Merry Christmas from Boston Beer Bars and our very own Santa!


The idea for Santa's beer sleigh came from an article on Lifehacker, but I made a few tweaks (including a Heineken can and fatter/jollier Santa!).

As the cold weather sweeps into Boston, it helps to start thinking of activities around the city that are not only enjoyable, but will keep you out of brutal conditions. Luckily for us beer drinkers, Boston is full of bars that treat us with selection of "winter warmers." But one thing even better than the bars is beer festivals! In the next two months there are two great beer festivals: Beer Summit's Winter Jubilee (January 16th and 17th) and Beer Advocate's Extreme Beer Fest (February 20th and 21st). I've been to a few Beer Summit events, and the turnout is always good. They give you tickets (12 I think) for beer, but the brewers don't really take them and fill you up without question. I haven't been to the Extreme Beer Fest before, but have only heard raving reviews about it.

Both festivals have a Friday night session and two Saturday sessions (day and night sessions). Below are some more details on each of the festivals:Beer Summit Winter JubileeLocation: The Park Plaza Castle
Beer Summit Website

• Session 1 - January 16th, 5:30pm to 9:30 pm, $40 per ticket
  
• Session 2 - January 17th, 12:30pm to 4:00pm, $40 per ticket
  
• Session 3 - January 17th, 5:30pm to 9:30pm, $40 per ticket
  

Beer Advocate's Extreme Beer FestLocation: The Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts
Beer Advocate Website

• Night of the Barrels - February 20th, 6:00pm to 9:30pm, $50 per ticket
  
• Session 1 - February 21st, 1:00pm to 4:30pm, $40 per ticket
  
• Session 2 - February 21st, 6:00pm to 9:30pm, $40 per ticket
  

Both of these events are sure to be a good time. If you are one for trying something different, the Night of the Barrels sounds like it will be amazing - "100% wood-aged beers w/ upwards of 50 offerings." $10 more than the Saturday sessions, but it will definitely be exclusive (only 500 tickets being sold) and memorable.

During a summer trip to Yorkshire, I can remember driving through villages looking for this one pub that served a beer my Dad kept calling 'Timmy Taylor's.' He would obsess over this beer. Being young at the time, I wasn't too interested in crazy British beer so I didn't think much of it. The young really are foolish.

This is probably the best session beer, if not one of the better beers, I've had. Timothy Taylor's Landlord culminates all that is a great, true British beer. The Timothy Taylor brewery makes five or six different varieties of beer (including a bitter), but the Landlord is known as the bread and butter of the lot. Served as cask-conditioned, the feel and overall sensation of the beer is amazing. Unfortunately, you won't be finding any Landlord on cask in the U.S....actually it will be hard enough to find a bottle. My reason for writing this was because I was able to bring a few bottles back on my most recent trip. Luckily they all survived, and were worth the extra weight in the suitcase. Although the bottled version of the beer doesn't taste as good or have the same smooth feel as the cask, it is still a worthy ale.