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Fest Season is Upon Us!

4/24/2018

Howdy ho, camperinos! We're here for a rootin'-tootin'-sometimes-hootin' barrel o' good times and we got the skinny on the lowdown for you right here!

First up, as of right friggin now we've got J.A.R.E.D. on tap! It's a big ol' bruiser of a beer, perfect for all your "pretending that it's not all that cold out and then refusing to admit defeat even though you clearly should have brought a jacket" needs!

Also acceptable for patio times.

Then on Thursday we're gonna have our trusty-as-always weekly cask, and this time it's an Old Favorite: Black Witow! If you're a cask fan and you ain't had this peculiar lil' bastard off the ol' beer engine yet, then we predict you're in for a treat because it is just straight-up delicious.

But you knew that already, didn't you?

Plus we got a special treat lined up for you on Friday and I hope you like pasta because it's PASTA FRIDAY! Seven Hills is rollin' up with some delish dishes and we are going to eat them.

I bet this pairs great with Black Witow...

And on Saturday we're gonna be reppin' strong at not one but two beer festivals out there in the Big Scary World outside our taproom! Closest to home is Power Beer Fest, which is put on by the Mass Brewers Guild, and those folks know how to orchestrate a good time so you know it's gonna be worth your time and energy to swing on through!

Tickets here: Power Beer Fest

Then a little farther afield, we'll be postin' up at Craft Brew Races out in Worcester! It was a rollickin' good time last year, and we're stoked to return!

Tickets here: Craft Brew Races Worcester

And at Home Base on Saturday, we'll have our newest meat friends, namely Boston Jerky, in the house dolin' out jerky samples! So whether you're Here or There or Afar, there's really no reason to not be drinkin' our tasty beers this weekend!

Free meat!

In Which We Get All Excited About Floors. Again. (And Then Probably Forget All About Them in a Week. Again. )

4/17/2018

Hello again! It's time for fun times with a side of more fun times, and a heapin' helpin' of new beers!

First off, of course, is yet another update on what all we been doin' to get our new space up and ready! This time around, when y'all weren't looking, we went and installed and prepped up our brand-new floors! And also we made* and finished some furniture so we'd have something to put on them fancy floors (which we'll be takin' for a test drive this weekend, but more on that later).

We are pleased.

Tables to hold allllll your dang flights

And to commemorate this new achievement in flooring (and/or to commemorate our friendship with a hop farm), we're releasing Ghost Dragon IPA today! Our friends over at Hop Head Farms came by a couple weeks ago and generously provided some Grüngeist and Styrian Dragon, so we grabbed them hops and started dumpin' them into a beer until everything was green!

Our hop frens doin' our jobs for a day!

Brewed with real ghosts and dragons! (We dare you to convince us otherwise.)

And speaking of days, Thursday is your third and final (for now, anyway) chance to get Ruby Rye on cask! This is a beer that's made for cask drinkin', so come on by and drink it the way it oughta be drunk!

If you bring a liter and ask nicely, we'll fill it.

Speaking of beer, at some point on or after Friday we'll be releasin' J.A.R.E.D! It's sorta similar in spirit to L.I.Z. in the sense that we made an acronym out of hop names, but this word has more letters so that means more hops and we figured there should also be a bit more alcohol why not so now we got this bigass boozy bruiser comin' on tap whenever we free up a line!

Whee!

And while we're goin' on about Friday, this Friday we're gonna have our friends from Brato back in the house with some delicious grilled cheese action! They're some straight-up cheese wizards, and we're sure you'll enjoy whatever they conjure up!

Mmm... cheese...

Then on Saturday we got one heckuva day lined up. For starters, we're gonna have Mr. Tamole in here with some tasty tamale action!

If you haven't tried these yet, what sorts of other poor decisions are you making

Also on Saturday, we'll be hosting Everett's Earth Day cleanup after party! We'll still be open as usual, only on this particular day we'll be startin' the day packed fulla people who worked up a thirst doin' some good out in the world (sign up here if you're interested in joining along) and also we'll have live music on the patio and for (probably) one day only, we'll be takin' some of our new space for a spin! Basically that last bit just means that you'll be able to drink in that one weird empty room right next to our taproom, but it still feels like progress to us! Small victories, etc.

Hooray Earth! Hooray days!

Then to keep the good times comin', this Sunday we've got our friends from Sweet Lydia's comin' by! You've had a long week, so you deserve to treat yourself to something sweet!

There was talk of chocolate-covered bacon, you see.

* All the fancy woodworking was done by the handy-as-heck T-Bone, but it sounds way cooler if we act like we forged them ourselves from Raw Lumber using only our Bare Hands.

Good! Times! And! Maybe! Some! Eggs!

4/11/2018

Hello friends! After all the good things and good times as of late, we have decided that it's in our collective best interest to come up with even more fun things for you to enjoy. Here are some of them!

First up on Wednesday is Round Two of our Pysanky Egg Decorating class! We did it last week, and dang but we did come up with some cool designs! Also of note, the person hosting this class is rather emphatic about pointing out that these are Not Easter Eggs. There are plenty of other occasions to decorate eggs, especially if you consider "having eggs" to be an occasion, and this fits quite nicely!

We were skeptical at first, but it is actually super fun and relaxing!

And if you're a bit more northerly tonight, Jimbo and Jared (and possibly one or two others from the Bone Up Crew) are gonna be hangin' out for Vinyl Night up with our friends at Gulu Gulu Cafe in Salem! We're bringin' up some cans from the taproom to share, plus some pages from this month's coloring contest!

We are no longer Bone Up Brewing Company. We are now Arts and Crafts Brewing Company.

Then on Thursday we're trottin' out a cask of our easy-drinkin' yet oh-so-delicious blonde ale: Stomper! And as an added "twist" we tossed in a handful or two of Hallertau Blanc for a little extra "panache!"

STOMP STOMP STOMP

And if cask is your thing, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention NERAX! NERAX is the our favorite beer festival - low-key, rarely crowded, and full of delicious and special cask ales from the US and the UK! The Bone Up crew will be drinking our share on Friday night, but the festival starts tonight and runs through Saturday!

More info here: NERAX 2018

Bringin' things back to Home Base for a minute, we've got the (apparently) long-awaited Chica de Gallo tasting this Saturday! So if you're the type who likes you some salsa (and let's be serious: who isn't?) swing on through and taste some tastes!

Mmm... salsa...

And speaking of Home Base, we're still chuggin' away with our paintbrushes and sledgehammers on our new space and we've got the pictures to prove it:

Stress Relief Pt. 1

Stress Relief Pt. 2

RED RUM RED RUM RED RUM

A sneak peek at the sweet goblin-themed mural Jimbo has planned for the new space!

Oh! And one more thing before we go! As soon as we open up a draft line (hint hint) we're gonna have an old favorite returnin' to our draft list: Black Witow! For those of you not "in the know" because we "haven't brewed this beer in eight months," Black Witow is a light-bodied, easy-drinkin' smooth-sipper that just so happens to be black as all heck. It can be a bit confusing at first, but it'll soon have you smitten, and it's gonna be back on tap this weekend! Huzzah, or something.

In Which We Test the Theoretical Limits of Fun Times Per Weekend

4/3/2018

Howdy and hello, kiddos and squiddos! We got one heck of a doozy of a weekend lined up, with all kinda stuff just happenin' left and right around here so let's get movin' and so on and et cetera.

But first: an update on progress for Expando-Mania! In short: a lot more things have paint on them now. Some of which are even things that are supposed to have paint on them (and on the other hand, some of them may be Jared's computer). And while it's not the most gripping news to hear that we applied paint to some surfaces, we're still pretty stoked indeed because a) we don't really have the permits to do anything else just yet, and 2) painting has been the bottleneck for most of the other stuff we need to do - we can't well knock down the wall to the brewery if we're gonna be spraying paint all over the ceiling. Anyway. There's paint on stuff. It's pretty rad!

Surprise! The new side of the brewery looks exactly like the old one!

But at least we managed to cram our back offices full of Stuff pretty much immediately!

Oh! And some stuff happened over on the side you already know and love - our last original cellar (for our now-retired plastic fermentors) was dismantled to make room for our next set of Shiny New Tanks!

This isn't so much painting as it is "I'm sick of having to go around the whole building every time I need a screwdriver let's punch a hole in the wall with sledgehammers right effing now" but we feel these pictures are an accurate embodiment of the spirit of this past week.

While we're at it, we should probably mention the fun new beers that we've got! As you may remember from a few weeks ago, the Pink Boots Society - which is the international organization for women in the beer industry - got a bunch of its members to brew up special beers for International Women's Day. Well, we saw fit to brew not one but two beers (because we like both brewing and good causes), and they're out this week! The first - Big Boots '18 - is a smooth sippin' saison whose dark and brooding color belies its quaffability and it's on tap right friggin' now!

The perfect springtime beer: muddy brown with promises of warmth and fruity goodness!

The second - Pink Smoothie - is a double IPA that's got a whole mess o' the proprietary Pink Boots hop blend and also (in the spirit of our "smoothie" IPAs) a whole buncha other stuff too. We'll never be able to brew another one like it, so come getcha some - it's on tap starting on Friday! Probably!

Unlike its cousin Purple Smoothie, we decided to keep this beer beer-colored. (Don't worry, there's more stupid purple stuff in the pipeline.)

Moving on, this Wednesday (which is tonight if you're the type that's on top of your RSS feed), we've got a new-to-us event: Pysanky egg decorating! The short version of the story on this one is that it involves drinking and hot wax and fanciness, so you know it's gonna be a good time! And never you fear if you've got uncancellable plans this very night, because we're bringin' in an encore night next week! Both times it starts at 6pm, so come on by and egg it on up with us!

Because nothing says "craft brewery" like Egg Crafting.

Then on Thursday we're bringin' back an old favorite (of ours) - Ruby Rye on cask! In true English fashion, it's perfect for a night of polite murmuring and/or a soccer riot. And if you can't get your cuppa down at our digs, mayhaps you'd be pleased to know that Ruby will be making an appearance at NERAX! Woo, etc.

Plus, cask pairs great with Audio Triviality, which is also happening on Thursday (starts at 8pm)

And on Friday we're bringin' in more new friends, and this time they've got tasty treats! More to the point, PapaVivi is bringin' the meat in the form of tripletas! Tripletas, for those of you who don't know (full disclosure: we didn't either until recently), combine the three best eatin' meats (beef, chicken, and ham) with garlic bread and the seemingly unusual (yet strangely popular and fairly delicious) notion that potato sticks are a condiment.

And if that don't sound like your formula for tasty times, we're gonna have to make you retake Flavor Math because it gon' be good.

And then on Saturday basically everything is happening all at once and we're gonna need to be in three places at the same time which is always pretty rad. Startin' off at Home Base, we have Maca Macarons in the house to satisfy your sweet tooth from 1-4PM!

I wish I could think of something sassy to say here but really I'm just daydreaming of the colorful flavor insanity that is the French macaron.

Then out in the world (if you happen to find yourselves out there instead of in the cozy confines of our taproom where you belong), we're gonna be reppin' at two different fests! First (and also second, I guess) we're gonna be at Melrose Beer + Bites, which is probably somewhere in Melrose judging from the name. Then in the evening times, we'll be at Cottage Park Yacht Club in Winthrop for their Craft Brew Night!

And if that weren't enough for you, get ready for this Sunday because we're about to get real. This Sunday is the day of the long-awaited* beer and Girl Scout cookie pairing! Grab a flight of any four beers (or just grab a pint of your favorite), and we'll include a serving of the matching cookies for an extra $2 (while cookies last)! Proceeds go to Girl Scouts of America.

Here are our picks:

Trefoils (shortbread): Extra Naked Cream Ale, Key Lime White
Toffee-Tastic (butter toffee): Key Lime White, Nug Amber Ale, Ruby Rye Mild
Tagalongs (chocolate-covered peanut butter): Extra Naked Cream Ale, Cello Hoppy Brown Ale
Do-si-dos (peanut butter, oatmeal): Stag Pale Ale
S'mores (graham cracker, chocolate, marshmallow): Shut Up Kelly! Porter
Thin Mints (mint chocolate): Shut Up Kelly! Porter
Savannah Smiles (lemon, powdered sugar): Stomper Blonde Ale
Samoas (toasted coconut, caramel): Wasted Life IPA, Galena Saison

Not a drill.

Oh! And! It's the beginning of a new month, which means that the Smarch coloring contest winners are in! Check out all this adequacy below, and if you're one of these lovely people come on in and claim your prize!

Our winner: Erin S.! A+ for knife skills.

* This is where I'd usually say something like "by us" but we ate so many Girl Scout cookies in preparation for this event that several of us are still a little queasy. Sometimes it's tough work when you find your true calling, but we did it for you.

Fest Season is Upon Us!

In Which We Get All Excited About Floors. Again. (And Then Probably Forget All About Them in a Week. Again. )

Good! Times! And! Maybe! Some! Eggs!

In Which We Test the Theoretical Limits of Fun Times Per Weekend

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