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In Which We Can!

2/26/2020

Howdy, friends! It's time again to celebrate our (apparently annual) made-up holiday that was started to honor expansions and/or bureaucracy and/or moderately-forced reasons to celebrate, and that holiday is Kafka Day! We'll be gettin' on with the sweet deets in just a few, but we went and crammed a buncha cool stuff into the days leading up to the weekend, so let's talk about that first!

And startin' off strong, we brought back a lil' ol' favorite from the ol' Barrel Hold, and that's Skeleton Key and it's on tap right now!

Movin' right along slightly farther into the future, on Thursday we're tappin' up another cask of Southern Star, and this time we crammed it fulla citrusy-pineappley Galena!

Also on Thursday we're doin' up yet another trivia night, and this time around it's "Vaguely-Franchise-Based Star Wars Trivia," which will almost definitely be a hoot, even though we have pretty much no idea how to interpret that description.

And! Speaking of things that are a hoot, we're also bringin' in Boston HotChix to make your Thursday spicy!

Then on Friday we're bringin' in our friends from Eat More, Mexican! and they'll be slingin' delicious burritos all evening long!

And then startin' on Saturday we're celebrating Kafka Day! Just like we said we would! We've got at least a medium amount of festivities - new beer and the joyous return of some old favorites and tasty food and more new beer and friggin' cans and it's just gonna be an all-around good time, so come on out and hang out with us! And if you're lookin' for a little more info on what all we got goin' on, read on!

New Beer! We blended up a special new blend of barrel-aged beer just for Kafka Day! And also probably for several days after that, because we made a bunch of it, but anyway it's an amber-ish Belgian Strong called Soiree and it's gettin' tapped on Saturday and it's tasty as heck!

Old Favorites! We're draggin' out the ol' jockey boxes to give ourselves a little "wiggle room" on the draft list, and that means more beers on tap simultaneously and that means we're gonna loot our cellar!

Tasty Food! We've got our friends from Po' Boys and Pies comin' in to do a crawfish boil for us all afternoon, and whoo-ee are we stoked! It's been a dang ol' while since we had some good crawfish, so come on out and hang out and get some before Jared eats 'em all!*

New Beer! We've got more new beer! It's been too dang long since we've released a new Critters beer, so we're releasing a Critters beer! This one - cleverly named Critters 6 - is nice 'n' light and it's got a touch of floral fruitiness on account of we put a bunch of plums in there, and we enjoy the heck out of it, so we figure you probably will too!

Cans! We - finally - have beer in four packs! We teamed up with our pals from State 64 to can up a couple beers - namely Key Lime and the return of Wellington IPA - and we're doing our first-ever four-pack release(s) on Saturday! And also Wellington will be on tap!

Sunday! Girl Scout Cookies! Since it's Kafka Day, we can't rightly constrain the festivities to just *one* day, so we're spillin' over into Sunday and we're doing another beer and Girl Scout Cookie pairing! This one's the last one we plan to do this year, so if you been draggin' your feet, come on out and experience the majesty!

* He has, loudly and repeatedly and without any provocation, claimed to want to "start off with ten pounds or so, and then get serious."

In Which Collabs Are Brewed!

2/19/2020

Hello again! We've got some new beers (again) and some treats (again) and some fun stuff (as always), so check out all this stuff we did for you!

First on up, lookin' into the moderately-near future, we gotta ramble a bit about a cool collab that we're doin'! Long story short, our beer friends and fellow stoner metal fans over at Remnant and Widowmaker wanted to make a collaborative beery homage to the song "Tres Brujas" by The Sword, so we did just that! We've spent much of the week firin' up our respective brew kettles and hangin' out and havin' some laughs and/or beers along the way, so keep an eye out for this lil' beer in a few weeks!

Speaking of beer, and bringing things back to right now, we've got a new beer on tap! This time around it's a single hop saison brewed exclusively with a new-to-us South African hop called southern star, so we named the beer Southern Star! It's nice and light and easy drinkin' and you should come have some!

And what's more, this Thursday we've got Southern Star on cask - dry hopped with, uh, southern star!

And while we're on about tasty beer, we're continuing our "Melvin World Tour" with the (re)introduction of Melvin Goes To Jamaica - on tap right now! This time around, Melvin (our "barleywine") has returned from a months-long slumber in a rum barrel, and dang but he brought back some good tastes!

Anyway. Getting back to Thursday, this Thursday we're bringin' in a new-to-us trivia host to do up Daria trivia! So if you think you're "up to snuff" on your snarky teen cartoons, come on out and get trivial with us!

Movin' right along into the weekend, this Friday we're doin' cheese flights! We've got a bunch of cheeses from New England creameries and they've been expertly* paired with beers from our menu and you should come have some!

And speaking of good tastes, this Saturday we've got Boston HotChix in the house again and we ain't even need to tell you how tasty these sammiches are, so come on out and get while there's gettin' to get got!

Then on Sunday we've got a new-to-us event goin' on - Cheer Up is bringin' in a buncha games from local game designers and you get to play them and/or grab a copy if you have a hankerin' to play said games elsewhere! They'll be settin' up shop from 4-7, so come on by and say hi!

Oh! And! I daresay it would behoove us to remind you that next week is our Second Annual Kafka Day! There's gonna be at least three beer releases (Wellington IPA, Critters 6, and a special surprise**) and we're releasing our first-ever four packs (Wellington and Key Lime) and there's gonna be tasty treats (Po' Boys and Pies is doing a crawfish boil on Saturday, and we're doing more beer and Girl Scout Cookie pairings on Sunday) and we're gonna bring back some cool barrel-aged beers for the weekend (probably definitely Skeleton Key and also some other stuff) and it's gonna be a good time and you should come hang out!

* Truth be told, our "experts" are mostly experts in "wanting free cheese," but sometimes you gotta make do with what you got
** Truth be told, this "special surprise" is really more of a "beer that we don't have a name for yet," but that's pretty much on par for us

Barrels, Releases, and Cans, Oh My!

2/11/2020

Howdy do, cats and kittens! We got a bit of time to while away before we celebrate this year's Kafka Day, so we got us a whole host of tasty new beers and fun times and probably some snacks and friendship and all that good stuff, so let's get to it!

But before we get to all them new beers, we gotta take a minute to go Behind The Curtain so's we can ramble about something that's durned exciting for us and probably nigh-on meaningless to all of y'all. Anyway, long story short, as our barrel program (which includes the Critters) beers has expanded, we've been forced to come up with some... creative storage solutions that often amounted to garbage (well, scrap wood) being mounted to moving dollies, which we promised ourselves was a "temporary solution" that we'd fix "probably next month." Well, as you've probably guessed, it's been almost three years, but we (and by "we," I mostly mean "Jared's dad") finally stepped up to the plate and got us some brand-spankin' new custom barrel racks! Look at all that organized majesty!

Anyway, onto beer (some of which came out of them barrels):

The first stop on that ol' New Beer Express is Centennial, which just so happens to be on tap right now! We had a need for some good old-fashioned regular-ass pale ale and we've been meaning to showcase MA-grown centennial, so we took those dual hankerin's and made us a beer!

And speaking of beer that's on tap right now, Critters 5 is on tap! This here was made with a little bit of ginger and a dab of honey and we've got a very limited quantity (even by our standards), so if you wanna taste these tasty tastes, come on out and getcha some!

Also on tap for a hot minute is a treat you may remember from Horatio Day: Melvin the Mammoth (Goes to Belgium)! This here's a barleywine/farmhouse ale blend that's been slumberin' in whiskey barrels for some time, and it's boozy and spicy and just a lil' fruity, so come get while the gettin's good!

And since we're on about beer, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention this week's trusty Thursday cask, which is once again Extra Naked, only this time we dry hopped it with bravo and crystal!

Also on Thursday, we've got this month's round of Simpsons Trivia and word on the street is there's gonna be a little "extra something*" for the winning teams, but we ain't gonna divulge no details so come on out and find out for yourself!

Then on Friday we're doin' something a little different** from our usual - we're doing another trivia night, and we're doing it in the name of Galentine's Day (even though technically it takes place the day after Galentine's Day, but hey. Yay women)! And - probably more importantly - we're doin' up this whole Galentine's Extravaganza in support of Boston GLOW and $1 of every pour will go to support them!

Also on Friday, since we're doin' it up Galentine's style, we've got woman-owned Brazen Eats in the house cookin' up some tasty dumplings!

And speaking of dumplings and/or dumpling-related foods, on Saturday we've got Matilda's back in the house with more tasty pastelitos!

And since we're all about bringin' back the tasty treats this weekend, we're doin' another beer and Girl Scout Cookie pairing on Sunday! So if you've had a hankerin' for Caramel deLites paired with Wasted Life (if you're like us, that is a constant hankerin'), or if you just wanna get flights on flights on flights, come on by and cram yourself fulla cookies!

Oh! Remember that exciting news from last week? About cans? Well, our art department's been toilin' away in the background all week to get some new labels done up for our new slender cans, and we daresay the mockups are looking good!

* And since this "extra something" wasn't bought by Jared, it might actually not be terrible. Might.
** No, it's not a three-course prix fixe dinner

In Which There is Talk of Cans

2/5/2020

Well hello again, friends! We're back in action with the hip haps and beer and cheer and treats and eats and we might even have a lil' ol' "big announcement" about future times, so step right on up and read on!

But first, we gotta give you the "lowdown skinny" on an upcoming celebration of sorts that we've got coming up. See, when we finally opened our expansion nigh on a year ago, we wanted to celebrate that fact (whilst paying homage to the bureaucratic... hurdles that we had to endure along the way) so we tapped up some cool/rare/barrel-aged beers and had some food friends bring in some good eats and just had a good ol' time all weekend and we called it Kafka Day!

Well, it's about a year later and we've got some more reasons to celebrate (and we've had a new handful of red-tape-related headaches, because of course we have), so we're doin' up yet another Kafka Day the weekend of 2/29! We're gonna tap up some more cool beers and release a few things (including, but not limited to, another Critters beer) and we've got a crawfish boil (partly but not entirely because it's Mardi Gras weekend as well) and we're gonna release our first-ever four packs of 16oz cans (including, but not limited to, a rerelease of taproom-favorite Wellington IPA) and it's gonna be fun and you should come out! Because cans! And friendship!

Gettin' back to now(ish), we're startin' things off with a bang, and we tapped a new beer! Several days ago! And it's on tap right now! More to the point, we had a hankerin' for some good old-fashioned pine 'n' citrus hops so we threw a shitload or two of 'em into a beer and now we've got I See A Dankness! It's a resiny, caramelly, old-skool IPA and if you need a break from haze and lactose, this is just the ticket.

And speaking of hops, this week's trusty Thursday cask is beer-engine-favorite Extra Naked, which we "goosed up" with a buncha MA-grown centennial!

And while we're on about Thursday, this week brings back another installment of Audio Triviality! This time around the theme is "The Big Four of Thrash Metal" and we're pretty darn stoked to spend the evening gettin' thrashy (even though we personally know basically nothing about two of the four bands in question)!

Then on Friday we're doin' up a little something new to us (and which we hope will turn into a bit more of a recurring thing) and we're bringin' in our friend (and beer history expert) Malcolm Purinton to give a talk about the history of beer and brewing in New England! The talk is free to attend, so just swing on by if you feel like gettin' your learn on about local beer history!

Also on Friday - should you be looking for something to munch on while you get all historical - we've got Boston HotChix back in the taproom!

And speaking of tasty foods, on Saturday we've got Cherry Blossom foods back in the house with some empanadillas and other Puerto Rican specialties!

And to cap off the weekend with a sweet treat, on Sunday we've got Bakes by Ari comin' by to do beer and cookie pairings (and also the debut of her Key Lime Pie and Maple Oatmeal cookies. I think that's two different cookies and not one really complicated one, but also I didn't read the email all that carefully so we'll see)!

And in anticipation of sweet treats, we just tapped an ol' favorite - Joyrider! Our barrel aged Belgian tripel is full of all the things that are good - oak, vanilla, spice, and a hint of boozy heat. We bet its gon' be real good with those maple cookies, but you'll have to come try for yourself!

In Which We Can!

In Which Collabs Are Brewed!

Barrels, Releases, and Cans, Oh My!

In Which There is Talk of Cans

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