American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
In the summer, our beloved Boston becomes a playground for craft drinkers. Between roof deck pools, beer gardens, beer cocktails, paired dinners, new canned offerings, and fan favorite festivals like American Craft Beer Fest and Summerfest, we’ve got delightful ways to stay cool with favorite beverages – and now you can add one more event to your radar.
This past weekend WGBH, New England’s public broadcasting powerhouse, linked up with Massachusetts brewers to curate its first (and fingers-crossed annual) craft beer festival. Seventeen breweries schlepped over to Brighton to display their wares, connect with enthusiasts, and get the word out about their next big projects. I was on hand to do a little brew Q&A, and I’ve gotta say, no one really needed my help.
Curious about what prompted this first foray into the wide world of craft, I quizzed a couple WGBH folks on why Boston, and why now? Michael Raia, Director of Media Relations & Marketing, shared: “Boston is a great place for craft beer; we have this tradition of Sam Adams and Harpoon and Boston Beer Works. For us, it’s not just about the tastings and the music and the food; we are looking to make sure that we have experts on hand to talk to people about what goes into the brewing process. As a public broadcaster and content producer of a number of PBS programs, at any of our events we want people to leave here knowing more than when they walked in, whether it’s a cultural experience or an educational experience. Especially in New England, our members and audience will be interested in having that behind-the-scenes, behind-the-curtain look at what this industry is and who the people are behind the beer they’re tasting.”
To get a behind-the-curtain quote, I asked Newburyport Brewing Company cofounder Chris Webb for his take. “Craft brewers love public television and radio! As a brand new brewery here in Massachusetts, this was a fantastic opportunity to share our beers with a new audience and talk about our 8000-square-foot facility in historic Newburyport. And I always love seeing my fellow brewers to share stories and sample their latest beers. Great music, great people, great beer for a great nonprofit – it doesn’t get any better than that.”
Yuri Stern, Director of Member Engagement, explained to me that they were aiming for a balance of crowd pleasers and fresh talent: “We wanted to host a mainly local craft beer festival, so we talked with our friends at Craft Beer Cellars in Belmont, MA and they provided a lot of insight into which brewers to have here, and who would complement each other. We wanted some beer most people have heard of, but also ones people hadn’t heard of.”
Jen Hartin, Event Coordinator, chimed in, “We did stress local, but what’s cool is we have two breweries here from Utah [Squatters and Wasatch] that are just launching their product to the Boston market, and I think that we’ve decided that each year, this is something we want to be able to do with this festival: introduce our members to something brand new.”
I think my favorite part of the festival was the feeling I got that casual craft fans and buffs alike were going to go home and buy a new kind of beer to bring to their next BBQ. Jen nailed it when she added, “What’s cool is we have the aficionados here that are really into it, and though the standard WGBH programming doesn’t automatically in your brain connect to craft beer, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an interest for our audience to get into it – so we’re introducing both of these groups together – experts and the ones that want to learn as much as they can.”
Personally, I just want to learn whether this event is happening again next year.
