The Chronicle
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12x12 Samuel Adams Winter Break Variety Pack
Beers Included: Cold Brew Coffee Stout, Winter White Ale, Winter Lager, Old Fezzewig Purchase Date: 6 December 2025 Initial Impressions I broke my rules and bought this pack in early November when I was up in New Hampshire for a weekend. It was cold enough that it felt like winter. Not taking tasting notes at that time, I had to go back and buy this one again. For some reason I was intrigued by the Cold Brew Coffee Stout. I love dark beers, but generally prefer what I call "stout-flavored-stout". I guess I was excited to see any kind of stout in this sampler. Winter Lager has always been a stalwart; even if the recipe has been changed like other Sam Seasonals. Interestingly, the marketing company I work for doing brand ambassador work posted Sam Adams tastings with instructions to tell drinkers that Winter White was replacing Winter Lager as Sam's winter seasonal. Beer, cigar, fresh air and lake views Old Fezzewig is a beer I look for every year. Beer reviews Cold Bre
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12x12 Market Basket More for Your Dollar Lager
Beers included: Market Basket More for Your Dollar Lager, or is it just Market Basket Lager? Purchase date: 6 December 2025 Purchase price: $12.99 Initial impressions As much as I respect the business Market Basket runs, we don't shop there for one simple reason. As Yogi Berra once said, "Nobody goes there, it's too crowded". This skid was in a store five days after packaging. If you do not live in New England, it is hard to explain the kind of following the grocery chain Market Basket has. With it's slogan "More for Your Dollar", Market Basket is known for it's low prices, how well the company takes care of its employees, and the terminally squabbling DeMoulas family that owns it all. The first two items lead to the store having as loyal of a following as any store I can think of. That loyalty extends to Market Basket's house brands as well. When More for Your Dollar Lager launched it was a bit of a sensation. I kind of wish I got my hands on some sooner. With stores in New Hampshire
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12x12 Woodstock Inn Variety Pack
Beers included: Pig's Ear Brown Ale, Lost River, Peachy Wheat Ale and 4000 Footer IPA Purchase date: 6 September 2025 Purchase price: $16.99 Brewers choice is always fun. Initial Impressions Woodstock Inn is the first one of my former accounts to be reviewed in this series. When I worked for Muntons, Woodstock Inn was a steady, if not particularly huge customer. They'd buy a pallet of torrefied wheat per month, and specialty malts including 40L Crystal and Chocolate Malt a little less frequently. I was excited to find this sampler when I was up in New Hampshire for Jamboree . Having the flagship Pig's Ear Brown Ale included also gave me a great commercial beer for my side-by-side with my Long Leash Brown Ale Beer Reviews Lost River: Package date: 19 June 2025 Aroma: Sweet malt and some toffee. Appearance: Gold with good clarity. Thick, foamy white head with good retention. Flavor: Non-descript malt flavor, light and grainy Low hop bitterness and citrusy hop flavor. Di
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Brew Day and Tasting Notes: Long Leash/North Shore Brewers 2025 Q3 British Brown Ale
When British Brown Ale was drawn as the style for our club's quarterly style and in-club competition, this was an opportunity for another Hombrew Con 2022 rebrew. Whereas Maximillian Lager was brewed for the Muntons booth in the exhibition hall, Long Leash was brewed for my seminar on English Ales . Long Leash was one of four batches I brewed for my talk. A new recipe at the time, I developed it to demonstrate my beliefs in recipe development for English ales. A well-crafted English ale should be a base-malt driven beer. Even my English Porter recipe is 87% base malt. To test my theory I took the porter recipe, replacde the Chocolate Malt with Brown Malt, replaced Wheat Malt with Crystal malt, and replaced the small amount of Extra Dark Crystal in the porter with Chocolate Malt in the brown ale. For the seminar I brewed four, three gallon batches which was not nearly enough beer. Most attendees were lucky to be able to taste two out of the four. I barely had a chance to taste any
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12x12 Paulaner Oktoberfest Marzen
Beers Included: Paulaner Oktoberfest Marzen Purchase Date: 10 October 2025 Purchase Price: $16.99 Only way to drink a Marzen Initial Impressions Like many Americans, my first exposure to the Oktoberfest, or more accurately the Marzen style of beer was domestic craft-brewed examples such as Samuel Adams. It wasn't until the early 2010s when a store I frequented brought in imported examples that I was able to try the beers that are actually servied at Octoberfest. Paulaner was my first favorite. I remembered Paulaner being lighter than the marzens I was used to drinking, and having a very slight twang similar to Heineken. Over time Ayinger became my favorite German marzen, but when at 12-pack of Paulaner showed up on our porch one day a smile emerged instantly. Bought for a recipe, I chilled the bottles down, cracked four bottles to fill a maß krug, and grilled up some brats from our local butcher. Perfect fall day. Best by date: February 2026 Arom
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No solutions, only tradeoffs… getting back in shape, again
If there has been one silver lining that came from crashing out of the beer industry, no longer traveling and going back to the 9-5 insurance grind, it’s been being able to fall into a routine and get back in the gym for the first time years. Memorial Day Murph, 2025. I’ve made a ton of progress even since then I’ve been back at the gym pretty regularly for over a year now. I’ve definitely gotten stronger and better conditioned. Pounds and inches have been a bit harder to drop. The past couple of months I’ve made an effort to be even more consistent with my workouts, trying to get 7,000 steps in a day, intermittent fasting, drinking at least 80 ounces of water per day, and yes, drinking less beer. Ten years ago was the first time I had to confront the liquid calories involved in homebrewing and being a beer lover. At that time I did go back to the gym for a while until I tore my rotator cuff. I didn’t injure it at the gym. I slipped while chasing a train after Andy and I we
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12x12 Tuckerman Pale Ale
Beers included: Tuckerman Pale Ale Purchase date: 6 September 2025 Purchase price: $16.99 Initial Impressions When I resolved to start this 12x12 series , and earlier deemed the 12-pack the workhorse of the beer fridge , I wasn't sure if I specified 12-pack cans or not. Even if I had, I still would write the post. Either way I am glad that Tuckerman Pale Ale is the first 12-pack of bottles to be featured. Tuckerman Brewing, based in Conway, New Hampshire is located not too far from the New Hampshire Lakes Region where Jamboree is held. Tuckerman Pale Ale is a beer I usually pick up that weekend. Now distributed in Massachusetts by Berkshire Distributing, I have seen 4-packs of Tuckereman beer in Mass, but I have not seen the 12-packs of Pale Ale in bottles. Like many craft stalwarts like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Allagash White, Tuckerman Pale Ale is bottle-conditioned which is why the brewery hasn't abandoned the format entirely. Aroma: Bread crust and light toast.
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Revisiting a pamphlet from Homebrew Con 2019
Hard to believe this was over six years ago, but I was hit with a bit of nostalgia when I found this old Muntons pamphlet from Homebrew Con 2019 in Providence.
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Tasting Notes: Maximilian Lager
I was weirdly excited to brew this recipe when I wrote the original brew day post as a stand-alone. I was able to taste the first batch of this recipe at Homebrew Con, but that is not the same thing as being able to enjoy a full pour. Needless to say, I couldn't conduct a side-by-side of that batch either. This time I gave the beer a name. I bought the tins of extract during a Black Friday sale last fall. When I purchased lager yeast for my recent Pale Kellerbier, it only made sense to re-pitch it for a batch that was already in the pipeline. The batch did get three weeks to ferment extra cold, before going into a keg for lagering. When I tasted the beer at that time, I picked up some diacetyl. I let the keg warm up to cellar temperature and sit for a week as a crude diacetyl rest. Then the keg lagered all summer until there was space in my keezer to put it on tap. For my commercial side-by-side, I saw Notch had their excellent Vienna Lager on tap at their Salem brewe
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Harpoon Summer Sampler 12x12
Beers included: Summer Style, Day Drifter IPA, Harpoon IPA, Camp Wannamango Purchase Date 3 August 2024 Purchase Price $18.99 Initial Impressions I didn't set out to buy seasonal sample packs all summer, but summer has always been my favorite beer season, and I found a few I was excited to see. The last summer 12x12 of the season, Harpoon is a brewery I thought I had talked more about in this space. I did brew a batch of Summer Somewhere inspired by the original UFO Hefewiezen . Some of my favorite Harpoon beers are classic styles like UFO Hef, Celtic Ale and Octoberfest. The old Harpoon Summer Beer was also a favorite, but I am fairly certain the new "Summer Style" is the same beer or close. Summer Beer was replaced by Camp Wannamango, which has since been demoted to the sampler. Day Drifter "nitro dosed" IPA is a new release; I have no idea what a nitro dosed IPA is supposed to be. The flagship IPA is always a great beer to go back to. This was my first gateway to hop-forward b
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12x12 Brooklyn Summer Ale
Beers Included: Brooklyn Summer Ale Purchase Date: 3 August 2025 Purchase Price: $16.49 Initial Impressions In the words of Dave Portnoy, "Don't give up on summer!". The beginning of August always brings about the arrival of fall beers. With our hot summer still ongoing and inspired by a text from a friend stocking up on summer beers, I decided to do the same. Brooklyn Summer is one of my uncle Dave's favorite beers. He always stashes some of this and Sam Summer away to save for his annual Open House on Christmas Eve. This is a beer I knew I had several times, but didn't have a great recollection of. I vaguely remembered it as a balanced and easy drinking pale ale. Beer review Best By Date: 31 October 2025 Aroma: Medium low floral hop aroma at first. More sticky malt as it warms which is accentuated by low hop bitterness. Appearance: Gold with brilliant clarity. Moderate foamy white head with good retention and lacing. Flavor: Very similar to aroma: very nice fl
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Tasting Notes: North Shore Brewers 2025 Q2 Kellerbier
As much as I prefer the written word, the digital world is moving more toward video all the time. Over the years I have very lightly dabbled in video production. I have no patience for video editing. With that in mind, I went on Facebook Live on Big Brew Day thinking that might be an easier pivot to video when I brewed this batch. The tl;dw about the brew is I designed a Helles-recipe that borrowed slightly from my cream ale recipe, the beer got two weeks in primary fermentation before being racked to a keg for keg-conditioning and lagering. I was happy to pick up a fresh crowler of Notch Zwickel directly from the brewery for my side-by-side. Aroma Homebrew: Doughy bread, low floral hop, very clean Zwickel: Slightly hoppier - rustic, almost metallic Appearance Homebrew: Gold, hint of haze. Thin, foamy white head a little disappointing. Probably not enough pressure in keg, it poured a little slow off the tap Zwickel: Color the same, clearer, h
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Does craft lager need to exist? Tasting notes: a macro versus micro taste test
Forgive the clickbait title, of course it does. Some of my favorite craft beers and breweries are lagers or lager-focused. What I am asking specifically is does craft American lager need to exist? Pedantically speaking, I am referring to styles 1A American Light Lager and 1B American Lager in the BCJP style-Guidelines. More and more craft brewers are making American-style lager. It used to be that craft beer was positioned as an alternative to bland, yellow beer. Other than responding to consumer tastes, what does craft American-style lager have to offer? Are craft brewers making better lagers than the largest lager brewers in the world? If so, is the quality difference significant enough to justify a higher price? Let’s put it to the test. I had been thinking about this for awhile when I purchased the beers for this tasting. After I purchased the beers, but before I conducted the tasting, Tree House attempted to answer this very question on their YouTube channel. Nate’s co
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Brew Day and Tasting Notes: Summer Somewhere 2025 White Ale
Discontinued beers can be a funny thing. Sometimes they are romanticized by many. Sometimes they are remembered by a few. One beer a lot of friends my age miss that is otherwise forgotten about is Samuel Adams White Ale. Consider Sam makes numerous Belgian witbiers, I never understood why their original White Ale was discontinued and never brought back. Then after doing some research I found out that White Ale used TEN different spices and botanicals: orange and lemon peel, dried plum, grains of paradise, coriander, anise, hibiscus, rose hips, tamarind, and vanilla. That probably explains it then. With two other light, summer beers on, this would be the 2025 vintage of Summer Somewhere. I got the idea to clone White Ale when the beer was mentioned on a group text. I went as far as to offer to brew a 10-gallon batch and bottle condition half to share. I haven't had White Ale since at least 2010. I remember the beer tasting like Sam Summer , but with added orange and coriander. That was
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12x12 Review: Wachusett Summer Mix Pack
Beers Included: Summer Ale, Pilsner, Blueberry Ale, Blood Orange Ale Purchase Date: 21 June 2025 Purchase Price: $15.99 Initial Impressions Wachusett is always a brewery I've had a soft spot for. In an era before Untappd, one of my early craft beer memories was the inside flap of one of their sample packs was a post card. I cut off the flap, reviewed the beers in the 12-pack, stuck a stamp on the piece of cardboard and mailed it to the brewery in exchange for a prize. The keychain bottle opener I received in the mail was on my keyring for several years. The brand has evolved quite a bit since it's 1994 founding. They started producing classic styles like the severely underappreciated flagship Country Pale Ale. Blueberry Ale, which is in this 12-pack, has probably been their best-selling beer since the early 2000s if not earlier. Wachusett was one of the first New England breweries to make a range of IPAs. Their original IPAs were old-school east coast , but with more of a M
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12x12 Review: Sierra Nevada Summerfest
Beers Included: Sierra Nevada Summerfest Purchased: 6 June 2025 Price: $19.99 Initial Impressions Craft beer drinkers love to lament discontinued beers. Especially beers that have maybe been declining in sales, or aren’t as widely distributed as it used to be. With Summerfest we have a rare example of a brewing bringing back a beloved beer. This is one I would pick up every year. Then there were one or two summers where I didn’t see Summerfest. Eventually it was replaced by a forgettable IPA. Since Summerfest came back, I’m happy to report that it’s easy for me to find in Massachusetts again. Beer Review Summerfest Packaged Date: 4 April 2025 Aroma: Beautiful blend or rich, doughy malt and floral, spicy hops Appearance: Yellow, brilliantly clear. Moderate foamy head that’s a little fizzy and fades. Flavor: A very hop-forward lager. Medium-high floral and spicy hop flavor with a punch of hop bitterness. Both are accentuated by the light body. Malt flavor is low, flavor
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Brew Day and Tasting Notes: Crackerjack Cream Ale
After my recent batch of Spring Training Stout , here I'm brewing another one of my house recipes I haven't written about in ten years . Look at those beautiful corn flakes. Like Spring Training Stout, Crackerjack Cream Ale is one of those beers I ask myself why I don't brew more often. Bearing that thought in mind, this still was not a brew I had penciled in for the summer this year. I brewed this for two reasons. Firstly, I committed to making a ten gallon batch and needed to propagate a specific yeast strain. I figured that strain would work really well in this beer. Secondly, my friends from Maine Malt House launched a direct-to-consumer website for homebrewers. Their craft malt is will be perfect in this recipe. Looking at the 2015 post, I have streamlined the recipe for Crackerjack Cream Ale to a point where I have the grist memorized: 70% North American 2-row malt, 25% Flaked Maize, 5% Caramalt. Initially the recipe had light caramel malt to give it a sweet note; you know,
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12x12 Review: Samuel Adams Beers of Summer Variety Pack
Beer Included: Summer Ale, Porch Rocker, American Light, Blueberry Lager Purchased: 31 May 2025 Price: $17.99 minus $5 rebate Initial Impressions I didn’t want to review two Samuel Adams 12-packs in a row but I won’t lie, scanning a QR code to receive a $5 rebate swayed me. I was probably going to pick this one up at some point; the rebate nudged me to do it now. Summer Ale was one of my gateway craft beers. I was so disappointed when Boston Beer Co changed the recipe, I brewed an OG Sam Summer Clone which was one of the best beers I have brewed to date. Over time I softened on the new recipe. A couple years back at a Malteurop Happy Hour at the Craft Brewers Conference, I put away quite a few Sam Summer. On Opening Day at Fenway this year, I didn’t care for this year’s version. Then a couple weeks later Summer Ale won a medal at the World Beer Cup. What do I know? Porch Rocker has never been my favorite shandy. I find it to be quite sweet. On the other hand I know a lot of people who
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Brew Day: Maximilian Lager (Vienna Lager)
The last Homebrew Con I attended with Muntons was 2022 in Pittsburgh. At the time Muntons had made a lot of exciting updates and additions to their range of homebrew products. The new Muntons Flagship Range featured more modern, American craft beer styles as opposed to traditional English styles. Also released was a range of Premium Malt Extract which included Maris Otter Pale, Wheat, Oat, Sour, Munich and Vienna Malt Extract. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Muntons Homebrew (@muntonshomebrew) I brewed 40 gallons of beer for the show and drove all eight kegs from my home outside of Boston to Pittsburgh. Marketing wanted to do a side-by-side of the Flagship Range Hazy IPA kit, the same recipe made as a partial boil/partial mash with the Oat Malt Extract, and the same recipe all grain. All three of the hazies came out great. The kit beer was noticeably the darkest of the three. The partial mash and all grain were very close. I also made a Passionfruit Sour with the Sour Malt
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12x12 Review Samuel Adams Juicy IPA
Beer Included: Samuel Adams Juicy IPA Purchased: 2 May 2025 Price: $17.99 Initial Impression I first tasted Samuel Adams New England IPA Jamaica Plain taproom in Boston back in 2017. This was before the beer was packaged for national distribution. At the time I thought the beer was excellent and if Sam could make an IPA that good at a lower price point than smaller taproom-type breweries, they would be onto something. Would people still buy a $20 4-pack if they could buy something just as good for less in a 12-pack? My comment at the time was "If I can find this fresh in stores its a game changer". I first saw the new Juicy IPA at Fenway Park That beer was eventually released in four packs, and I remember liking it if not quite as much as that trial batch. Then Wicked Hazy was released and now Juicy IPA is here. Is this the same beer that has undergone a second rebrand? The ABV and IBU of all three beers are the same. That doesn’t mean the beers aren’t all different in some way.
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Brew Day: North Shore Brewers 2025 Q2 Kellerbier
For Big Brew Day 2025 I did something a little different, went on Facebook Live during my brew day. I wanted to see what kind of engagement it would get and to see if it helped the page get any visibility. Video is not my strength, and I do not have the patience for video editing. Since Meta started deleting Facebook Live videos after 30 days, I uploaded the video to YouTube which made it easy to embed here. I shoot from the hip here talking about the recipe and process for this beer, and my system in general. Recipe: North Shore Brewers Q2 2025 Kellerbier Brewer: Jason Chalifour Style: Pale Kellerbier TYPE: All Grain Recipe Specifications -------------------------- Boil Size: 6.68 gal Post Boil Volume: 5.68 gal Batch Size (fermenter): 5.25 gal Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal Estimated OG: 1.051 SG Estimated Color: 3.9 SRM Estimated IBU: 22.2 IBUs Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 % Est Mash Efficiency: 77.9 % Boil Time: 90 Minutes Ingredients: ------------ Amt Name Type # %/IBU
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12x12 Review: Allagash Variety Pack
Beers included: Allagash Lager, White, Hazy IPA, Tripel Purchased: 24 April 2025 Purchase Price: $20.99 Initial Impressions When I saw a couple months ago that Allagash was releasing a new pack I decided I would need to review it in this space as soon as I could find it. Allagash is a brewery that has always embodied everything that is right about craft beer. Allagash White is a beer that still transcends craft in that it attracts drinkers who aren’t beer geeks. That doesn’t mean the Belgian-focused brewery hasn’t had to adapt. After COVID, the once draft-heavy brewery made a big push in off-premise by packaging core beers into cans and brewing more non-Belgian styles. This sampler has two such beers: Allagash Lager and Hazy IPA. For years as IPA-focused brewers sprouted literally on Allagash’s block they resisted making a hazy IPA, only to finally relent in 2024 . White as the flagship had to be included. Tripel as the fourth beer is an interesting choice. At 9
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Brew Day & Tasting Notes North Shore Brewers 2025 Q1 Australian Sparkling Ale
When Australian Sparkling Ale was the style pulled at random for my club, the North Shore Brewers first in-club competition of the year, the reaction was “huh?” and “what?”. That is because nobody had ever tasted or brewed an Australian Sparkling Ale. That’s is partially true. I brewed an extract kit from Northern Brewer back in 2015. While my initial tasting notes were positive, I recall not finishing the batch and dumping some of the bottles. The recipe kit has since been discontinued. The Pride of Ringwood hops used in the kit and by Cooper’s Sparkling Ale are also no longer available from any homebrew retailer in the US at least that I could find. Back to the drawing board it was. During January’s virtual club meeting we were chatting with Charlie Cummings, Head Brewer at Remnant Brewing. Charlie raised a fair point, is a style with one main example really a style? For Australian Sparkling Ale, the example is Coopers Australian Ale. I had that beer one time at a b
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Brew Day & Tasting Notes: Spring Training Stout (Irish Extra Stout)
"I am so happy" is what I texted a friend on brew day as I brewed this batch. I also unintentionally sent the same message on a group text as I tasted the beer a week after kegging when the carbonation was perfect. Hello, friend. Back when Jennie was still involved in brewing, she enjoyed coming up with beer names as much if not more than brewing or recipe development. In those early days the plan was to come up with seasonal beers like we were Sam Adams. An Irish Stout that would be ready for St. Patrick's Day named Spring Training Stout was just too perfect. Of those early seasonal brews, this is the only one that has stuck. The first batch of Spring Training Stout was brewed back in 2013. This would have been about six months after I started brewing. I still didn't know what I didn't know. Lets take a look at that first recipe: Recipe Specifications -------------------------- Boil Size: 5.71 gal Post Boil Volume: 5.21 gal Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal Bottling V