Free Beer + Wine Tastings in Arlington, MA

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting outside enjoying reading a hard copy of The Yankee Brew News, (which can be found online here.) There was an article about a new Wine and Beer Store that recently opened in Arlington, Menotomy Beer and Wine. It was interesting because it talked about how the town just become non-dry, and this was the first liquor store to go in since prohibition, etc. etc. What interested me the most was that it said they have weekly wine and beer tastings. Now wine tastings are certainly neat, but they are relatively common, at least in the greater Boston area. Beer tastings on the other hand seem to be much harder to find in Boston. After a succesful wine tasting at the store on Saturday a week and a half ago, I wanted to try the beer tasting on an upcoming Friday night. This is more of a wine store than a beer store, however they do offer some great beer choices as well. After the succesful wine tasting, I checked and saw that the store would be sampling beer from one of my favorite breweries, Dogfish Head, this past Friday night.

So we went and were able to taste a number of delicious offerings from Dogfish Head, some of which have been reviewed on this blog in the past. The offerings included 60 Minute IPA, 90 Minute IPA, Indian Brown Ale, Punkin Ale, and Raison D'Etre. They had offered the Festina Peche earlier in the tasting but ran out before we arrived. The 60 Minute and 90 Minute IPAs are alway delicious and tasty, and I was not disappointed this time either (read my reviews of these beers here and here). I enjoyed the three others as well; The Indian Brown Ale is a cross between an IPA and a brown ale, so should appeal to those who think their regular IPAs are too hoppy. The Raison D'Etre is an interesting, delicate tasting Belgian style ale. It is flavored with some unique ingredients such as beet sugar and raisins. Very tasty. The beer that really excited me the most however was the Punkin Ale. We received the last pour of it from the last bottle, which no doubt added to the allure in my mind. This beer really put me in the mood of warming up in the cool fall air by means of a delicious pumpkin and brown sugar flavored brew. Really nice pumpkin taste, this is the best pumpkin ale I have ever had next to the Cambridge Brewing Company Pumpkin Ale.

This beer tasting was really fun and the offerings were great. I'm looking forward to more tastings in the future, and hope they keep up with the great beer choices!