4/02/2011

Berkshire Brewing Company (BBC) - A to Z Blog Challenge

Berkshire Brewing Company started in 1994, coincidentally the same year I finished my sophmore year in High School. There's no common thread between those two facts, I just thought I'd throw that in there, cause aside from it being my sophomore year, there was nothing memorable about it for me. At least, if there was, I can't recall it.

Being a New Englander, and more specifically a Bostonian, I have an over-inflated sense of pride regarding things in, around, and from this area. It seems a common trait we New Englanders have. I love that we see the best and worst of all four seasons. Case in point: As I write this post, a little early on in this challenge, admittedly, but knowing myself, I'll finish it only just in the nick of time anyway, it's March 21st, the first day of spring, and it's snowing like crazy. There's so much white stuff on my deck right now, it looks like Charlie Sheen's coffee table. 

I also love that we have the ocean, lakes, forests and mountains. Imagine my non-sensical swell of pride to find a beer by the "Berkshire Brewing Company"!

This beer was introduced to me in probably one of the coolest ways by my buddy. He brought over in a Growler. In the picture below, you'll see one of my brews in recycled bottles... The 6 large ones in the middle are growlers. You can see, these are actually BBC growlers I used. 


I can just imagine the conversation that lead to the genesis of the growler... Two guys bottling beers, one says "Christ what a pain in the ass!" and the other says "Let's make a bigger bottle! That'll be MANLY!" and the first guy says "Yeah! And to make it more MANLY, we'll call it a GRRRRRRROWLER!" I'm sure it was shortened for convenience. 

Anwyay, back to the beer. 

This is a craft brew, and as such, it has a sludge that settles on the bottom called Lees. Some people prefer to toss the last few ounces to avoid drinking the lees, others drink it. It's perfectly harmless, as it's mainly dead yeast cells. If you don't like the lees, you'd best store the bottle upright. 

Being that it comes in such a large vessel, it's best to drink the whole thing that night, to avoid having flat beer tomorrow. 

I've had several brews, and they were all exemplary. My favorite of these is the Lost Sailor IPA. This is a very nice IPA similar to Harpoon, though a little more flowery. It's definltey got some wine overtones to it, but the hop flavor comes out in the finish. Perhaps a little more sour than bitter. 

This beer comes in at 5.5%. Definitely a good beer.

11 comments:

  1. Interesting... probably a bit hard to find in Austin unfortunately.

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  2. This one sounds very good. And I'd drink the lees--I hate to see anything going to waste--especially when it comes to beer.


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    Thanks.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out
    Twitter hashtag: #atozchallenge

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  3. Not relevant unless you consider the fact I'm currently drinking a beer... but I LOVE Boston accents. You should do an audio post of you saying words such as "Beer," "Wicked," "garbage," and "car keys."

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  4. Nothing like a good local brew. And dug the comment about Charlie Sheen's coffee table.

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  5. Heh, sorry Allison, I'm a bit of an anomaly. Although both parents had Boston accents, not I, nor any of my three brothers ended up with it. Though, it does come out when I drink.

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  6. Oh! For the win! I LOVE Microbrews. At one point I worked at the first microbrewery opened after prohibition (in Hillsdale, Oregon) and I am a huge micro fan, so I love this! Glad you stopped by my blog today or I might have missed this!

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  7. Thanks Hart! I love the microbreweries... I'd LOVE it if I had the means to just drop everything (except writing) and open a brewshop!

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  8. YUMMY! me likey some beer. and the local brews are often the best! :D

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  9. Hi Trisha! Total agreement here! :D

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  10. Hi, I've never made beer but I make my own spirits and today I bottled the port I made from a kit. Very nice but ooh so so sweet!

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  11. Awesome blog! Beer!!! I used to sample beers from around the world with my friends after work. There is a bar called Goat Hill Tavern in Costa Mesa CA with over a hundred tap beers. I saw the coole ronce. It was madness and gladness. They were in the Guiness Book of World Records at one time for having the most different kinds of tap beer. Ah ... memories.

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