Drink Craft Beer Collaboration
Beer? You love it. Coffee? Imperative. Brunch? A perfect excuse to drink before noon without feeling like Charles Bukowski. Notch has combined all three in the first ever collaboration beer with Drink Craft Beer! The guys from Drink Craft Beer (Jeff and Devon) were having a few pints with me and asked if I’d be [...]
The ABV Thing
It was Session Beer Day on Saturday, a creation of session beer pioneer Lew Bryson of the Session Beer Project. It was a simple idea, celebrate craft beers of moderate alcohol. A fairly modest concept, we all thought. And it became a bit of shit show on Twitter, mostly around ABV and what constitutes a [...]
More Notch Press
All, or most, Notch press assembled here for your curious mind. Boston Magazine – Top Pilsner in the local craft beer issue Food Republic – Tales a look at Boston, and loves Notch Saison. Boston Magazine – The Haven’s Notch brewed house beer. Drink Insider – Interview with Chris on the rise of Session Beer. [...]
The Haven Scottish Sweet Stout
Scottish Sweet Stouts are diverse as you can imagine, from high alcohol boozers to those so low in alcohol they were given to children as nourishment (and maybe to encourage quiet time). But they all have one thing in common that sets them apart from the ubiquitous dry Irish stouts in Boston, they tend to [...]
Two Year Interview
I had every intention of writing a two year recap blog post, but session beer advocate Lew Bryson grabbed me this week for a Q&A, and I think that interview captures just about everything. So I’ll send you to the Session Beer Project website so Lew can get the traffic. We hope to see you [...]
The death of seasonal beers.
Well, the death of a Notch seasonal beer. Let me explain. Back in the day before modern refrigeration, brewers were forced into brewing cycles to coincide with the seasonal temperatures, and certain beers were released as a result. Many of these beers lined up quite nicely with the seasons (refreshing in the summer, bolder in [...]
Black Bitter – cask only series #3
The cask only series returns with Notch Black Bitter. Black Bitter? Yes, Black Bitter. It’s an odd (we love odd), yet intriguing little beer from Notch, born of my long desire to make a hoppy mild. But Black Bitter was a better reflection of the recipe, and it has a cool alliteration. Other than that, [...]
Spring Beer Releases
Notch Saison Six Packs. Workers unite! Our funky little farmhouse friend, Notch Saison, hits six packs in mid-March for year round consumption. This was always the intent, but the 22oz release was to test out the reception of a Saison brewed to its original, workers beer strength. I was a bit humbled with the response [...]
Černé Pivo!
There are certain beers you’ll never get a chance to brew. Either the market does not exist, or the means to brew them are out of your reach. Sometimes both. For the longest time I worked in an ale only brewery, and lagers were never on my radar. So a Czech style Černe Pivo was [...]
Valley Malt Event – GO!
Beer events in Boston happen almost daily. Every week there seems to be new beer release, brewery event, special cask, etc, etc. And it’s all good. Especially good for the Boston area beer scene that for too long has been dominated by breweries from far away places. Finally, the local scene has been stealing the [...]
Updates, including Saison news.
Some quick updates on beer releases and such. Notch Saison With little or no fanfare, as is warranted for a worker’s beer, Notch Saison has been promoted to year round status starting this week. This was always the intent, as Notch Saison is a “courante” saison (everyday saison), but I wanted to test the demand for [...]