Brewery Visit: Greater Good Imperial Brewing Company – Worcester, MA

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Beer, Beer Review, Brewery Visit, Massachusetts, New England, Pink Boots Society, Worcester

We found ourselves out in Worcester, MA this past weekend for a baby shower and a trip to the EcoTarium for our son.  Before heading home, however, my advance scouting and found yet another family-friendly brewery to check out.  Bonus points for them serving food as well!

Greater Good is located on an industrial stretch in Worcester with, thankfully, a rather ample parking lot.  Just make sure to keep an eye out for signs as the turn-in was kind of hard to see from the road when approaching from the side of the brewery that didn’t have their signage on it.  On the way inside we passed through a small outdoor seating area that looked tempting, but at the time of our visit was way too sunny for our party. That ended up being just as well, considering how much fun the place was inside.  It was quite spacious and had a cool finished warehouse vibe with plenty of seating and a performance area for live music. It also featured the requisite board games and arcade machines to keep kids of all ages entertained as well as some random other toys (more on that later).  Beyond the obvious, a big part of what made this such an alluring stop for us was that the taproom also serves food in the form of amazing looking pressed sandwiches.  They run about $11-12 each and are pretty generous in size. They’re also every bit as good as they look on the menu and highly recommended.

Moving on to the beer, Greater Good boasts to be “America’s First All Imperial Brewery” and had a draft list that, with few exceptions, matched that assertion.  We weren’t really feeling flights that day, so my wife and I each had a couple of full pours. I started my afternoon off with Pink is the New Black, a 6.0% Cascadian Dark Ale brewed in conjunction with the Pink Boots Society to promote and encourage women in the beer industry.  It boasted a fantastically smooth blend of piney hops, light roasted malt, and a slight notes of citrus fruit and chocolate that I really enjoyed.  It had certainly been awhile since I last had a good “black IPA” and this one definitely delivered just that. My second and final beer of the visit was Good Night Moon, an 11% Imperial Porter that was chocolate milk goodness in a glass.  It had silky smooth and creamy body and featured plenty of creamy chocolate notes atop a fairly moderate amount of roasted coffee.  This was the consensus favorite of the day, so much so that cans came home with us. If you see this, try this.

My wife went in a different direction with her choices, opting for a pair of NEIPAs named Shine On (8.4%) and PULP DADDY (8%).  While I don’t have any notes to share on these, both were given very positive endorsements, though the edge went to Shine On.  From my brief tastes, however, I can say that both of these beers are sure to please fans of the style, offering plenty of dangerously drinkable juicy deliciousness.

As a final note, I can’t end this post without mentioning the brewery’s unofficial mascot, Creepy Baby (see above).  My wife found it under a table while grabbing some coloring pages for our son and proceeded to carry it back to our table, holding it by the shirt.  To our amusement, it was lifelike enough to horrify everyone she passed by. There was literally even a dog that had been resting under a nearby table that looked freaked out!  Fortunately, after everyone did a double take and realized that 1) the doll was fake, and 2) we’re not horrible people that manhandle babies across taprooms a good laugh was had by all!

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Beer, Wormtown Brewing Company

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Seven Saws Brewing Company – Buzzsaw

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Beer, Beer Review, Farm, Lavender, Massachusetts, Seven Saws Brewing Company, Summer, SummitWynds

As part of our plans to celebrate the coming of summer, the family made a trip out to the Farm at SummitWynds in Holden, MA to attend the opening evening of their Lavender Farm Fest.  As a pleasant surprise, the nearby Seven Saws Brewing Company had a fairly prominent presence there, pouring, among other things, a beer they made specially for the event!

Beer Name: Buzzsaw

Brewery: Seven Saws Brewing Company (Holden, MA)

Style: Blonde Ale with Honey and Lavender

ABV: 5.0%

Description: I couldn’t find much info on this beyond what I’ve already said, but to recap this was a blonde ale brewed with lavender and honey.

Appearance: Draft only, it poured to a light orange/copper colored body, topped by a thin white layer of foam.

Smell: Faintly sweet, with light herbal and floral notes on the end.

Taste: Lightly sweet pale malt base enhanced with a bit of extra body and sweetness by some smooth honey notes.  The lavender came through mostly towards the middle and end as a slight herbal presence lurking mostly in the background.

Mouthfeel: Medium body, with a nice thick smoothness from the honey. Low carbonation.

Hype: None.  I wasn’t familiar with the brewery and I had a really not good experience with the last lavender-based brew I had.  Of course I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to give this a try though.

Overall: I was initially kind of skeptical, but after tasting it I felt like this was pretty good while my wife absolutely loved it!  I liked the sweetness and texture the honey added and, most importantly, the lavender was not over done. There was just enough to give the beer a nice aroma and subtly influence the taste, but not so much that it was overpowering.  A nice, easy drinking beer that was a perfect tie-in to the event. Well executed.

Beer’d Brewing Company & Pipeworks Brewing Company – Dogs vs. Shinobi

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Beer, Beer Review, Beerd Brewing Company, IPA, Pipeworks Brewing Company

I went into my go-to store by my office on a mission for IPAs the other day and snatched this next beer up the moment I saw it.  I’m a big fan of both Beer’d and Pipeworks and was feeling pretty confident a collaboration between the two would be something to experience.

Beer Name: Dogs vs. Shinobi

Brewery: Beer’d Brewing Company (Stonington, CT) & Pipeworks Brewing Company (Chicago, IL)

Style: NEIPA

ABV: 6.5%

Description: A collaboration NEIPA playing off the name of each brewery’s popular, year-round hoppy offerings.  It was double dry hopped with Citra, Simcoe, and Mosaic and brewed with an addition of guava puree.

Appearance: It poured to a murky yellowish-amber body topped by a thin foamy head.

Smell: Burst of tropical fruit with an added blast of orange and tangerine on the end.

Taste: Lots of tropical fruit juice (lead, appropriately, by guava) and pulpy citrus notes.  These were followed by a smooth, slightly creamy transition toward a mild haze haze of resinous bitterness beneath a second wave of tropical fruit.

Mouthfeel: It had a fairly thick juice-like body with below moderate carbonation.

Hype: I was pretty excited to try this personally, but I don’t think there was much in the way of external motivation.

Overall: Really, really good!  It has a delicious tropical profile and just enough bitterness on the end to fulfill that craving for hops.  Very pleased by this pick up.

Book Review: 2312, by Kim Stanley Robinson

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2312, Book, Book Review, Kim Stanley Robinson, Reading, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction

As an avid reader of science fiction, I feel like Kim Stanley Robinson is an author that I need to be way more familiar with than I am currently.  He’s had a very successful and prolific career, having won multiple awards over the years, along the way earning praise like “the gold-standard of realistic, and highly literary, science-fiction writing” from The Atlantic and a “Hero of the Environment” from Time Magazine.  I can’t believe how quickly the time has passed since reading my first novel from him back in 2016, but here I am finally getting into a second one!

The majority of this book takes place in and around the year 2312.  In this future, while humanity has spread out across the Solar System, it is still spiritually beholden to an Earth wracked by the effects of climate change, overpopulation, and massive social inequality.  The story unfolds mainly from the perspective of an eccentric artist named Swan Er Hong and opens with the death of her grandmother Alex, the widely respected and extremely influential Lion (ruler) of Mercury.  Shortly after the funeral, Swan is approached by a pair of Alex’s colleagues, Inspector Jean Genette of the Interplanetary Police and a diplomat from the Saturnian moon Titan named Wahram. Prompted by their inquiries regarding any messages Alex may have left behind regarding a particularly sensitive project, Swan uncovers a store of hidden communications left for her to deliver, a mission that quickly finds her swept up in a plot that spans the Solar System.

I was absolutely blown away by this book!  Though it often dove into some pretty dense subject matter, the story remained thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding throughout.  It covered so much ground and featured such a richly developed universe that I am thoroughly impressed the author managed to pack so much into a single 576 page book that still offered an intricate story and vision.  From the internal politics governing the various centers of humanity to the complex, Basque-inspired, economic system tying them together, the political and economic realities of this world told a compelling piece of the story.  Guiding this, of course, was a heavy dose of science and astronomy, with a multitude of facts and theory shaping the author’s portrayal of everything from quantum computing and space travel to patterns of climate change on Earth and the resource requirements for terraforming other worlds.  While this may sound a bit dry to some people, I can assure this book was anything but! The author’s beautifully detailed descriptions of such fascinating locations as a terraforming Venus, rugged settlements on the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, the flooded remains of Manhattan, and the rolling city of Terminator on Mercury really made this universe spring to life and make the reader feel like they were places they could actually visit.

Another fascinating part of this story were the people inhabiting this universe, for it is through them that we explore the complex social and biological changes this future brings.  The three mains, Swan, Wahram, Inspector Genette were all fascinating on an individual level, but more broadly served to explore the other frontiers presented in this novel; namely, a re-imaging of human biology, gender, and sexuality.  Inspector Genette, is what is referred to as a “small”; a person who by design is significantly shorter and lighter than the average human so that they are better suited to life in higher gravity. As for Swan and Wahram, the story got a little more radical.  Though they identified as female and male, respectively, both were revealed to be gynandromorphous, a fairly common trait among the spacers of this universe who tended to embrace treatments and procedures that often radically redefine the human experience. It was Swan, however, who pushed the boundaries of humanity more than most in this story, to the point of alarming her companions.  Her major body modifications, beyond the addition of male sex organs, include incorporating animal brain matter into her own, ingesting a suite of alien bacteria found on Enceladus, and, perhaps most notably, embedding a quantum computer in her neck. There was a very interesting balance of necessity and vanity to all of these enhancements, as well as an air of rebellion in doing things simply because one could.

As for the actual plot, well, I really don’t want to give that much of it away!  A lot of the fun of this story was watching events unfold while experiencing the wonder of traveling the Solar System with Swan.  The cryptic lists and extracts that the author added between chapters were an excellent way to unobtrusively get the reader up to speed on some of the events and ideas that shape this world, and once they started coming into clearer view, made for some shocking revelations and insights.  Likewise the gradual reveal of Alex’s project and the root of her mistrust of quantum computers made for some fascinating reading.

Put that all together and this was an impressive book that offered a thoroughly captivating look into humanity’s future while telling a fascinating story.  Needless to say, I highly enjoyed this one and found that offered everything (and more!) that I had hoped for upon embarking on another sci-fi adventure. I know I’ve said this a lot lately, but this author is definitely getting an increased presence at the top of my TBR list.  I’m even going so far as to promise myself now that I’ll read at least one more book from him before the year is over!

Rising Tide Brewing Company – Ishmael

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Beer, Beer Review, Maine, New England, Rising Tide Brewing Company

This next beer found its why into my fridge courtesy of the singles section at my local grocery store.

Beer Name: Ishmael

Brewery: Rising Tide Brewing Company (Portland, ME)

Style: Copper Ale

ABV: 4.9%

Description: An altbier/amber ale/copper ale concoction named for the protagonist of Moby Dick.  Read all about the recipe and why the brewers categorize this the way they do here.

Appearance: Poured out the can to a copper colored, cloudy yet see-through body.  Across the top there was a half-finger of slightly off-white foam.

Smell: Mild to moderate aromas of sweet malt.

Taste: Sweet and malty upfront, featuring some nice caramel notes followed by a mild yeasty presence.  The ending bought on a light amount of bitterness in the form of earthy/piney hops

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a smooth, mildly carbonated finish.

Hype: None really, though I was rather curious to see how this one would turn out.  I remember drinking this being a beer fest staple back in my early days of getting into beer so I was interested to see what I thought of it now.

Overall: I liked this.  It didn’t necessarily “wow” me, but it deliver exactly what I hoped to get out of it.  Nice smooth malt flavor with a little bit of bitterness on the end, this relatively low ABV offering was a good beer to unwind with.

Random Tag Tuesday: The Book Addiction Tag

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Blog Life, Book Tag, Books, Random Tag Tuesday, Reading

Random Tag Tuesday is a new feature I wanted to try out just to mix things up a bit.  The name is a throwback to my college days when Tuesdays were the day for, well, random adventures.  For my blog, it will mean that on any given Tuesday I’ll tackle one of the many tags I always wanted to write about but never got around to.  Please note that most of these will come from my backlog notes and that I am terrible about keeping track of where I find these. As such, I probably will rarely, if ever, tag anyone.  It is not personal.

This next tag has been kicking around on my list for a while now, and it seemed rather timely since I’m in the middle of a reading spree!

What is the longest amount of time you can comfortably go without picking up a book?

I usually start feeling it if I go more than two or three days in a row without a book.  I don’t often get to read on weekends, so by the time I get on the train to work Monday morning I am ready read!

How many books do you carry on your person (or kindle) at any one time?

I rarely, if ever, have a physical book on me these days and if I do it is the one that I am currently reading.  There’s probably hundreds on my kindle, though many of them are on there only because I share the account with my wife.  Sometimes to great benefit, others to my great amusement.

Do you keep every book you buy/receive or are you happy to pass them on to make space for more?

After a recent, and major, decluttering effort we’ve actually trimmed down our hoard of books rather significantly the last few years.  All were either given away via Facebook marketplace or donated locally. As such, we don’t really buy that many physical books anymore and the majority of my reading comes from the library.

How long would you spend in a bookshop on a standard visit?

Depends on the circumstances of my visit.  I probably could spend hours in a shop of sufficient size and quality, though usually it’s more like 30 minutes, or whatever the attention span of my son is on that particular day.

How much time per day do you actually spend reading?

I believe the only appropriate answer here is not nearly enough!  I average about an hour a day on a typical week.

Where does the task ‘picking up a book’ appear on your daily to-do list?

It is an essential part of my morning and afternoon transit routine.

How many books do you reckon you own in total (including e-books).

Easily hundreds.  Most are in electronic form.

Approximately how often do you bring up books in conversation?

Depends on who I’m talking to.  At least one or two times a week I guess, though to be fair I am an extremely quiet person.

What is the biggest book (page count) you have finished reading?

Probably Oathbringer, by Brandon Sanderson.  Official page count is 1,248.

Is there a book you had to get your hands on against all odds i.e searching bookshops, online digging etc?

I don’t think there has been, actually.

A book you struggled to finish but refused to DNF?

Armada, by Ernest Cline.  It felt like an almost insultingly patronizing cash-in on nostalgia and derivative of the more interesting Ready Player One.

What are 3 of your main book goals for 2019?

1. Get caught up on or complete some the series I am in the middle of.
2. Read and review 25 books.  It’s a humble yet realistic number for myself.
3. Make a plan for tackling, or at least organizing, my TBR list.

Have you ever had the privilege of converting someone into a reader (maybe via inspiration or incessant nagging)?

No.  I don’t feel the need to force anyone into something, though most people I know read plenty anyway.

Describe what books mean to you in five words?

A healthy escape from reality.

 

Unibroue – Ale Gateau Foret-Noire

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Beer, Beer Review, Belgian Dark, Canada, Six Pack, Unibroue

After considering how successful my last experience with this brewery was, I decided to go back for more and picked up another mixed six-pack.  While most of the beers in there were known to me, this one stood out as a tantalizing special treat.

Beer Name: Ale Gateau Foret-Noire

Brewery: Unibroue (Chambly, Canada)

Style: Belgian Dark Strong Ale

ABV: 10.5%

Description: Originally brewed to celebrate Unibroue’s 25th Anniversary, this decadent brew was inspired by black forest cake.  Find out more about the story and specs here.

Appearance: Deep mahogany body with a thick, foamy beige head.

Smell: Boozy dark fruit aromas, highlighted by plumb and raisin.

Taste: The opening was sweet, again featuring a healthy showing of dark fruit.  Initially, this gave way to a second burst of hot, yeasty sweetness led by dark cherries but unfortunately obscured behind aggressive carbonation.  After sitting in the glass for a few minutes the bubbles mellowed out significantly, allowing chocolate and cocoa notes to come through while the cherries on the end intensified.

Mouthfeel: On the whole a the body was a little bit less than medium and very effervescent to start.  As mentioned above, however, the carbonation did level off a bit after a few minutes.

Hype: None.  I was just looking for some beer to fill my fridge when I happened upon another Unibroue mixed pack.

Overall: I was a bit worried about this one after finding the opening carbonation way over the top for the style and taste.  Once that initial rush of bubbles subsided, though, I found this an enjoyable, yet very sweet, dessert beer to sip at.

Book Review: The Consuming Fire, by John Scalzi (Book Two in the Interdependency Trilogy)

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Book, Book Review, Interdependency, John Scalzi, Reading, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction

Shortly after I mentioned needing something to lighten my mood a bit following my last book review, I stumbled upon just the read I needed.  Always good for a laugh and some fun sci-fi hijinks, John Scalzi’s novels always have a place on my reading list and this one popped up at just the right time.  Published in October 2018, this is the second book in the ongoing Interdependency Trilogy that I began back in July of 2017.

Taking place shortly after the end of the previous novel, Cardenia Wu is now fully established in her position as Emperox Grayland II and desperately working to hold her empire together.  Facing the impending collapse of the Flow, the natural phenomena that links all human settlements and makes space travel possible, and a continued opposition to her reign from the influential Nohamapetan family, she must battle every step of the way to make sure her voice gets heard.  Standing alongside allies like scientist Marce Claremont and ruthless business woman Kiva Lagos, Cardenia must by any means necessary find a way to convince her various constituents of the reality of Flow collapse while fighting well-coordinated attempts to undermine her authority.

As expected, this was a fun, rollicking romp of a space adventure featuring a compelling world, complex political scheming, and some pretty spot-on satire covering a variety of timely topics like religion, the role of corporations, the denial of climate change, and the willingness of corrupt individual to use lies and rumor to subvert reasoned discourse.  Seeing as I tend to agree with Scalzi’s nominally left-leaning, irreverent slant on these issues, I found these things all rather wonderful in a cynically mirthful sort of way. Playing an integral role in moving this forward was an amazing collection of characters with absolutely hilarious inner monologues that alternated between dry wit, spit-fire obscenities, and chuckle out loud observations.  The people you root for, like Kiva and Cardenia, and against, looking at you again Nohamapetans, were equally joyful to behold and really made the story for me.  Kiva, despite an uncharacteristic attachment to a certain lady friend, was as rowdy as ever, though it was easily Cardenia that impressed me the most this time around.  It was absolutely fantastic to see her embrace the role of Emperox and embark upon a mission to expertly stick it to the people oh-so desperately have it coming.

In short this story absolutely delivered the good, fun read I was hoping for and have come to expect from this author.  This book was an excellent reminder of why Scalzi is one of my favorites and if you’re a fan of his work I highly recommend checking out this series if you haven’t already.  My only regret here is that I am going to have to wait for the final book to come out!

Bone Up Brewing Company – P.R.I.D.E.

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Bone Up Brewing Company, Brewery Visit, Pale Ale, Pride

In case you weren’t aware, June is Pride Month!  To help kick the festivities off in style, Everett’s Bone Up Brewing Company unveiled a new beer and merch this past weekend to help raise money for the folks at GLAD (GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders).

Beer Name: P.R.I.D.E.

Brewery: Bone Up Brewing Company (Everett, MA)

Style: Pale Ale

ABV: 4.6%

Description: A specially brewed pale ale featuring Pacifica, Rakau, Idaho 7, El Dorado, and Empire hops.  More specs here.

Appearance: Juice-like, orange and gold body with a thin layer of white foam across the top.

Smell: Light citrus and pale malts.

Taste: It had a smooth light orange, melon, and citrus rind sweetness that sat atop a subtle base of pale/biscuity malt.  There was a mild bitterness on the end with a touch more sweetness.

Mouthfeel: Soft, roughly medium body with fairly light carbonation.

Hype: As a testament to their belief in this cause, the brewery definitely made sure their social media followers knew this hitting the taps.  I don’t know about any additional hype necessarily, but people did seem pretty enthusiastic about this.

Overall: Fresh, easy drinking, and very refreshing.  It had a nice sweetness and mouthfeel that made it the perfect beer to sit outside with on a warm day.  Happy Pride you all!