Pete

Expect another one of these soon-ish, as I'm going to another fest in a few weeks.

My 3rd year in a row attending this fest, and I had even posted about it last year. Unfortunately, many of my recommendations were rendered useless with the change of venue this year.

The Event: Hosted by Beeradvocate and Dogfish Head, which merged with Sam Adams since the last one of these. This fest has been going strong for 17 years. This year, they moved back to their original location at the Cyclorama in Boston, a much smaller venue than the last few years at the Seaport World Trade Center. I'm interested to see what happens next year with the recent merger of BeerAdvocate and Untappd. Some of the more extreme ones can be weird at best, but this year there really weren't many that I'd even consider 'extreme'. Stouts, IPA's, and sours dominated the docket this year. Despite the small venue, there were still a few breweries you just don't see in Boston.

My Experience: This year I decided to go to the Friday session to get first crack at the good stuff. Like last year, the beer list was available in advance, so I looked that up. Since there were only 30-ish breweries, I knew I'd try more than 1 at some of them, which changed my plan. I picked 2 breweries that I had to go to, another 15 or so I really wanted to go to, and like 5-6 that I decided were skip-able. I again printed out a map and color-coded it to optimize performance. I managed to try 33 different samples, which was 5 fewer than 2019, but many were extremely high alcohol. Because of the smaller venue, even the longest lines were reasonable (looking at you Kane, which I skipped last year due to the line).

The Beers: The best one I had was Kane A Night To End All Dawns - Banana, Peanut Butter & Granola (stout), which was incredible, though not as good as the star from last year. Other beers that were notably good: The Lost Abbey Peach Afternoon (sour), Dogfish Head Bourbon Barrel Aged World Wide Stout (stout), WeldWerks Hot Sauce Barrel-Aged Taco Gose (sour - definitely wins most unique), Aardwolf Snickerdoodle White Russian (stout), Definitive Double Fruited Portals (sour/fruit), and Bolero Snort Dirty Snowbull Fights (IPA). Shout out to WeldWerks for being the only brewery to make the list 2 years in a row (though I assume Kane would have if I had waited in their ridiculous line last year). Weirdest (other than the taco beer) was The North Frosty Fry-day, a Wendy's-inspired beer that probably shouldn't be served to humans. 

Recommendations: The smaller venue made for fewer options, but almost everything is amazing, there are quite a few beers brewed specifically for this festival, and it's totally reasonable to hit all the breweries. With the smaller festival, I really only have 2 recommendations:

1. Pick 5 or so beers that you must try, and get those within your first 10 beers to make sure they don't run out. Honestly, very few beers ran out this year (maybe 10 or so out of 120), so that was nice.
2. Don't get anything if it doesn't sound good to you. If you're at a brewery, and nothing sounds good, just skip it (unless you feel the need to hit them all, and trust me, I get that).

Also, If you've got good drinking stamina, the last 45-75 minutes you will have plenty of options with no lines.

​I'll be back next year for sure.

Pete
I'm still a little behind, so I'm basing this on what I've added to the site in the last week. That's almost exclusively beers from a beer festival that I'll get to shortly, so you can imagine there were plenty of options. The best: Kane A Night To End All Dawns (with some additions).
Description: Somehow this tastes like all the things in the title. It smells like bourbon, and a little of that comes through in the flavor, but it's mostly peanut buttery granola. The banana is also there in the background just hanging out.
What you should know: This was a beer festival exclusive, so you probably can't get your hands on it. Sorry.
​Recommendations: If you come across any other crazy stouts from Kane, get them.

Pete
As promised, here's another great one: Trillium Resolution Break.
Description: The kind of beer that makes you want to break Dry January - it's basically a dessert. Coffee, caramel, molasses, and chocolate flavors hit your tongue on shuffle as you drink it. No real order - each sip is different, but delicious.
What you should know: These bottles from Trillium tend to be $23-26, so don't expect this to be cheap.
​Recommendations: Don't bother with dry January; you don't need an excuse to drink this.

Pete
I had over 1000 new beers in 1.5 years. That's ... a lot. Due for an update. Thanks to Tip Tap Room for accounting for mostly likely half of the newest 1000, and to Trillium for accounting for 63 of them. The stats (values from last time in parentheses):
Breweries: 621 (490)
Beers: 3029 (2022)
Breweries with only 1 beer: 258 (212)
Breweries with 5+  beers: 166 (117)
Cascade highest average of those at 6 for 7 beers
Breweries with 10+ beers: 81 (45)
Foam and Hill Farmstead highest average of those at 5.5 for 14 beers
Breweries with 25+ beers: 13 (8)
Tree House highest average of those at 5.49 for 78 beers
Breweries with 50+ beers: 5 (3)
Night Shift 4.45 for 128
Trillium 5.29 for 92
Harpoon 4.39 for 83
Tree House 5.49 for 78
Sam Adams 4.44 for 71
Most inconsistent breweries (biggest Standard Deviation of Ratings) with 5+ beers:
Goose Island (4 avg), Crooked Stave (4.29), Bear Republic (4.5), Shipyard (3.67), Abandoned Building (4.5)
Most consistent breweries with 5+ beers:
Cascade (6), Cheeky Monkey (4), Gneiss (4), SixPoint (4.14), Southern Pacific (3.8)
Worst Beer (still unlikely to ever change):
Newport Storm Hurricane Amber Ale
Breweries with at least 1 beer 6 or higher rating: 222 (150)
Breweries with 5+ beers with 6 or higher rating: 28 (15)
Breweries with 10+ beers with 6 or higher rating: 10 (5)
Breweries with more than 1 7 beer: 6 - Southern Tier has 3, Tree House 9 (this stayed the same as last time, except Tree House added 7 new 7's - taking over the high-end dominance).

Beers rated 7 Shyoh's: 46 (36)
Beers rated 6 Shyoh's: 569 (293)
Beers rated 5 Shyoh's: 1044 (642)
Beers rated 4 Shyoh's: 965 (700)
Beers rated 3 Shyoh's: 327 (285)
Beers rated 2 Shyoh's: 68 (57)
Beers rated 1 Shyoh   : 10 (9)

As you can see, the vast majority of additions are to 5's and 6's. Breweries are getting better, and I'm getting better at choosing knowing my preferences. Tons of great beer out there.

​My note last time said that "maybe Josh will add some too". I can say with confidence that, of these last 1007 beers, Josh reviewed exactly 1. It was recent though, so maybe he'll do more.

Pete
Finally hit 3000 (it hasn't been very long since 2500). Also, sorry for the delay here, but we've been having all kinds of issues with the website. It should be fixed permanently now. Onto the beer: Tired Hands Frequency Illusion: Grenache.
Description: The bottle really doesn't give you any idea what the hell this is. Could be a beer, could be a rosé. What it really is is just a somewhat funky sour with grape as the dominant fruitiness to balance it.
What you should know: This is highly carbonated, so the flavors don't stick with you all that long, making it dangerously easy to drink.
​Recommendations: Pair this with food like you would a white wine, or just drink it by itself - delicious.