Spring of the "New England Style" IPA: Tired Hands Strawberry Milkshake

By: Jack Horzempa
(Originally posted on Beer Advocate) 

The past few weeks I have been ‘visiting’ New England (Massachusetts – Tree House, Trillium and Night Shift and Maine – Bissel Brothers).

This week I will be coming ‘home’ to drink a Tired Hands beer – Strawberry Milkshake.

The Tired Hands Milkshake series of beers are kinda interesting. These beers were first brewed in collaboration with Omnipollo Brewing (a Swedish Brewery):

“If there’s a Thomas Edison when it comes to this new style, it would be Jean Broillet IV, owner and brewmaster at Tired Hands Brewing Company. In March of 2015, Broillet teamed with the inventive Swedish brewery Omnipollo to produce something they called Milkshake IPA. (Omnipollo had produced a “Smoothie” IPA the previous year.) The seven percent ABV beer was brewed with oats and lactose sugar to create an initial heft. Then, wheat flour and 50 pounds of pectin-rich green apple puree were added. (Pectin causes an intense, almost gel-like thickening within beer—an effect most brewers try to avoid lest they accidentally make a can of jam.)”

http://punchdrink.com/articles/meet-the-milkshake-ipa-tired-hands/

Below is a description of Strawberry Milkshake via Tired Hands:

Spring of the ‘NE’ style IPA: Night Shift One Hop This Time (Citra)

By: Jack Horzempa
(Originally posted on Beer Advocate)

A few weeks ago I was ‘in’ Massachusetts ‘visiting’ the beers of Tree House and Trillium. Last week I ‘traveled’ to Maine for Bissel Brothers Brewing and today I am back ‘in’ Massachusetts for Night Shift Brewing. I knew nothing about Nigh Shift Brewing until I did a bit of web research:

Night Shift is a relatively new brewery with commercial operations starting in 2012. Things went well for them so in May 2014 they moved to a larger space where they still brew. They are located in Everett, MA which is very close to Boston; only a 17 minute drive according to Google Maps.

I am sensing a real theme here with respect to Tree House, Trillium, Bissel Brothers and Night Shift: they are all relatively new breweries which became very popular very quickly. The theme is start, make some money and then expand (either into multiple locations or just moving to another large location).

Today’s new beer is Night Shift One Hop This Time - Citra. This is my first beer from Night Shift Brewing.

Spring of the ‘NE’ style IPA: Bissel Brothers Swish

By: Jack Horzempa 

(Originally published on Beer Advocate)

In the past couple of weeks I discussed to two BIG BOYS of Trillium and Tree House (both located in Massachusetts). Today I will be ‘traveling’ to the nearby state of Maine to ‘visit’ Bissel Brothers Brewing which is located in Portland, ME.

I have fond personal memories of Maine since my grandmother used to live in Winthrop, ME (just south of the capital of Augusta) and we would visit every summer for our summer vacation. On the Maine license plates they have the motto of “Vacationland” and it certainly was for me in the past.

Bissel Brothers brewing is a relatively new brewery (just as is Trillium and Tree House) with an opening year of 2013. Over the past few years they relocated to a larger facility so business must be good.

The beer I will be drinking today is Bissell Brothers Swish. This is my first beer from Bissell Brothers Brewing.

Spring of the "New England" Style IPA: Trillium Fort Point

 By: Jack Horzempa
(Originally posted on Beer Advocate)

In my continuing series of so called ‘NE” style IPAs I have Trillium Fort Point Pale Ale. This is my first beer from Trillium Brewing.

I have not been to Trillium Brewing, but I did a bit of reading to learn more. Trillium is a relatively new brewery (opened in 2013) and they now have two locations: the original location in the Fort Point neighborhood of Boston and the new production brewery in Canton, MA (about ½ hour drive south of Boston). So, Trillium Brewing is more of an urban/metropolitan brewing company as opposed to Tree House (which I discussed last week) which is more out in the country.

Trillium also gets a lot of love by the BA crowd with 7 beers in the top 100 of the Top 250 list.

How does the ‘city boy’ brewing company’s beer compare to the ‘country boy’ brewing company’s beer? Let’s find out!