Event: American Craft Beer Fest, Seaport World Trade Center Boston, June 3, 2011

A big positive about living in Boston is that its a great beer city. There are many craft beers/microbrews in the area. Each year there are beer festivals run by two groups. The first group is called BeerAdvocate, which many beer fans may recognize as they publish their own magazine of the same name, and also run the BeerAdvocate website. They run three beer fests a year. Another group called the Beer Summit runs four beer fests a year.

The biggest of these beer fests is the American Craft Beer Fest (or ACBF). It might be the biggest beer fest in New England. It takes place over a two day period every June at the Seaport World Trade Center in the South Boston Seaport district of Boston.

I went to the first day session, Friday June 3. Ticket prices for each session were $45 for unlimited samplings. It was best to buy your ticket at an area bar that was selling them, buying it online through the BeerAdvocate website charged you a surcharge similar to Ticketmaster. One of the things I recall about the American Craft Beer Fest was the size of the Seaport World Trade Center. I had never been to it before. The line snaked all around the Center, I was amazed at the amount of people there and the fact that the the beer fest did not seem overcrowded. It was easy to move around. Lines were not too long, although at a few brewers there were quite long lines, like Goose Island and Sierra Nevada. There were a total of 106 microbreweries and craft beer makers. Most brewers were from the northeast, but there were also brewers from the Midwest and West Coast, including Anderson Valley, Anchor Steam, Rogue, and Stone. Most of the brewers served anywhere from two to up to five different types of beers. 2 oz pours were given, with pours being strictly enforced. I know from friends who have volunteered at the BeerAdvocate beer fests that the BeerAdvocate has volunteers watching for over-pouring by brewers. Its a bit anal in my opinion. I've volunteered at the Beer Summit festivals and they leave it up to the brewers on pour size.

Here is a picture that the nice folks at Trappist Punks lent us from last year's event:

One of the difficulties in reviewing an entire beer fest, especially one of this size, is the amount of brewers present and the amount of beer one is able to try. The urge to try out as many beers as possible is always present and by the end of the night sometimes you have difficulties even remembering the beers you had. So as a reviewer I decided to review the event as a whole, and focus on a few memorable beers I had during the night.

Allagash is a brewer out of Portland, ME. They are known for brewing Belgian-style beer. The most common one is their Allagash White, which is a Belgian Style Wheat. It is found at many bars in Boston. Less common are other Allagash beers, one of which is the Allagash Black. The Allagash Black is a Belgian Style Stout. It has 7.5% alcohol. Its an excellent Belgian Dark Ale. You can taste the hints of oats in it along with the Belgian hops. The beer is strong but not overwhelming. This is definitely an A beer.

Cape Cod Beer is a brewer out of Hyannis, MA. I have never seen their beers in Boston. After talking to the people working at their booth, I found out they do not distribute as far as Boston, the furthest they distribute outside the Cape is Plymouth, MA. I asked if they had any plans to distribute around Boston and I was told they did not. The beer I tried was their IPA. Their IPA was not trying to do anything fancy, it was just a simple IPA. This IPA was very drinkable, a fairly medium-bodied beer. This would be a good beer for someone who never has tried an IPA. It is a good introductory beer to get someone into IPAs. I would grade this a B+.

I would love to review some more beers but I think this review is going to get too long winded so I decided just to stop at two beers. I had a lot of fun at the American Craft Beer Fest. I do have to say I like the Beer Summit events more due to the fact I have volunteered with them and dealt with them personally. But the American Craft Beer Fest is the largest in the region and is the only time that you can find that many craft breweries in the same place.

Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer, by USA Beverage, Inc., Pennsylvania

I found this can of Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer at D.C. Express Market, in Washington, District of Columbia. I always like to pop into (no pun intended) bodegas and corner stores since you never know what you might come across. Just yesterday I came saw some RC Cola a the Newton Foodmart by a school here in D.C., and I intended to buy a can on my way back but they were closed. Oh well.


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The yellow can caught my eye and I had never seen the brand before, so I snagged one. A few days later there was the distinctive sound of the aluminum popping open. The first things I noticed were that it didn't have any head and it had a strong syrupy and mediciney smell. Once in the glass it had a dark brown color, but while being poured it was more of a reddish brown.

So what did this birch beer taste like? I have not had any Barq's root beer in a while, but that is what it reminded me of. It is a strong taste that lingers, including the mediciney part. It also made me think of root beer candy sticks.

I would not buy it again, but it was fine and certainly not bad. I really enjoy the can design, from the color to the birds and the Olde English style font and the banner underneath. We will give them a B-.

People in Delicious Places

First, an apology: Knowing that we actually do not have any readers has perhaps allowed us to be slow in adding anything new here.

Second, I am going to contradict myself by offering a shout-out to another web log that recently did read us. I am not entirely sure what the title is, but let us just assume it is "Travel the world...for Beer, Wine, Chocolate" at http://beerwinechocolate.blogspot.com.

Looking it over the first thing that jumps out is the good, functional design and the uniformity of layout. Those are things we are shooting for here. It looks as if she will be reviewing restaurants, vineyards, breweries, and general going out. My petty critique would be about the white border of the pictures.

She also lays out an ambitious goal of reviewing experiences in several continents over a ten year period, but we do not know if there is a particular reason for these locations or timeline. But blogs often float around the themes of sharing, privacy, and the mystery of not knowing about the authors. Of course, there are also many examples out there of blogs that share a lot but this is not one of those. Great job Liz at "Travel the world...," seems like a fun site!

It also makes me realize that there are a lot of similar sites out there and we are all embarking on a narcissistic enterprise. If a beer drinker reviews a beer online and nobody reads it, etc.

But at a minimum my co-author and I should have fun and be left with a record of things we have imbibed. One of those things may actually be pop (soda), as well. When traveling one of the fun things I often come across is a new soda, so we'll be reviewing some of that too. I also promise we will avoid any further mission creep.

I recently found another web log...about soda and appropriately called "SodaBlog" over at http://neilkleid.tumblr.com. It has a much more hip and fun layout than us and great use of videos and pictures and in general looks very nice. It also has a very fun tone and allows itself to go on tangents more than we will. I really like the very short posts, some of which are one to two sentences and a picture. Definitely check it out and keep checking back here for a few pop reviews very soon!