10pm
Man am I bagged…. What a day! I started the day by transferring
hotels… the switch from the Hyatt to the Westin. Pretty easy, they
even let me check in at 8 am.
I had signed up for the Crosby & Baker tour. When we all met in the
lobby we were thrilled to see that we would be joined by Thomas
Weyermann, who was very warm and supportive when talking to us. We
sat with the distributor from Munton's who offered to do whatever he
could to help us sort out our recipe formulations. Chip, from
Berkshire Brewing Company, had brought along a special pilsener using
Weyermann's new floor malted Bohemian Pilsener (this malt to be
released tomorrow), with a little Vienna and CaraAroma, 5.5% ABV…and
this beer was simply delightful!
We had a great tour of Boston Harbour, getting a great understanding
of just how container shipping works. We were treated to lunch in
Westport MA, a real genuine little fish and chips seafood little place
called the Bayside, right on the ocean, the salt spray coming in the
window made the Hop Devil from Victory go down nice and easy. We were
taken on a tour of the Crosby & Baker facilities, and make it back to
the World Trade Center just in time to attend the Hallertauer Hop
Growers Hospitality Suite, where several different beers were being
poured, all of which featured different German hops. I was
particularly engaged by a pilsener heavily hopped with Hallertauer
Mittelfruch (sp?)…
I should point out that we had spent most of the day in heavy fog,
Atlantic Ocean rain. Not my favourite weather. At about 6 we found our
way over to Harpoon Brewing's Boston Brewery, and several thousand
other brewers joined us, milling about munching down, and drinking the
offereings from several area breweries. We particularly enjoyed the
cold-pressed coffee porter from Berkshire, Mayflower Porter, and
Harpoon's Leviathan IIPA. A very unique beer was Harpoon's Old Smoky,
which was formulated with 30% smoked malt. At that point, I was
thrilled and delighted to bump into my old buddy Bill White, who had
so thoroughly enjoyed himself at my 7 Beers event on the seventh day
of the seventh month of the seventh year, not so many years ago!
Overall, we're quite delighted to be here. We're getting a very
positive response to our ideas, and our branding. (Hey, we have been
offered our first tap at the Rhino!) We may be the small fry here, but
the serious players in the craft brewing movement have been very open
in providing us with advice and practical guidance. If this is our
introduction, we can't wait to see what the rest of the week will
bring!
