A few times a year, the greatest beer/wine/liquor/cigar/hot sauce shop in Central Massachusetts, Julio’s Liquors, holds a beer festival. For two dollars, which is donated to a local cause, you get a glass and a tabbed bracelet which allows you to sample about ten different beers from 40-50 different national and local breweries. Two dollars!
Some of the beers on-hand aren’t even available to the general public, and when you live in the state that headquarters the Boston Beer Company (Sam Adams), Harpoon and a few other notables, you’re going to be trying some special stuff.
Here are a few of the beers I sampled last weekend, along with a few thoughts on each:
Dogfish Head Brewery: 90-Minute IPA
This IPA tsted different than what I’m used to. It was on the light side as far as the hoppiness goes, but that’s not to say it wasn’t tasty.
Shipyard Brewery: India Pale Ale
This was more what I’m used to and what I dig when I drink an IPA. Extra hoppy and gives that IPA-like bite. If you don’t like IPAs that are hoppy, stay away.
Harpoon Brewery: Leviathan Quad
How did I know know about the Leviathan line of Harpoon beers? Holy awesome! Remember when I talked about Michelob’s attempt at making “good” beers with their Porter and the like? Well, Harpoon is taking that move up a notch, offering a line of beers that kicks ass over what they already offer. The Quad is an incredible Belgian-style beer that carries a womping 12% APV! This is not your grampa’s Harpoon. And who’d have thought Harpoon would do a Belgian?
High & Mighty Brewing Co.: Two-Headed Beast; Sono Distrutto
From one great beer to the next. I’d never heard of this brewery nor its uniquely named beers. The description on the Beast had me at “raw cacao.” An incredibly flavorful, chocolately stout that impressed me right away. So much so that I had to have another of this brewery’s beers, the Sono, which must be quite new, as it’s not on the website yet. The Sono Distrutto is like drinking an iced espresso, so I was in beer heaven. I wasn’t sure if this beer was going to put me to sleep or slap me awake; it was that espresso-y.
So, those are the stand-out beers from this season’s Julio’s adventure. I would have added a special Sam Adams beer to the list if I could read my illegible notes at that table visit, but I do remember it was a beer that hadn’t yet made it to distribution yet. And that is why it’s so great to have Boston Beer Company in your backyard.
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on May 22, 2009 @ 13:11 EST5EDT
