainly suggests that they are thorough, which bodes well for the brand.  I heard that they are contract-brewing at Mercury in Ipswich and I am sure they would be happy to be as successful as Clown Shoes has been with a similar model, as well as receive the additional Somerville boost.

Trillium Brewing has not officially opened, but it is on the horizon.  The brewer wants to brew and open a brewery in Fort Point, and Boston is home to lots of yuppies, granola eating hippies, young professionals, and academia.  This is the perfect hotbed for an innovative microbrewery.  I will add more info as it emerges, but based on Trillium blog entries, this new brewery will focus on Belgian styled beers and ales, like many of the other new breweries.