It's easy to take things right in your backyard for granted. Just a short trip west on the Mass. Pike, Jack's Abby Brewing is quietly reinventing craft beer. Eschewing hop bombs, barley wines, and ales altogether, the brewery specializes in German lagers with an American twist. Fermentation during the lagering process takes place at at or near freezing temperatures and is labor intensive. It's not an easy path.

Jack's Abby's reinvention efforts focus on one style in particular. Their first IPL (India Pale Lager), a year-round offering, was Hoponius Union, a delightful, subtle twist on the traditional IPA (India Pale Ale). The brewery's two latest IPLs, Kiwi Rishing and Lashes Hopbock Lager, turn the dial even further. They redefine what you should expect from a lager and from the brewery down the street.

Kiwi Rising is a double-IPL of 8.5 percent alcohol by volume and 105 IBUs (international bitterness units). Over four pounds of hops per barrel of New Zealand hops (Kiwi Hops) are used in the brew. It's Jack's Abby's answer to the double-IPA, possibly the most popular craft beer style in the market today.

Kiwi Rising pours golden yellow with a fluffy white head. Intense citrus aromas waft up from the glass. Upon sipping, grapefruit and orange flavors dominate the light mouthfeel. There's not a ton of malt here, and that absence is welcome.

I had my first sip of Kiwi Rising just a few minutes after drinking my first-ever Pliny the Elder from Russian River Brewing Company. Pliny is consistently rated as one of the best beers in the world, and it scored highly with me (review coming later). But the lines that separate the best beers in the world from other very good beers are blurring.

Is one beer better than the other? Probably. If you held a gun to my head I'd choose the Pliny. But is the difference drastic enough to warrant me sending away for a Pliny from California vs. walking to my local for a comparatively affordable offering from Jack's Abby? Heck no. Do I feel better about supporting a local brewer than one all the way across the country? Heck, yes.

Lashes Hopbock Lager dials it down from its sister beer in terms of the hop profile and alcohol content. At 7.2 percent ABV and 50 IBUs, this one is more approachable.

It pours a more of an amber color with an off-white head. There's more caramel in the nose from the Munich malt, but Super Styrian, Columbus, Palisades and Centennial hops also make their presence known. It's less citrus and more resin-y pine.

The mouthfeel is a bit heavier, but you'll appreciate the balance. The finish is crisp instead of smooth. Jack's Abbey continues to reinvent the India Pale Lager, and this is another great take.

E-mail me (gdzen@boston.com) and start a conversation. Follow me on Twitter. Cheers.

The Lower Depths in Kenmore Square (476 Commonwealth Ave.) is hosting a Uinta Brewing beer social Thursday night, Jan. 3. The event will feature several taps from the Salt Lake City brewery, including Detour, Baba, Hop Notch, and Tilted Smile. It runs from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

There will be a North Coast Brewing social on Jan. 17.

If you're looking to break out of the New Year's Eve champagne rut and try something different, something local, and something beer this year, I've got a tip for you.

Enlightenment Ales is a nano brewery (translation: wicked small) out of Lowell making a time-intensive style of beer that very few breweries produce. Brewer Ben Howe's American bière de champagne could very well replace your NYE bubbly Monday night.

Enlightenment Ales Brut is a dry, refreshing, complex brew weighing in at 11 percent ABV. It's brewed using many of the same techniques used to make champagne. Howe puts the beer through an extended warm fermentation using multiple yeast strains followed by traditional bottle re-fermentation. The laborious process includes riddling (turning the bottles) and disgorging (removing yeast from the bottle) by hand.

I had a heck of a time with the cork (assess the situation beforehand if you plan to pop this at midnight), but once popped off, the beer pours a pale yellow with tons of fluffy head. Tiny bubbles swirl in the glass like powder in a snow globe. When the head rises above the restrictions of the flute, there's plenty of structure to keep it from toppling over.

The aroma is dominated by both grapes and bananas. The combination wine/beer smell carries over to the first sip. I get sweet champagne and yeasty, earthy banana. The mouthfeel is medium-bodied and beer-like; take a sip absentmindedly and get into a conversation and you'll swear you're drinking a wine.

This beer could easily replace your midnight champagne. In fact, it should. At almost $20 a bottle Enlightenment Brut is meant to be brought out on special occasions. The local craftsmanship and overall quality will easily match a similarly-priced bottle of traditional brut.

I found a bottle at Social Wines in South Boston. Here's a list of other places you can get it. No matter which cup of kindness you decide upon, have a Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. Just a quick note and I'll jump right in. I'm thankful for the kind words, beer tips, engaging conversation, and overall support I've received since taking over 99 Bottles earlier this year. It's been very humbling, and I'd like to express my sincere appreciation to all of you who've taken the time to read and comment here this year.

We'll end the year with a special one. Samuel Adams Utopias is a beer to toast special occasions and share with friends. At 29 percent alcohol by volume it's still a beer, but in both taste and appearance it's more like a liqueur. It's most certainly a sipper.

The eye-popping feature of the Utopias is always the $190 price tag, which can be both instructive and prohibitive. It's instructive because you know you're getting a beverage that took a lot of time and money to craft. It's prohibitive because you may not take the leap and make the purchase, and because even if you do, you'll likely be thinking about the price the whole time. Here's hoping you made enough beer friends in the last year to make sampling the Utopias possible.

First brewed in 2002, the latest release of Utopias is a blend of previous beers aged in various liquor barrels. Beer from barrels from the original Triple Bock 20 years ago, from subsequent Triple Bocks, from Millenium (released in 1999), and from each subsequent release of Utopias is blended into the 10th anniversary edition. This particular beer was aged in single-use bourbon casks from the Buffalo Trace Distillery and also spent time in a variety of finishing casks, including Tawny Port casks and Vintage Ruby Port casks from Portugal and Rum barrels from Nicaragua.

"The barrels are an ingredient, and we take the same care and attention selecting the individual barrels as we would selecting hops," Samuel Adams founder Jim Koch explains in a video on the company's website.

A note about the bottle: There's a traditional cap to pop off, but the outer cap is resealable. Since the beer is non-carbonated, it has a long shelf life. Keep it in your liquor cabinet like a bottle of bourbon and you can take small pours of it whenever you please.

Held up to the light, Utopias appears dark or light brown, depending on the angle. It looks like a whiskey, though it smells much sweeter. A long whiff produces vanilla, oak, alcohol, licorice, raisins, and cherries.

After smelling my two-ounce pour, it's time to take a sip. The first thing I notice is some port-like bright fruit notes. The flavor profile is nothing like a beer, but it also doesn't fit one kind of alcohol, instead wandering in and out of the world of ports, brandies, cognacs, and old sherries. On one sip I detected some dry whiskey. Figs and cocoa come through from the rum barrels, adding to the drink's complexity. The mouthfeel is thick, syrupy. Lacing sticks to the side of the glass as if it had nowhere to go. Put out a bottle of this on New Year's and folks are likely to stick around for awhile.

Here's to you and yours.

The Massachusetts Brewers Guild has hired Kristen Sykes to be its first executive director. Founded in 2007, the guild promotes craft brewing and protects the interests of craft brewers in the state.

“We are excited to have Kristen represent the Brewers Guild and to help fulfill our goal of promoting Massachusetts craft beer throughout the Bay State,” Rob Martin, Guild President and President of Ipswich Ale Brewery, said in a press release. “Her passion for craft beer and experience in the non-profit world are going to help us take the Guild to the next level.”

Sykes is a certified judge through the Beer Judge Certification Program and is a founder and president of the Boston Area Beer Enthusiasts Society (BABES), a women’s beer club founded in November 2011.

“I am thrilled to be promoting the fantastic breweries in the state of Massachusetts. The quality has never been better, the range of styles has never been greater, and the number of breweries has never been higher,” said Sykes

Part of Sykes's work will include organizing the Mass Brewers Guild Fest, which takes place annually at the end of August in Boston.

Nostalgia and Narragansett go hand-in-hand. Close your eyes and you can picture cans of the beer in front of generations of New England fishermen. When you think of Rhode Island beer, long summer nights, and Curt Gowdy, you think of Narragansett.

What you don't often think of when thinking of Narragansett is the craft beer movement as it exists today. You picture tallboy cans and lagers, not bombers and double-IPAs. But for the 122d anniversary of the brand, 'Gansett has released a big bottle of a big, hoppy imperial IPA.

It's a new-style beer with classic references to the origins of the company. Founded in 1890, Narragansett Brewing shut down its operations in 1981. Investors revitalized the brand in 2005, and the beers, some brewed in Rochester, N.Y. and some brewed in Providence, have been available in southern New England since 2006.

It's been 122 years since the brand was born, and the imperial IPA brewed for the occasion aims for 122 IBUs (international bitterness units). It clocks in at 8.6 percent alcohol by volume and is adorned with a private stock label used by the company in the late 1890s.

The beer pours ruby red with a fluffy, off-white head. There's a distinct, floral nose, though the smell is not overly citrusy. Summit hops were used for all the kettle hopping, with Northern Brewers, Hallertau, Tettanager, and Sazz hops used for dry hopping.

Bitter grapefruit dominates the first sip. There's a decent balance here, but the finish is more bitter than floral. Despite the clean mouthfeel, the beer is not especially easy to drink. It gets harder to drink as time goes on and the beer warms up.

I like bitter beer, and I like this beer, but fans of the classic 'Gansett brand won't be running to stores to take this home. Narragansett Imperial IPA has flavor -- a lot of flavor -- which is likely to throw the traditional lager drinker. It's a strong double-IPA and a welcome letter to the craft beer community that the company cares about making good beer. But if your dad loves 'Gansett, it would be better to buy him a case of the classic lager.

Cambridge Common is hosting a beer dinner with Maine's Peak Organic Brewing Company tomorrow night, Weds., Dec. 19, at 6:30 p.m. You can buy tickets here. As an added bonus, the folks at Peak Organic are among the coolest in the business. Looks like a great time.

There's a fairly unbelievable event at Meadhall in Cambridge this Weds., Dec. 19 that features 12 craft breweries raising money for Toys for Tots.

Meadhall has given all 110 draft lines (plus two casks) to 12 brewers for an event called the "12 Brewers of Christmas". The event begins at 7 p.m., and the bar is asking for a donation of at least $10 or a toy of equal value (100 percent given to Toys for Tots) as an entrance fee.

A variety of silent auction items ranging from rare bottled beer to collections of wearables from each brewery to donations from local industry members will be available with all proceeds from the auctions donated to Toys for Tots. To cap it off, 10 extremely rare, cellared or "one-time only" releases from the breweries (a barrel-aged sour from Troegs, Citra Single Hop from Sierra, brewery only release from Allagash, etc.) will also be available on the mezzanine level.

The draft lineup is beyond ridiculous. Meadhall has already begun tapping a keg per day leading up to the event, but here's the full list of brewers and beers:

ALLAGASH: White, Black, Smoke & Beards, Confluence, Fluxus, Hugh Malone, Interlude, BAT, BAM, Bourbon Black.
Rare item- TBD (brewery-only)

BROOKLYN: Lager, Winter, Black Chocolate Stout, There Will Be Black, BLAST!. Rare item- Dark Matter

DOGFISH HEAD: 60 Minute, Palo Santo, Burton Baton, Theobroma, Sah'tea, Hellhound, Bitches Brew, 120 Minute, Birra Etrusca, Immort & 75 Minute cask. Rare item- 90 Minute through the Randall

DUVEL-OMMEGANG: BPA, Witte, Rare Vos, Hennepin, Abbey Ale, Three Philosophers, Rustica, La Chouffe, McChouffe, Houblon Chouffe, N'Ice Chouffe, Maredsous Blonde, Maredsous Brune, Leifmans Goudenbrand, Leifmans Cuvee Brut, De Koninck Tripel & Duvel Singel. Rare item- Chocolate Indulgence

GEARY'S: Pale, HSA, Winter, London Porter, Oakie Doakie.
Rare item- Whisky cask

LAGUNITAS: IPA, Czech Pils, Cappucino Stout, 2010 Old Gnarlywine, Little Sumpin Sumpin & Lagunitas Sucks.
Rare item- Imperial Stout

LEFT HAND: Milk Stout Nitro, Chainsaw: Double Sawtooth Nitro, Vietnamese Coffee Stout, AA Step #2: Smoked Doppelbock, Warrior Fresh Hop IPA & Fade to Black IV: Rocky Mtn Black Ale. Rare item- Smoke Jumper: Imperial Smoked Porter

OSKAR BLUES: Dale's Pale, Mamma's Yella Pils, Deviant, Chub, G'Knight, Ten Fidy, Nitro Rap. Smidy (Milk Stout), Barrel-Aged Chub & Port-Aged G'Knight.
Rare item- oSKAr da G'Rauch

SIERRA NEVADA: Pale, Celebration, Narhwal, Kolsch, Ovila Dubbel, Ovila Barrel-Aged Quad, Torpedo, Kellerweis, French-Style Saison & 20th Street Ale- Citra Single Hop.
Rare item- Barrel-Aged Bigfoot

SMUTTYNOSE: IPA, Wheat Wine, Big A IPA, Winter, Porter & Zinneke. Rare item- Utopia-Aged Wheat Wine

TROEGS: HopBack, Perpetual IPA, Mad Elf '11, Mad Elf '12, Flying Mouflan, DreamWeaver, JavaHead, Scratch 73 (Fest Lager), Scratch 80 (Abbey Ale) & Scratch 82 (Tripel).
Rare item- Barrel-Aged Sour

VICTORY: HopDevil Nitro, Scarlet Fire, Victory Village, Yakima Glory, Storm King & Braumeister Pils.

Last week I gave you 12 good Christmas beers. This week, it's time to give back. The holidays are a time for giving thanks to others and to your own situation. If you're beer-rich and actually poor, fear not. You can still give out quality gifts to friends based on your vast knowledge of beer and beer-related products. If you're actually rich, you've probably got your nose buried in a copy of Wine Spectator, anyway. The following gifts will get you in good with the beer-savvy crowd.

Proper glassware: Everyone has that friend who serves their beers in old Coca Cola glasses. Get that friend a proper beer set. Spigelau makes a good set that features a tulip glass (my got-to), a lager glass, a pilsner glass, and a glass for wheat beer. You can often find beer glasses from specific brewers at your local liquor store. The tulip glass is essential for any budding beer connoisseur.

T-shirt and T-shirt club: As someone who spends most of my time looking to try new brews when I travel, I'm partial to these "Beer Tourist" shirts from Beerbunny.com. Another good option is a monthly membership featuring shirts from select breweries in this craft beer shirt of the month club.

Barleycorn's Craft Brew gift card: Ever wanted to brew your own beer without shelling out the money for the equipment? Barleycorn's Craft Brew in Natick supervises the process, provides recipes for a variety of styles, and takes care of the mess. You return after fermentation is complete to collect your bottles. A friend at work did this with his daughter and said he had a great time.

Pub Trivia game: From University Games, this take-home pub trivia game mimics the trivia played at bars across the country. If you're going to drink beer you might as well get smarter while doing it. You can buy the game at Walmart stores.

A beer trip: I'm partial to Waterbury. Vt. Portland, Maine, is one of my favorite places in the whole wide world. And Portsmouth, N.H. is nearby and is at the tip of any beer destination list. Been to Worcester lately? You could make a night of going to local bars, with Armsby Abbey being your home base. Buy someone an overnight stay in a great beer destination and they won't be disappointed.

Massachusetts Breweries book: Earlier this year I reviewed a great book on Massachusetts breweries by John Holl and April Darcy. You can still buy the book on Amazon.

Night Shift Brewing Barrel Society: Operating much like a farm's CSA program, members pay up front for a "crop" of beer from Everett's Night Shift Brewing for the year. For $250 you get two bottles each of seven barrel-aged beers, glasses, a shirt, and admission to an end-of-the-year party. You can split your membership with someone else as well. You can sign up here.

Beer and meat: Samuel Adams has teamed up with Robinson's Prime Reserve to offer steak packages that pair well with Samuel Adams beers. Pint glasses come with the meat.

"Beer googles": If you're perpetually looking for a bottle opener, these sunglasses with bottle openers on the end may be a solution. They're actually cool-looking, too. Available on the Brewsees website.

Beer: Of course, the best gift to give a beer lover is beer. Here are some suggestions;

-- A beer to give your boss: Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA (shows you're assertive and have good taste)

-- A beer to bring to your mother’s house: Allagash White (pairs well with food, everyone will like it)

-- A beer to give to a beer geek: Founders Breakfast Stout (pretty widely available, pretty darn awesome)

-- A beer to give to a Bud Light drinker: Notch Session Pils (what Bud Light would be if Bud Light didn't suck)

-- A beer for that lady in your life: Pretty Things Baby Tree (it's delicious AND pretty)

The craft beer scene is becoming crowded. There are currently 2,100 craft breweries in the US, with another 1,200 in the planning and licensing stages for 2013. If you want to compete, you've got to stand out. Not every new craft brewery can be good, though many of them are.

Nothing jumped out at me about the bottle of 3 Beards Beer Company Lumberjack Black Lager I brought home one day, but supporting local craft beer is always a good thing. I took the yellow bottle home with no expectations.

Lumberjack is a black lager, or Schwarzbier, made with Munich, Vienna, and Black Malts. It's brewed and distributed in Massachusetts. Three Beards selects a brewer who may not have the means to market their beer but has a killer recipe and distributes that beer in the state. Lumberjack Lager is 6 percent alcohol by volume with 22 IBUs. Written on the bottle where the warning label should be it says, "For best results, enjoy bearded."

The beer pours a dark chestnut (in between brown and black) with a frothy, cappuccino-colored head. I smell caramel, a hint of raisins, smoke, and moss-covered-earth. If a beer can smell rugged, this one does.

The first sip is medium-bodied and highlighted by bready, woody flavors. There's a lingering smokiness but the beer isn't heavy. This is really nice. I wasn't expecting to find a beer I'd go back to, but I'd definitely buy this again. In this expanding world of craft beer, it's hard to find a full-flavored beer at a reasonable alcohol level. There's a place for big beers, and I love many of them, but there's also a niche in the market for a beer like this.

Here's a fun idea for a holiday party: Buy several kinds of winter beer, invite your friends to do the same, and make a night of tasting what everyone brings. Make sure to invite a large enough group and pair your beer selections with festive food offerings so as not to get too merry.

My friends and I had one of these holiday beer parties last week (though in this case I picked the brews). If you don't have a beer expert in your group, ask workers at your local liquor store for recommendations, do some research online, and bring tasting notes with you to the party. The beers below should help serve as a guide for what to look for.

Variety is the key to the game, so try to get as many kinds of beer as possible. When some friends and I reviewed 12 pumpkin beers back in the fall, we found that it can be difficult to place a variety of brews, even seasonal ones, into one neat category. Winter seasonals offer even more variety and range from spicy winter warmers to traditional Belgian quads to fresh-hop IPAs. One stout or porter can be very different from the next. Another tip: Buy local. Some of the best seasonal beers are brewed right here in New England.

The following is not a list of the 12 best Christmas beers, though several of these brews are definitely in the top handful. You'd be excited to find one or more of the following beers under your tree.

Saranac Season's Best Nut Brown Lager: Purchased as part of a Saranac winter pack, this lager was chosen to ease us into the night. Not a great choice. There was nothing distinguishable about the brew, which was neither nutty nor spicy. Paired with a chicken chili, the beer was too weak to accompany the food. There are some solid brews in the holiday pack, including a caramel porter and the Big Moose Ale, both of which would have been better choices. The holiday pack is good, but this particular brew not so much.

Delirium Noel: Nothing like going from bad to great, right? The Christmas offering from Belgium's Brouwerij Huyghe is the sister beer of Delirium Tremens, one of the world's great beers. As expected, this is exceptional. The beer pours darker than the Tremens but lighter than another Brouwerij Huyghe brew, Delirium Nocturnum. Notes of apples and banana bread waft up from the glass. It tastes bready but light, and there's a burst of champagne in your mouth right before you swallow. My friend put it simply when she said, "I love this beer." This is a traditional Christmas beer, weighing in at 10 percent ABV.

Great Divide Hibernation Ale: Not a Christmas brew per se, but the winter offering from Colorado's Great Divide was a welcome change from the first two. This English-style old ale is malty and dry hopped, providing a nice balance. One friend called it "too medicinal", but you're bound to taste the alcohol in a beer that weighs in at 8.7 percent ABV. Another taster noted, longingly, "If there was a lot of snow outside, I would drink this beer." This is a winter beer that will please hop heads.

Island Creek Oyster Bar in Kenmore Square is celebrating the Boston launch of 21st Amendment’s Marooned on Hog Island Oyster Stout tonight, Dec. 11, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

This beer is part of 21st Amendment’s canned, limited-edition Insurrection Series. It will only be available in a 4-pack and on draft during December. The beer is made with the liquor and shells of Sweetwater oysters, and it will be available tonight on draft for $9 a pint.

Brash Brewing is a new entrant into the local brewing scene. Sort of. The beers are brewed in Ipswich, but Brit-turned-Texan Ben Fullelove is the man behind the project. He brews here because of what he describes as "archaic" laws in Texas that prohibit him from making the beer in that state. Fullelove created the recipes and the marketing for the beer, and the folks from Clown Shoes distribute and ship it.

About that marketing: Brash is quite deliberately aggressive. In the "about" section on the company's website, Fullelove writes, in a veiled shout-out to Stone Brewing Company, "Obviously you have amazing taste, that’s why you’re on this site." The labels are colorful and creative.

I sampled three Brash beers: Item Nine Ale, Texas Exile, and The Bollocks. All three are big, boozy beers. It took me three nights to get through them all.

Item Nine Ale is both a wheat beer and an IPA. Make that a double IPA. With the lowest ABV of the bunch, this one clocks in at 9 percent. If this is the entry-level Brash brew, membership requirements into this club are stiff.

Item Nine Ale pours a golden color like an IPA. Owing to a generous use of Galaxy hops, citrus notes dominate the aroma. The beer is bitter and balanced, with tropical fruit at the forefront. The mouthfeel is light. The beer is unfiltered, and tiny particles swim at the bottom of my glass. I wrote down "solid IPA" when drinking this one.

Texas Exile, an imperial brown sugar oatmeal porter, is a departure from the first beer, but it's no less boozy. Clocking in at 10.5 percent ABV, it's brewed with cold-pressed coffee. On the label, a bobby cop on a tricycle pedals up to a group of border patrol officers. The scene "kind of represents everything we do," said Fullelove. "A little punk rock, a little anti-establishment, with a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor."

The label is light-hearted, but the beer is heavy. It pours thick and smells of roasted beans and chocolate. On the first sip I get coffee, caramel, and cocoa nibs. The mouthfeel is thick, and it tastes a little like a milkshake. I'm left with a coffee aftertaste and the satisfaction you only get from a good cup.

The Bollocks Imperial IPA is the last beer I tried, and it might be my favorite. This is a big, strong double-IPA. It weighs in at 12 percent ABV (holy crap) and packs 110 IBUs. As Fullelove puts it, "It’s the liquid equivalent of Lenny in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Gently tending rabbits then suddenly….snap, it’s a whirlwind of crazy."

The Bollocks pours a dark amber with an ambitious off-white head. The brew is surprisingly balanced for a beer of this strength. The bitterness never goes away, but at times the citrus notes and sweet, caramel malt come through in surprising ways. It's not delicate, but it's not out of whack, either.

There's nothing timid about the Brash brews. I liked them, but I also found myself wondering in what situations I would crack one. You'll need help to take down even one of these big bottles. If you're you're a hardcore beer drinker looking to try something new, give these beers a shot.

A side note: On Wednesday I’ll be posting my 12 Beers of Christmas list, and at noon that day I’ll be hanging out in the comments section of that entry to answer your questions and just rap about beer. Join me.

MIT is hosting a terrific event Monday night, Dec. 10, for anyone interested in the business of brewing beer. A well-informed, local panel of industry folks will discuss the ins and outs of a rapidly-expanding craft brewing industry from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Kirsch Auditorium at MIT's Stata Center. A post-event networking session will follow at the R&D Pub.

All of the speakers are key players in the local craft beer scene. I've been lucky enough to talk beer with many of them, and it's rare to find a more informed group in one place. They are:

Drew Brosseau, Founder & President, Mayflower Brewing Company
Bryan Greenhagen, Founder and Brewer, Mystic Brewery
Sam Hendler, Co-founder, Jacks Abbey Brewing
Ben Howe, Brewer and Founder, Enlightenment Ales
Chris Lohring, Founder, Notch Brewing
Martha Simpson-Holley, Manager and Assistant Brewer, Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project

You can register for the event and get more information here.

The 2013 Beer Bloggers Conference is coming to Boston. The conference will take place July 26th to July 28th, 2013 at the Park Plaza Hotel. The conference will bring together beer bloggers and enthusiasts from all over the country (and some from elsewhere). Some highlights will include:

-- Beer dinners at both the Boston Beer Company and Harpoon Brewing

--A pre-conference excursion to Portland, Maine. This includes dinner and an evening event on Thursday night plus a bus ride back to Boston on Friday with a lunchtime stopover in Portsmouth, N.H.

-- What are sure to be countless events around Boston as beer folks take over the city for a few days. Exciting news, and just another sign that Boston is a true beer destination.

At one point or another most of us have fantasized about living off the land. The most basic iterations involve a log cabin and a clean water supply. Essential to the pipe dream are a shotgun, a good knife, and a healthy amount of whiskey. Hunting dogs with a less-than-keen sense of smell need not apply.

Maybe not all of you are this antisocial, but a solitary life can sound romantic at times. Backwoods Bastard, a beer from Founders Brewing, is marketed toward the beer-drinker with loner tendencies. On the label is a picture of, well, a backwoods bastard. This axe-toting, poorly-groomed fella looks like he's seen better days. Or maybe he's just where he wants to be.

Inventing this kind of back story for a mediocre beer would be extraneous, but by now you know that Founders does not make mediocre beer. The Michigan brewery consistently produces some of the best brews in the country, and their limited releases, including Kentucky Breakfast Stout and the "triple" IPA Devil Dancer, are highly sought after.

Backwoods Bastard is another limited release; it came and went from store shelves in November. I thought I'd missed it, but a trip to visit family in Connecticut for Thanksgiving turned up some unexpected four-packs. It was like finding a trunk full of hooch washed up in a river bed.

Backwoods Bastard is a scotch ale, or "wee heavy", aged in bourbon barrels. This one is 10.2 percent alcohol by volume. It also packs 50 IBUs, though it would be challenging to find the bitter aspects of this beer nestled among the smooth notes.

The brew pours a dark chestnut with a frothy head. It looks viscous but translucent. Held up to the light, the color changes to the point where you can see through to the other side.

The smell. Oh, the smell. Bourbon, butterscotch, vanilla, and some smoke form an extremely pungent nose. A scent this powerful is unique, even among other wee heavy's. It smells like every good piece of candy you've ever had.

Velvety bourbon and notes of vanilla are at the forefront of the first sip. The beer is as sweet as candy, but it's also complex, and the flavors change as it warms up. In addition to the whiskey notes there is dark fruit: figs, cherries, and raisins wash over your tongue. Backwoods Bastard has an incredibly smooth mouthfeel. It finishes with chocolate notes. It is, in no uncertain terms, delicious.

This is the beer you would drink alone if you wanted to be alone for awhile. It's the perfect sipper, and provided you could secure a cold supply of it, it would perfectly replace the whiskey you'd otherwise covet on those solitary nights. I got a four-pack for $14.99.

Anyone else try this brew? Are there other scotch ales you think are particularly good (I recently had Smuttynose's and it was very good). Finally, check out my list of the 10 best beer bars in Boston in today's Globe. Thanks for reading. Cheers.

Stone Brewing knows how to crank up the hype machine. The buzz for their latest offering, an IPA meant to be consumed no more than a few weeks after shipping, was palpable. If you follow any craft beer fans or industry folks on Twitter, you were well aware the beer was coming.

So what's the big deal? The IPA, which Stone describes as "devastatingly fresh", was intentionally brewed not to last. Like with other big, floral IPAs, freshness is crucial to getting the most flavor and smell out of the aromatic hops used to brew the beer. Stone bottled this beer on Nov. 16. It was shipped to Massachusetts on Nov. 20, and Stone asks that you consume it by Dec. 21. If you get the beer earlier, by all means dig in.

There are times when a wildly-hyped beer fails to live up to expectations. This is not one of those times. Lucky enough to secure a bottle at one of my favorite local beer stores earlier this week, I cracked mine open two days later.

Enjoy By 12.21.12 IPA pours a light golden color with very little head. Streams of tiny bubbles burrow their way to the top of the glass, but the beer does not appear to be overly carbonated. I didn't need to stick my nose in the glass to pick up this brew's massive hop aroma, because seconds after pouring the smell seems to fill the room. I'm engulfed in hops.

In the video below, Stone brewmaster Mitch Steele explains that very few bittering hops were used in this beer. That's a departure from the usual Stone IPAs. Instead, the beer is massively dry-hopped, and flavoring hops dominate the brew. Here's the complete hops bill:

Calypso during the mash; Super Galena hop extract for bittering; Simcoe, Delta, Target, and Amarillo for flavor; Motueka, Citra, and Cascade for aroma; Nelson Sauvin and Galaxy for dry hopping

Wonderful notes of grapefruit, lemon, pine, orange, and fresh cut grass waft up from the glass. This is my favorite beer smell, and I'd be hard-pressed to recall more than five or six beers that have produced it this well. I could sit here and smell this beer all day.

Fresh fruit smells lead directly to fresh taste. The stats are massive: 9.4 percent ABV and 88 IBUs, but the lack of bittering hops is evident and makes for a very drinkable product. This beer goes down smooth, and the aftertaste fails to produce even the slightest pucker.

I can't help but compare this beer to the Alchemist's Heady Topper and to Double Galaxy, Society and Solitude No. 4, and some of my favorite IPAs from Hill Farmstead. The entire business model of those two brewers is based around serving their beer devastatingly fresh and close to the source. With this beer Stone is, however briefly, emulating that model, and with great success. I wish they made more of this, but the troubling logistics of shipping fresh beer all over the country are obvious. Unless you print "enjoy by" in big, bold letters on the bottle, beer is likely to sit on shelves for too long and lose its freshness. If you've ever had a bad IPA, one that's gone malty and stale, you know just what happens.

As you might expected, Enjoy By 12.21.12 IPA has flown off the shelves. But that doesn't mean you can't get your hands on some. Poe's Tip Tap Room and its sister restaurant The Rattlesnake are tapping this beer Thursday night. Several other area bars have done the same. And you just might find 22-ounce bottles on some store shelves if you keep digging.

Have you tried this yet? Leave a comment below. Include the hashtags #EnjoyBy and #MA in your tweets to let Stone know you're enjoying the beer in the state. Cheers.

Photo courtesy of DrinkCraftBeer.com

After putting on a very successful saison festival in Somerville over the summer, the folks at DrinkCraftBeer.com are hosting a Fall to Winter Fest this weekend in Boston.

The festival takes place at Space 57 at the Revere Hotel just off Boston Common. There are three sessions:

Session 1 - Friday, November 30th: 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Session 2 - Saturday, December 1st: 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Session 3 - Saturday, December 1st: 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

The event will feature 25 New England craft brewers and cider makers, each bringing at least one beer that showcases a seasonal ingredient from fall or winter. The beer list is 85 strong and is up here.

"This time around the brewers are, arguably, showing up the batch we had at Summerfest," said Drink Craft Beer co-founder Jeff Wharton. "Some of the beers are just phenomenal."

Some highlights to look for are the official fest beer from Peak Organic callled "Nut Your Average Ginger," a harvest brown ale brewed with Massachusetts malted grain, hops, ginger, and honey, and with chestnut puree (the plan was to use local chestnuts, too, until a crop succumbed to bad weather). Some other beers to keep an eye on: Idle Hands' Rosemary For Remembrance, Night Shift's Fallen Apple, and Cody Brewing's Fruitcake Strong Ale and Mint Chocolate Stout.

Food offerings include Mei Mei Street Kitchen (Boston Magazine's Best Meal on Wheels) who will be making Mac & Beer Cheese w/ the fest beer, Redbones BBQ catering, Grillo's Pickles, Shy Brothers Farm (makers of Hannahbells Cheeses), and Taza Chocolate.

Said Wharton, "We want people to come and learn about local beer, some great food that is in the area and, most importantly, have a good time doing so."

All the information about the fest, including how to buy tickets, is here.

Hugh Sisson, owner and founder of Heavy Seas Beer, will be at Meadhall in Cambridge Tuesday night from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. The event will feature pours of Loose Cannon (IPA), Dubbel Cannon (Belgian IPA), Plank (wood-aged Doppelbock), Pale Ale, and a cask-conditioned Winter Storm (Imperial ESB). Stop by to try some beer and talk to Hugh.

New Hampshire's Smuttynose Brewery is one of my favorites. I say that as a beer fan and not just as a beer writer. Before my sudsy thoughts dripped onto paper, the entire line of Smuttynose beers found their way into my fridge at one point or another. That I'm reviewing my first Smuttynose offering now is a terrible oversight.

The brewery's latest release, Zinneke, is seasonal offering as part of the Smuttynose Big Beer series. A self-described hybrid, the beer is a Belgian-style stout aged in Bourbon barrels. "Zinneke" is a nickname for the people of Brussels referring to the stray dogs that used to roam the city streets. There's a picture of an upstanding gentleman and a hardy pooch on the beer's label.

The Smuttynose brew is indeed a mutt; it's a big, roasty stout fermented with Belgian yeast, with a portion of the batch aged in bourbon barrels. It packs 50 IBUs and an ABV of 8.4 percent.

Zinneke pours thin and dark with very little head. It smells of coffee, chocolate, vanilla, and faint bananas, though the aroma is not overpowering.

As suspected by the beer's appearance, the mouthfeel of the brew is not particularly thick; in your mouth the beer feels more like a porter than a stout. The flavor profile, however, leaves no doubt. Dark, roasted chocolate and coffee are at the forefront. Vanilla and whiskey notes are there, but they don't come through as strongly as in some oak-aged beers due to the fact that not all of the beer was aged in oak. I get a dry finish akin to the sensation one gets drinking a cup of hot chocolate where the cocoa powder hasn't been completely stirred in. I'm describing it poorly, but that dry finish is a good thing, making for welcome drinking.

This is a good, not-too-sweet stout to ease you into stout season. While you're at it, pick up a bottle of the Smuttynose Scotch Ale, which I tried the other night at Meadhall in Cambridge. Both beers will more than fulfill your desire for a winter warmer as the days get shorter and the nights get colder.

Thanksgiving is upon us, and I wanted to give you one more beer option for your holiday celebration. Last week I gave you a great cranberry beer from Harpoon, but if fruit beers aren't your thing, the annual seasonal offering from Kansas City's Boulevard Brewing may just do the trick.

Boulevard Harvest Dance wheat wine is a good beer to accompany your meal or end your night Thursday. It's a beer that fits snugly into the period between Oktoberfest and Christmas, a beer that celebrates the harvest as the end of the fall season.This Boulevard offering is strong but not heavy, smooth but not an especially easy sipper. For the time of year, it's just about right.

A wheat wine is a style similar to a barley wine in strength but containing a large proportion of wheat malt. Boulevard uses 20 percent raw wheat and 25 percent wheat malt in this brew. Belgian ale yeast is also used, though this beer doesn't adhere to a particular Belgian style.

Poured into a snifter, Harvest Dance is light orange in color with a fluffy head. The first scent wafting up from the glass is the banana notes from the Belgian yeast. I also get brown sugar and fruit. Why fruit, you ask? Hallertau and Citra hops impart a burst of citrus, and the beer is also bottle conditioned with Muscat grape juice. To round out the flavor profile, the brew is aged on both French and American Oak.

Harvest Dance tastes as smooth as it sounds. Bananas, grapes, and a silky butterscotch dominate the flavor profile. The hops are somewhat muted (42 IBUs), but that's more a product of the presence of other ingredients than a lack of hops. There are wine notes here, which will pair nicely with your squash or pumpkin pie. The finish is dry due to the oak aging. At 9.1 percent alcohol by volume, a dry finish is welcome.

What will you be drinking on Thanksgiving? Leave a comment below and let's get some holiday beer conversation going. Cheers to you and yours.

When Stone Brewing Company first released Arrogant Bastard Ale in 1997, they marketed the beer with the tag line "you probably won't like it." This kind of challenge, of course, appeals to the hearts and minds of craft beer fanatics. "It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth," the Arrogant Bastard tag line continues. It's a taunt to adventurous drinkers, and it's one that has opened the eyes of many to a world of bold, heavily-hopped beer that once seemed unimaginable.

To celebrate the 13th anniversary of Arrogant Bastard, Stone released a once-only beer called Lukcy Basartd Ale in November of 2010 (note that the spelling of both the name and the label description is intentionally jumbled). They hedged their bets on the one-time release by noting, "That is, ‘once only’ unless we decide to make it again.'" The third annual release of the beer is taking place this month,

Stone Lukcy Basartd Ale capitalizes on the success of the series and is a blend of Arrogant Bastard Ale, Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale and Double Bastard Ale. Each beer offers its own complexities and imparts unique flavors into the blend.

To get my bearings, I first sampled a bottle of Double Bastard Ale on a different night. This is a big, boozy beer of 11.2 percent ABV. The monster alcohol content is hard to miss, and somehow the massive hop profile (IBUs for the beer are listed as "classified") is balanced by a just as massive malt profile. On the heaviest end of the Arrogant Bastard series, this beer is where the extreme lies. It's not easy to drink this beer without the help of a friend.

I've had Arrogant Bastard Ale many times, and I've had the Oak Aged version several times. Oak aging mellows the extreme hoppiness of the beer, but of the series it's my least favorite. If you're going to hop it up, give it to me straight.

Lukcy Basartd Ale is a dry-hopped meeting of the Bastards and is described as a blend of the original, Double Bastard, and the essence of the oak aged version. Sold like the others in 22-ounce bottles, Lukcy Basartd is listed at 8.5 percent ABV.

The beer pours a dark chestnut with a thick off-white head. Bitter citrus wafts up from the glass, and you can smell the booze. For all the tough talk, this is a pretty beer.

Stone beers aren't delicate, and this one is no different. It's hop-forward. This is what your morning grapefruit would taste like if it was laced with grain alcohol. I also get biscuity malt and sweet, dark fruits. For all the bitter hops, this beer keeps the trademark Stone Malt profile and somehow finds a balance between being too bitter and too sweet. The oak aging is subtle and provides a nuanced vanilla note without turning this beer into a "typical" oak-aged beer. The beer finishes with a reminder of warming alcohol.

I love this beer. There's so much going on for a big beer, and the various individual components really can be tasted. It's worth seeking out, and it should be available now where Stone products are sold.

What's your favorite Stone beer? Anyone had this yet? E-mail me (gdzen@boston.com) and start a conversation. Follow me on Twitter. Cheers.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. While cooking, cleaning, and avoiding your high school reunion are likely your biggest concerns, we here at 99 Bottles have a little motto to keep in mind: Don't forget about the beer.

In addition to being an accompaniment to football, don't overlook beer for Thanksgiving dinner itself. It pairs with food just as well as wine does, and the wider variety of beer makes it such that you can pair a different beer with each course. Or, if you're like me at Thanksgiving, you can pair your beer with a giant, mushed-together mountain of potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and green bean casserole. Whatever works for you.

What's great about beer is that pairing a crisp, clean brew with a meal as heavy as the one you're likely to eat Thursday cuts the richness of the food. A beer that fits this description nicely is Harpoon's Grateful Harvest Cranberry Ale. Brewed with freshly harvested cranberries donated by local farm A.D. Makepeace, the beer also serves a charitable function. Harpoon donates a dollar from every six-pack sold to local food banks. The brewery anticipates that approximately $35,000 will be donated from sales of the beer this year.

Grateful Harvest Cranberry Ale is a medium-bodied amber ale brewed with Munich and Vienna malts. An addition of CaraMunich malt adds a touch of sweetness. I'm not much for most fruit beers, but as you'll see below, neither the fruit or the malt is too overpowering in this beer. Worries about the beer being too sweet were unfounded.

Let's crack one open. Poured into a tulip glass, the beer pours a dark amber. It keeps a nice white head throughout, and tiny bobbles bob to the top like cranberries in a bog. Sticking my nose into the glass, I get cranberries, bready malt, and, thankfully, plenty of pungent hops.

The beer is malt-forward, but the toasted caramel flavors don't overpower. Cranberries add a nice bite, and the tartness of the fruit combined with the beer's carbonation make for a lighter-than-expected mouthfeel. There aren't distinguishing hop notes, per se, but their presence is felt with a pleasant bitterness. This is a very drinkable beer. At 5.9 percent ABV and 25 IBUs, it shouldn't overpower your turkey dinner or make you too groggy to do the dishes.

The obvious comparison here is Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat, a beer that I also like a lot (OK maybe I like fruit beers a little). The Sam is a bit lighter in malt content, with brighter cherry notes. I find the Harpoon to be a bit more subtle and a bit more crisp. For a fruity beer, the Harpoon Grateful Harvest really is terrific.

I'll end with a note that so far in 2012 alone, the Harpoon Helps program has raised more than $445,000 for local charities. Food banks are always in need of donations, but the need is especially dire this time of year. You can support your local food banks tonight at any of the 15 British Beer company locations from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Please consider making a donation.

I have a lot to be thankful for this year, including the chance to take over 99 Bottles and write about something I'm passionate about, however trivial it may be. As always, I appreciate you reading.

The Samuel Adams Boston Brewery is hosting an open house to benefit victims of Superstorm Sandy on Thurs., Nov. 15 from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Tickets for the event are $25 and includes samples of limited release and specialty Sam Adams beers, a souvenir pint glass, and light refreshments. Proceeds from the event will go to the American Red Cross. You can purchase tickets here.

Samuel Adams also invites attendees to donate much needed items like blankets, jackets, warm socks, sweatshirts, and all donated items will be given to the Salvation Army for distribution to those in need.

The Lower Depths in Kenmore Square is hosting a Mayflower Brewing Company social this Thurs., Nov. 15 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. "What does this social involve?", you ask. Why a ton of Mayflower beer, of course. They'll be pouring Thanksgiving Ale, Autumn Wheat, Smoked Black Lager, and IPA.

For a schedule of more Lower Depths socials, click here.