A Boston Tea Party brew and other local beer news
This month marks the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, the Dec. 16, 1773, event in which the Sons of Liberty, a group of American colonists, protested British taxation by dumping an entire shipment from the East India Tea Company into Boston Harbor.
This week, Samuel Adams beer founder Jim Koch is celebrating that revolutionary act by tapping kegs of a new beer, Samuel Adams Green Tea Pale Ale. The beer features Singlo green tea, a strain thrown overboard during the Tea Party. According to the brewery, the tea lends notes of chestnuts and fresh autumn leaves to the brew.
Samuel Adams Green Tea Pale Ale will only be available at the brewery’s Jamaica Plain and downtown Boston taprooms.
Long Trail Ski The East
Another new-for-2023 beer is a collaboration between Long Trail Brewing and the apparel company Ski The East.
Ski The East Hazy Mountain IPA is a limited-edition beer clocking in at 6.7 percent alcohol by volume and featuring heavy flavors of both pine and tropical fruit. The beer is available in four-packs of 16-ounce cans, and also in Long Trail’s latest IPA mixed 12-pack.
Cisco stroll
In an effort to bring a little Nantucket to South Boston, Cisco Brewers are bringing back their annual Cisco Stroll on Dec. 9. The stroll takes place at any of eight Southie bars, including Lincoln Tavern and Roza Lyons. Not officially billed as a bar crawl, it features scarf giveaways and a costume contest. It runs from noon to 4 p.m., with one Ski The East Hazy Mountain IPA is a collaboration between Long Trail Brewing and the apparel company Ski The East. dollar for every pint of Cisco sold donated to the South Boston Neighborhood House.
H. 401 beer
Eight small Massachusetts breweries are teaming up to raise awareness for a new bill designed to enable small breweries to distribute their own beer.
The breweries — Vanished Valley, Amherst Brewing, Antimony Brewing, Hot Plate Brewing, Northampton Brewing, Shire Brewing, Skyline Beer Co., and New City Brewery — recently came together to brew H. 401, a New England-style IPA named for the bill.
“While most beer drinkers might not know or care about how beer makes it to shelves, it really does limit their choices and options to support small businesses,” says Liam Gorman of Antimony Brewing in Lenox.
H. 401 New England IPA is packaged and ready to go, and is expected to be available at each of the participating breweries. After a hearing in May, the H. 401 bill being considered in the Massachusetts Legislature was referred to the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection.