BSA Harvest Ale
Notch’s second limited release, our new BSA Harvest Ale, was previewed at the Gulu Gulu in Salem during North Shore Beer Week last Thursday, and we’ll do the same tonight, October 7th at Clover in Harvard Square at 8PM. So it’s time for a bit of background on our first beer with an acronym in [...]
The Bitter Truth – #2 in the cask series
Not everything falls into place every time. Notch Bitter was one of those experiences. So rather than writing an informational post with a few ramblings that ends with something innocuous, here’s the hard reality of brewing in too many places with too many variables and not enough time, resources or money.
After a summer vacation, Notch [...]
Time for a worker’s beer.
It’s time to celebrate Summer with a beer of refreshment and nourishment – a worker’s beer. Summer is no time for a beer of kings or royalty, it’s time for a beer that slakes our thirst and reminds us that flavor is not a compromise when refreshment is required. So this week, this first week of Summer, we [...]
Notch Bottle Release – March 1!
It’s show time – Notch Session bottles hit greater Boston the first week of March. So to kick this off in grand style, we are taking over the Lower Depths on March 1 to spread the word, drink session beer, and mostly have a little fun. Probably a lot of fun. Get there early – [...]
The Path to Grodziskie
I had a few beers late last year with Todd and Jason Alstrom from Beer Advocate and talk turned to the Extreme Beer Fest (EBF). Todd spoke about Extreme Session Beer as the theme for 2011, where beers would be made with innovative /unique processes or ingredients AND be under 5% ABV. Needless to say [...]
Not a gypsy.
As the craft beer scene evolves and matures, new approaches to making beer are certain. One such approach is “gypsy brewing”. A gypsy brewer finds an existing brewery with excess capacity, and physically brews the beer themselves in the rented facility with little, if any, assistance from the host brewery. And from what I understand, [...]
Session Beer – Workers’ Beer
I’ve been working on finalizing recipes this week for the new Notch beers to be released in February of next year. With this release, Notch steps outside of the British Isles and begins to explore Session Beers of other great beer brewing nations. While the Brits coined the phrase “Session”, they are not the only [...]
Label Fun
Getting a beer to market is not quite like watching sausage being made, but it certainly is tedious and frustrating at times. The legacy of prohibition lives on to this day in the laws governing the production, distribution and sale of beer. How so? Let’s take a look at the alcohol statement on beer labels, [...]
Updates and stuff…
A bit of a house cleaning post today, with updates, events, thanks and beer related activities. There’s a bit of a gap in availability over the next few weeks as we gear up for our full draft release later this month. As you can see in a previous post, Notch will be in wider draft [...]
Notch Update!
Back in April I launched a limited Summer roll-out of Notch Session Ale with the hope of proving out a theory that session beer had a rightful, more visible place in the US craft beer scene. The goal was small – bring session beer back into the conversation – but success was uncertain. Was a [...]