Our Seasonal Craft Beer Guide for the upcoming holidays!

Distraction Brewing Company has put together a great seasonal craft beer guide to help get you some gift ideas for the beer lover in your family or for you to enjoy the holiday season!

The holidays are just around the corner and with the end of the year rush it sometimes helps to just unwind with a nice beer every now and then. The good news for beer lovers is that this time of year has many flavorful and creative seasonal beers that help make the holidays even more festive!

At Distraction Brewing Company, we’re here to help our patrons and craft beer lovers explore some not-some-common options for brews that compliment traditional holiday meals and provide hearty full flavors of this time of year. If you want to enjoy some of our recent seasonal brews, check out our taproom and visit us in Roslindale! Keep reading our seasonal brew guide to find the perfect beer for the holidays!

Let’s be thankful for these full-flavored beers for those who celebrate Thanksgiving

 

Around the beginning of fall, there are a lot of common seasonal beers and some that may not come up on your radar. Below we’ll dive into brews that go great any time during the fall season and are a great addition to your Thanksgiving Feast:

·      Pumpkin Ales that have spice notes and flavorful notes of nutmeg and cinnamon. Pumpkin flavored beers tend to saturate breweries and liquor stores this time of year but can be a great compliment to your Thanksgiving feast. If you want to try a great option, check out our “Caught Off Gourd” in our taproom for a crisp, refreshing take on a pumpkin beer.

·      Brown Ales are great for those who want malty, nutty, and caramel notes. On the other end of the flavor spectrum, Harvest Ales include fruit flavors like apple, cranberries, and more.

·      Barleywines, which are a stronger and malty beer style, are great for those who want a lot of flavors, and want to take their time enjoying their brew.

·      Cranberry Farmhouse Ales and Sours are also a unique seasonal style that naturally pair well with Thanksgiving side dishes. A cranberry farmhouse ale such as our “Bog Monstah” (which is a favorite among our patrons) has more mellow and grassy notes while a sour is much tarter.

Great beer styles for the start of winter and the upcoming holidays in December like Christmas

The winter holidays including Christmas are also around the corner, which leads to heartier more full-bodied craft beers to come out. This time of year has a lot of special releases for craft beer enthusiasts and it can be hard to choose from so many options. Here are a few of our favorites:

·      Winter Warmers are common and contain flavors like nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves along with more full-bodied and dark flavor profiles. Some even have chocolate and mocha flavors and tend to be higher ABV than standard ales.

·      White Ales and Witbiers are Belgian-Style Ales that include spices and sometimes mellow fruit flavors like orange peel along with coriander to make refreshing but hearty brews.

·      Some brewers also release a Bière de Noël, which is winter-release beer with seasonal spices and malty flavor notes.

·      Dark Stouts and Porters are also especially common this time of year with many adding festive notes of peppermint, coffee, chocolate, and other seasonal flavors.

Busy holiday season? Unwind with seasonal favorites at Distraction Brewing Company’s taproom or with beers to go

Distraction Brewing Company is excited to help you find your ideal craft beer this time of year with our limited seasonal releases. Make sure to visit our Facebook page to find out when our upcoming seasonal brews release, as well as events to enjoy our seasonal staples in our taproom!

Visit us at 2 Belgrade Avenue in Roslindale, MA and check out all of the great local craft beers in time for the holidays!

Distraction Brewing Beer Highlight: Limited Edition “Haunted” Ghost Pepper Pale Ale

Learn how one of our most unique and interesting seasonal beers became a Distraction Brewing staple during the fall season: our Haunted Ghost Pepper Pale Ale with sweet orange and maple syrup that creates a savory “sweet heat” sensation for beer lovers!

At Distraction Brewing Co, our owners and brewers are always trying to push the envelope with our beer to give our patrons unique, flavorful, and most importantly, memorable delicious beers to enjoy.

Sometimes we really take our imagination out of left field and come up with some wild beers, which is the short version of how our “Haunted” Ghost Pepper Pale Ale came to fruition!

Distraction releases the Haunted around the fall season close to Halloween as a limited-edition beer that has been loved by Distraction regulars for years. The unique flavors of the spicy ghost pepper to turn up the heat, along with the orange and maple sweetness to ease it down, make it a seasonal staple here at our local taproom for our usual Roslindale, West Roxbury, and Brookline patrons.

We’ll dive into the history of the Haunted Pale Ale and then get to the good stuff for the beer lovers on our blog: the flavor profile and composition of the beer itself.

If you have other questions about Distraction Brewing, or need to get a 4-pack right now, then check out our brews on tap and visit us at 2 Belgrade Avenue in Roslindale!

“Ghost Pepper in a beer? That might be kind of weird:” How the Haunted Pale Ale was created:

 

Distraction Brewing Company Owner Lora Estey thought it’d be pretty funny to make a beer with ghost pepper for a Halloween themed-beer. A “Ghost” Pepper beer fit right in the theme and the named “Haunted” was a natural fit. But that gag had a surprising outcome: people that tried the protype of the Haunted ended up kind-of loving it:

“So, I thought it would be funny to try to add the ghost pepper in there, because ghost pepper by itself is just not the best flavor: it’s too hot for a lot of people and it just burns more than anything,” explains Lora. “So, for fun I thought it would be like a funny joke to put it in a beer with these other flavors, and to my surprise and of everyone else that tried the beer it was so well-received”

Lora has also made other beers with heat-based flavors (see our Jalapale in four packs to go) and she needed to balance it out sweetness. With just a bit more refinement of those other flavors, the sweet maple syrup and orange, it created a unique, and surprisingly crisp, pale that that delivers a “sweet heat” which is now available in four packs and can pours every fall season at the taproom.

The Haunted Ghost Pepper Pale Ale: Sweet Heat sensation rewarded for adventurous beer-lovers

As mentioned above, the Haunted has an extremely memorable flavor profile: a sharp bit of heat quickly cooled off by a savory sweet combo of maple syrup and orange, or colloquially, a “sweet heat.”

The beer is a pale ale that is moderately clear and has a light crisp after each sip. Unlike a hazy New England IPA (NEIPA) such as Cloud Headed, the Haunted looks like your standard run-of-mill pale ale besides a noticeable orange tint in the beer’s color composition.

Unless a beer-drinker is extremely sensitive to heat flavors, the Haunted Pale Ale can be enjoyed by the average beer lover. Most patrons are pleasantly surprised to find that the Haunted is relatively easy to drink and love to discover the one-of-a-kind flavors only found in this beer.

Get a four-pack or can pour of the Haunted Pale Ale at Distraction Brewing!

Since the Haunted Pale Ale is limited this season, we highly advise to try it before it’s too late at Distraction Brewing’s Taproom in Roslindale, MA – located at 2 Belgrade Avenue. Our taproom staff are ready to give you a can pour as requested, or you can enjoy them at your leisure in our limited 4-packs of the Haunted.

There is no better way for craft beer lovers to enjoy spooky season than with hauntingly great beer at Distraction Brewing Co!

Weekend Distraction - Brookline Edition:

Read more on the Distraction Beer Blog on how to have a great weekend in Brookline, MA with local activities, recreation ideas, and a quick trip to our great local brewery!

Brookline, MA is a hotspot in the Boston area for tourists and city residents alike: home to several popular eateries, neighbors to some of the most prestigious universities in the country, and filled to the brim with a lot of great recreational activities for all types of people.

Visiting Brookline can be overwhelming, and hard to pin down just a few things to do, so the Distraction Brewing team is here to help you plan an awesome weekend distraction for you, your friends, and your family!

Below is a list of do-able activities you can get done within a day of visiting Brookline. While there are a ton of other things you can do, we have whittled down some of the most popular and well-received activities from locals and patrons at Distraction Brewing.

If you have questions about Distraction Brewing, and our beer list right now, then check out our brews on tap and visit us at 2 Belgrade Avenue in Roslindale!

Take a biking tour or get some fresh air at Larz Anderson Park

 

Brookline is extremely bike-friendly and makes it easy to get to many restaurants, shops, and other locations. A biking tour of Brookline is a great way to see many of the vibrant areas of town while also getting some fresh air and exercise. Many of the dedicated bike lanes and the Blue Bikes bikeshare program make it simple and safe for a biking trip.

For more outdoor recreation, Larz Anderson Park on Goddard Ave and Newton St. has many walking/hiking paths, outdoor picnic areas, playgrounds for young children, and gardens to visit. There is even an ice-skating rink open during the winter for the general public to enjoy the wintertime. The park also is home to the well-known Larz Anderson Auto Museum for any car-lovers that want to check it out.

 

Check out these other green spaces for outdoor recreation in Brookline, MA

Visiting Brookline is a great way to get some fresh air and kick off a great weekend with many other parks and walking trails outside of Larz Anderson. Here is a list of some of the best local spots to enjoy the fall weather in Brookline:

·      Brookline Reservoir Park: a jogging and walking track that provides scenic views of near Dudley Triangle

·      Armory Playground & Armory Park Bridge: a playground and scenic area that provides a spacious fun for families 

·      Emerson Garden: a local green area that offers a nearby playground and dog-friendly space to bring your pup

·      Cypress Field & Playground: a central playground and public field in Brookline if you want to play field sports with friends and family

Catch a movie at the Coolidge Corner Theater and get some dinner afterwards

Coolidge Corner is home to some of the best restaurants and hangouts in Brookline along with the famous Coolidge Corner Theater. The theater is an independently owned and operated theater that offers retro-style vaudeville décor and shows some of the most critically-acclaimed movies as well as upcoming blockbuster hits.

The theater is central to several other Coolidge Corner restaurants and dining options, which makes the classic “dinner and a movie” plan a breeze for visitors.

End your visit to Brookline, MA with a short trip to the Distraction Brewing Taproom

There is no better way to end a fun trip in Brookline than with some fresh craft beer at the Distraction Brewing Taproom! Located at 2 Belgrade Avenue in Roslindale, Distraction Brewing is just a few minutes away from Brookline with tons of beer variety to cap off a great weekend in Brookline.

From our flagship beers, the Roslindale Pale Ale and Hoppily Distracted IPA, to our seasonal beers like the Cranberry Bog Monstah Farmhouse Ale or the Caught Off Gourd Pumpkin Spice Wheat Ale, we have the right beer just for you.