Category: Beer

On Colonial Spirits of Acton’s beer blog page, you will find posts from our team of beer experts. Topics range from trends in the beer industry, appreciation for and personal recollections of craft beer, and debates on the right amount of hops needed to make the perfect brew. Good beer blogs cannot exist without the participation of our friends and customers, so we invite you to get in on the discussion and post your reactions to our entries. You can also jump over to our liquor blog if spirits are your preferred beverage. And if wine is the type of alcohol you love, check out our wine blog for thoughts and opinions on all things wine. Whatever topic in the wine, liquor, and beer industry interests you, Colonial Spirits wants you to join the conversation. Post here or contact us with questions, suggestions, and comments. Or feel free to come in to meet us at one or our weekly alcohol tasting events. Leave the computer behind and talk to us face to face about your favorite beer, while sampling beer that breweries and distributors are bringing in for our customers to try.

Big publicity, little liquidity…

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I love drinking beer.  I also love being a purveyor of beer.  There are so many enthusiasts out there who I have been pleased to meet and talk beer with.  Finding great beer and getting it to these people is a lot of fun.

A recent trend in the beer market is one that marketing professionals have been studying for years – developing demand for a product that is so intense that everything produced is immediately consumed yet consumers regard the product as highly as ever and demand remains at its peak.  It is a delicate supply line to walk.  Just how many consumers should be lucky enough to get this golden nugget before so many have had it that its glitter begins to fade?

In the beer world, the answer seems to be, very few. Continue reading Big publicity, little liquidity…

A fundamental style turned elitist?

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The other day I was approached in the beer aisle by a customer looking for Stout.  I was immediately fired up to get into the wonderful world of stout beer with an eager drinker.

Stout has really come into a style of its own, but was originally the term for the strongest (or stoutest) porters.  Today stout is of the darkest of the ales, made with dark roasted malt and often lots of hops.  Stout generally has a rich flavor, a full body, is quite hearty but is not necessarily that high in abv, anywhere from 4-10+% (originally the ‘stout’ porters were ~8%).

I began to think more about stout today when the guy I was speaking with began to explain that he was well aware of many of the options but, as a person who likes to drink stout, wanted a 6 pack of something worth his time and money.  As a few top-tier 4 packs came to mind: Old Rasputin, Ten Fiddy, Dark Truth, Brooklyn Black Chocolate, I realized that I was only 2/3s of the way to answering his question. Continue reading A fundamental style turned elitist?

Black beer or Black sheep…

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Following my last post about hops, I thought it fitting to consider a relatively new trend in brewing – the Black IPA.  This style falls somewhere between Porter and Stout and strives for IPA like qualities.  The fact that it is called an IPA may speak more to the marketing draw associated with ‘IPA’ than to the style itself.  These brews typically show less body and less oomph than a stout (coffee and other nuances in stouts are often not included here either) as well as more hops and more bitterness than a porter.  It is a roasty, toasty brew showing the character of dark malts.  There is often a solid dry-hopping and, needless to say, the color is dark.  Although some come out a little more brown than black, the appealing, opaque, blackness of the beer is really the signature. Continue reading Black beer or Black sheep…

Oktoberfest September 17th!

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September 17th, 1-5pm

The famous Colonial Spirits Oktoberfest celebration is coming up on Saturday, September 17th.  This year we’ll celebrate the kick-off of the actual Oktoberfest in Germany on the same day (they start on the 17th at 12am)!

There will be dozens of O-fest and Pumpkin beers to try.  As well as free food – delicious snacks from our favorite deli, GermanDeli.com AND live music from the Schwarze Schafe Band!

The Oktoberfest/Pumpkin beer season is extremely short but there are so many good choices.  What should you stock up on? Find out when we have all of them open for sampling at our big event.

Are hops overused?

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Are hops overused?

Whoa, perhaps this is an incendiary question.  Why, then, am I posing it? Well, I am doing so indirectly, as it was posed to me by our friend, the famous oenophile, Nic Haegeli.  Nic knows what he is talking about, for sure.  Nic also enjoys challenging the practices of modern wine makers and brewers.  He is an old world wine man through and through.  So what drove him to push my hop shrouded button? He slyly prodded me under the guise of the new world use (or over use) of oak in wine making. Continue reading Are hops overused?

Beer, it’s good…

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We hear quite a bit about the ‘Craft Beer Movement’.  ‘Craft beer’ is everywhere and, in the industry, people just cannot stop talking about the continually increasing sales in that market.  With all this clamor about craft beer and with new breweries springing up all over the place I see an interesting, almost desperate, trend where everyone in the beer business is trying to define the craft beer market and get a piece of the action.

By definition, a ‘Craft Brewery’ is one with an annual production of 6 million barrels, or less.  It is seen as much more than that, though, as creative marketing efforts, eclectic brews and demand spikes over limited releases point towards an incredible market force. Continue reading Beer, it’s good…