Watch City Brewery, Waltham, MA

Watch City Brewery, The lighting was very dark, then it got even darker. The service was down right atrocious, so we left before eating. On the plus side about the lighting, there were some cool strings of lights that gave a Christmas feel, and it was Waltham's downtown Xmas celebration. FIRETRUCKS EVERYWHERE. The creaky floorboards provided an authentic vintage feel to the building, and had a place in back for the kids to play. Not the best, not the worst (facility-wise).


Winter Lager - This brew was lighter in color than a lot of winter offerings you see. It had a very light floral aroma. Robust flavor, but came off a bit thin, so it was somewhere between a light-med to medium body. On the plus side, the robustness improved a lot as the temperature of the beer rose. Decent winter lager.


Schwartzblack Pilsner - This pilsner had a deep amber/brown color, rather peculiar for a pilsner. It had a light-medium body, with a lagery smell, and a smooth creamy lager taste. It was like a black lager, just not as good. Black lagers are good. Really good.


Red Ale - This red had more of an orange color, with no aroma. A light body with very subtle caramel flavor. Nothing to write home about, but better than most reds I've had. All around though, reds just kinda suck, don't they?


Beejezus BPA - This "botanical" pale ale had a light hazy color. The smell was sweet, floral, and a tiny bit like parsley or oregano. It had a strange light/medium body. It was introduced as being an IPA with no hops, but instead a 3 spice blend. It tasted like smarties candy and had a very lingering taste of oregano. A bit too sweet and very far from an IPA. No real pale ale taste. Spicy, but not in the right way. And, people of the world, here you have it , my first - not recommended to drink this beer.


Golden Ale - Just like every typical blonde. They always have a strange lagery flavor. Nothing to write home about.


Saison - This Belgian farmhouse style brew had a medium body, and an amber color. It had a very subtle Belgian yeast aroma. The taste was very pleasing to these buds. It had traditional Belgian flavors, but the sweetness was rounded off very nicely by local spices. Notes of pepper and clove provided a nice sting to the tongue. I've had a lot of different Belgian styles, but few saisons. Out of the few I've had, this one was definitely the best. Delicious.


Pumpkin - Different than a lot of pumpkin ales. It had a deep orange color. Unusually, it provided a very creamy, smooth mouthfeel. It tasted more like a true pumpkin than pumpkin spice. It was nice enough that I actually enjoyed it so late in the season. Normally after October, I'm not really interested.


Stout - If you haven't figured it out by now, our favorite beer style to review is stout. This one was dark and robust. It had quite a heavy body. Tasted of subtle chocolate and very subtle coffee. It was really creamy and tasted a bit like an oatmeal stout, it wasn't. Allie said she had liked the one at BAR better. They were pretty different. This one was a heavy flavor hitter, whereas the one from BAR was creamy smooth and very drinkable. Either way, they were both pretty damn good.


We forgot to get a picture of this place. The downtown was going nuts with emergency vehicles everywhere. As you've gathered, this place was ok. A lot of the beers were too typical to excite us, but some were quite good.

Bruroom at BAR, New Haven, CT

This was the inside of the Bruroom room inside BAR... That's right, BAR. The outside just wasn't much to show; a sign hanging on the side of the brick building and a huge sketchy wooden door that wasn't really labeled.

Bruroom @ BAR, a "club" composed of, I believe, 4 rooms - we chose to stick to the brewpub section within BAR, Bruroom. It was a neat place with a very old feel to it. The walls were stone and there was lots of old exposed plain wood everywhere. The tables were all carved up by the customers, not sure if that was encouraged or what, but it definitely gave a feeling of being somewhere with history rather than a history of vandalism. The flatbread-like crispy pizza was very good, and brought to the side of the table where we ate it!

Chocolate Porter - A deep black opaque color, and full body. Evidentially, this was brought on by 4 lbs of Hershey's dark chocolate in the recipe, and you could tell! The aroma has subtle notes of coffee, caramel, and dark chocolate, it was a very light semi-sweet aroma. The taste was very robust with notes of coffee, a little bit of  roasted barley, and deep chocolate notes. The taste was predominantly chocolate in a most perfect way. It was perfectly done - delicious!

Stout - It was similar to the porter, with a very creamy mouthfeel and awesome head retention. It had a light roast taste, and light chocolate notes, with very subtle, nearly non-existent, aroma. The best way to describe this one was to relate to the previous one, like a lighter porter in flavor, with a very creamy mouthfeel to make a great comfort beer. Allie liked this one better than the stout at Watch City (we'll get to that place a little later.)

Pale Ale - This pale ale had a slightly hazy deep amber color. It was medium to full bodied. the aroma was at the forefront with a deep, earthy, grassy hoppiness. It started crisp, and ended with a healthy serving of flavoring hops. Floral and slightly fruity, with a balanced spicyness and subtle sweetness. As I've noticed with most pale ales, they are moderately hopped with more of an emphasis on bittering hops as opposed to flavoring hops, for me, usually leaving something to be desired and a let-down look on my face. This pale ale, used subtle bittering hops, earthy, likely bittering, aroma hops and lightly spicy flavoring hops. It certainly wasn't going so far as to push itself into IPA territory, but it was more generously hopped than most. It was one of the best pale ales I've had.

Toasted Blonde - It was dark yellow, with a light-medium body. Typical lagery taste, as with most blondes even though they are ales. Typical. Just a bit more of a creamy mouthfeel than most blondes. It landed in the "toasted" category because 30 lbs of specialty English malt was toasted in their ovens before the brew. That wasn't really noticeable in the tasting. Nothing to write home about, but as you'll learn most of the time: "blonde women: take 'em, blonde ales: take 'em or leave 'em" is my general outlook.

John Harvard's, Framingham, MA location

Sorry, it was a really dark night, and this is from our cell phone. Plus, that's one bright sign!! This place was in a higher-end style strip mall, it was very strange. The sign reads "John Harvard's Restaurant & Brewery". To the right through the windows, you can see the brewery's brew system and fermenters, it could  also be seen through glass panes inside the brewpub.          

John Harvard's, a small brewpub chain throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut, was one of our first brewpub stops during our trip from December 4-6, 2009. The place had a very friendly feel to it with a pub-style open concept. Old style painting with historic figures "cut and pasted" over the heads donned the walls. The walls, floors, and tables were exposed wood, with the brew system on clear display. They served up awesome food; I had the Shepard's Pie (it made even better leftovers!). The service was exceptional, our waiter was friendly, extremely knowledgeable about their beers, and willing to hand out samples (a must at a brew pub).


Stout - Their stout was a standard stout, but a very good standard stout. It was very dark, opaque as I remember. Robust flavors, involving a healthy serving of roasted malts, possibly chocolate. When served it was very good, the only problem was that the roasted barley became a bit too obtrusive when the beer warmed up. I will admit, I was a bad beer enthusiast that night and drank like a cat... that may not make sense, just know that I hate cats. Demon creatures, they are. I digress; my main point is that it was a nice malty stout with a slightly creamy mouthfeel that went perfectly with traditional English pub food. Just be a real drinker and don't let it get warmer, roasted barley tends to come off as a bit too acrid when warm, especially in a beer that had a healthy portion of it.


Belgian Pale Ale - This Belgian offering had a hazy deep amber/red color, a sweet belgian aroma, with notes of banana; really a beautiful sweet smell. It was a medium to full bodied beer, certainly not dark or heavy in the sense, but a flavor-blast. The taste was like a mix between Belgian and Bavarian yeast strains, though Bavarian yeasts fall under the Belgian category. It was a nice mix between the spicy sweetness of a Belgian yeast and the smooth bubblegum flavors of a Bavarian yeast. Unfortunately, I sampled it out of a growler in a hotel room in Connecticut, and didn't get to ask our friendly waiter what yeast strain they had used. And when I say sampled, I mean I drank the entire half gallon while watching Saturday Night Live. Blake Lively is awful. The wonderful tastes were crisp on the tip of your tongue, possibly from a very subtle spiciness, and a smooth sweetness rounded out the end of the sip with very subtle hop notes to finish, typical in a Belgian. This was not hoppy like a pale ale which did make me raise a few questions, but honestly I was content with that. With a very smooth mouthfeel I deemed it - DELICIOUS.


We're hoping to get back there again soon. Looked like they had some nice upcoming brews, and they had a pretty long list of them in the first place. But, we had to drive... far. So, we had to conk out after one, hence the purchasing of a growler!