The Hyper-Local Craft Brewfest is always a great place to check out new and upcoming breweries in the area. Recently opened and soon-to-open breweries and cideries participate each year, giving festival goers one of the first tastes of their brews. This year there will be four breweries and cideries participating at the festival, with an additional one participating on Cask Beer Night.
Bent Water Brewing opened in Lynn, MA (the city’s first brewery) and released its beers in fun, psychedelic cans in 2015, making Lynn a surprisingly cool beer destination in the area. The brewery is proud of their water source; the water in Lynn is sourced from three local reservoirs and is one of the highest quality in the state. Their diverse flagship and seasonal beers have gained them popularity thanks to the balanced focus they have on hops and malts. But don’t miss their experimental brews. Bent Water is also the first brewery on the east coast to use concrete vintner tanks, which the Romans used to make wines. Look for the X-Series, which is their limited release, experimental runs which may include a vanilla chamomile stout, apple ale which lies somewhere in between a beer and a cider, experimental IPAs. (Photo courtesy of Michael Shaughnessy)
Prospect Ciderworks was first poured in the basement of a family home in Harvard, MA. A year later, the three founders launched Harvard Cider and sold out their inventory. As they continue to expand and grow, they decided to move to Boston and the cidery was renamed as Prospect Ciderworks – a nod to the Harvard’s Prospect Hills. Now at their South Boston location, they are brewing three unique ciders. There’s Sidro, their flagship cider made with New England apples and a blend of Belgian Saison yeast. The Paradise is their cider steeped with grains of paradise and orange peel. The most is perhaps the Missing Link, a hopped session cider. The current release is a slightly bitter cider dry-hopped with Mosaic and Cascade hops.
Down the Road beers actually hit the Boston market back in 2015, with the launch of the signature Pukwudgie Pale Ale. But so far, they’ve only been available at retail stores, bars, and restaurants. That will change this year, when their taproom in Everett opens. Down the Road decided not to hop on the bandwagon to create the latest innovative beers, but instead they focus on perfecting the craft of fresh, local beers inspired by traditional brewing techniques. Since the launch of the pale ale, they’ve released a number of other beers from Scottish ale, Kolsch, French-style saison, and more.
This new brewery in Jamaica Plain gives the neighborhood their second brewery, after Samuel Adams started operating on Germania St on 1988. The brewery and taproom are not officially open yet, but should be open by the time the festival rolls around. In the meantime, the neighborhood got a sneak peek of Turtle Swamp’s space and beers starting on May 6, when they made a limited supply of a couple of their beers available for purchase on Saturdays.
Another new player in Boston’s craft brewery scene in Lamplighter Brewing Co. This microbrewery in Cambridge became immediately popular after opening their taproom last fall. They will be pouring a robust Porter on cask on Cask Beer Night this year.
To learn more or get your tickets, click here. (Tickets are limited and expected to sell out!)
This post was brought to you by Fiona Chandra of Gourmet Pigs, go check her out!
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