Boston Beer Corridor Gets Bigger

    I've talked about the beer corridor in and around Boston before, but there's been a few updates since then.  Plus, sometimes, it's just nice to be able to talk about something without having to throw out a contending opinion.  After all, more beery places to go is simply good for everyone.

    A bit of news popped up from Idle Hands Craft Ales' earlier this week.  They're entering in to a business partnership with Enlightenment Ales, formerly of Lowell, MA.  Both breweries will now be under one roof in Everett, with both company's beers available on site... and with Enlightement's Ben Howe taking the title of head brewer for the new joint venture.  All good news.  If you haven't had anything by Enlightenment, their specialty Enlightenment Brut (a "Bière de Champagne") is quite nice and a style not widely available, to my knowledge, save for Sam Adams' Infinium which, sorry, doesn't touch Enlightenment's interpretation.  But forget that... in my opinion, Enlightenment really shines with their saisons/farmhouse ales.  Illumination and Rite of Spring are both lovely.  And, as the weather gets colder, let's note that both companies have some great stouts.  Enlightnment offers an export style stout with Cosmos, while Idle Hands' Belgo stout Absence of Light garnered a rare 5 stars from me on Untappd.

     But that's not all the news!  Night Shift Brewery, located in Everett right dang next to Idles Hands/Enlightenment, is slated to be moving just a bit down the road to a significantly larger space.  With, thank goodness, parking.  And if you're paying extra close attention, this is actually significant alongside the Idle Hands news, as they will be free to expand into Night Shift's old space.

   And that's ALSO not all!  Now, this may not exactly be beer, but just about the finest cider I've ever had is Downeast Cider House's Original Blend (especially on tap!).  Unlike a lot of ciders I've had, which are thin, yellow and sweet, this stuff is cloudy brown and just a bit tart.  Basically, it tastes like actual apple orchard cider... but with booze.  Yay!  Anyway, Downeast is about to throw their launch party this Saturday, December 7th, in Boston.  Their place is just over the bridge from Chelsea, which I will note is home of Mystic Brewery, and just south of the other breweries we've been speaking of.  Seeing a theme here?  Beer corridor!

     Now that you've crossed the bridge into Boston, you can visit the three (yes, really just three) breweries there.  In addition to Sam Adams' "R&D Brewery" in Jamaica Plain, South Boston's Trillium Brewing Company and Harpoon Brewery are right down the street from one another and, while I'm sure everyone's had Harpoon, criminally fewer people have had Trillium.  And wouldn't you know, I have news related to that, too.  See, Trillium was originally unable to serve samples of its beer on site.  That problem has been rectified.  Now you have no excuse.  You can even follow it up with a pretzel at Harpoon's new(ish) beer hall.

     There you go, kids.  At some point, I'm determined to make one long, delicious day out of this ever-expanding line up of Boston beerishness.  I encourage all of you to take advantage of any and all of this good news at your soonest opportunity!