American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
Juliana Casale / Boston Correspondent
The Boston Calling music festival has come a long way since its inception in May of 2013. The bands have gotten bigger, the beer selection has continued to evolve, and this weekend ushered in a new era as the event changed venues from the concrete confinement of City Hall Plaza to the sprawling astroturf of the Harvard Athletic Complex.
Featuring entrance arches, a Ferris wheel, three stages, arcade games and a comedy experience hosted by Hannibal Buress, the revamped Boston Calling resembled a much larger festival, in the vein of Coachella or Bonnaroo. Not surprisingly, the event had the hiccups associated with a much larger scale; lines were long for food, bathrooms ran out of toilet paper, and trash cans quickly overflowed from use.
Growing pains aside, the caliber of musical acts and the quality of the festival’s food and drink were outstanding. As Chance the Rapper, Mumford & Sons, Weezer and Tool rocked the stage, attendees were treated to local offerings like The Smoke Shack’s BBQ bomb waffle cone and hot honey bacon grilled cheese from Roxy’s. Sam Adams brought the sunshine with its Raspberry Lemon Gose, Porch Rocker shandy and Summer Ale, as well as crowd favorite Rebel IPA.
But for craft fans, the ultimate destination was Mikkeller’s massive beer tent. Tucked away by the blue stage and immune to Friday’s rainshowers, this covered sanctuary featured eight distinct offerings from the popular Danish brewer. Mike Yao, General Manager for the Mikkeller Brewery in California had this to say about the thought process behind the selection:
“We selected a wide variety of beers to represent both our European roots and our new brewery in San Diego. ‘Beer Geek Breakfast” (100 on RateBeer) is a longtime favorite, while ‘Waves IPA’ is our best selling West Coast style IPA. Hop-forward beer styles range from pale ale, to hazy IPA, to imperial IPA.”
A standout for me was ‘Raspberry Blush’ – a Berliner Weisse with raspberries and rye whiskey barrel aged coffee beans that is one of Mikkeller’s new core beers.
When asked why Mikkeller chose to participate in Boston Calling and to host its Copenhagen Beer Festival in our fair city, Mike shared, “Boston is one of the pioneering cities for Craft Beer, and it is also a great food city. Mikkeller has always been committed to pushing the boundaries of beer, and we also have a rich tradition of collaborating with top chefs around the world. We are thrilled to be in Boston!”
As Boston Calling becomes a destination event for music fans and continues to attract big names in beer, here’s hoping it maintains its original, concrete charm.
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All photos: Juliana Casale
