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It was a very lovely sunny weekend here in Boston, which is fortunate because my best friend from New York was visiting! She brought along some friends, so of course one of the places I had to take them was Harpoon Brewery. I've been on the tour multiple times, so I thought that this time, I would take some proper pictures. And now I'm sharing them!
As you can see, the outside of Harpoon is not very remarkable. But trust me, what is inside is pretty remarkable. The tours are $5 per person and last for about an hour with a 20 minute tasting session. Even though that sounds a bit long for a small space, it goes by very quickly. Here is a peek into what's inside the brewery:
They also taught us how the beer is brewed including showing us some of the ingredients: malted barley, hops, and orange peel & coriander.
As you can see, the outside of Harpoon is not very remarkable. But trust me, what is inside is pretty remarkable. The tours are $5 per person and last for about an hour with a 20 minute tasting session. Even though that sounds a bit long for a small space, it goes by very quickly. Here is a peek into what's inside the brewery:
They also taught us how the beer is brewed including showing us some of the ingredients: malted barley, hops, and orange peel & coriander.
And then on to the most fun part, the tasting room! We had little sample glasses that we could refill as many times as we wanted. This time around, they also had seasoned pretzel chips for munching on as well. The very first glass we tried was green beer, which is basically beer before it is fully filtered and carbonated, I think.
Even though Harpoon is known for their IPA, I don't like that weird bitter aftertaste of India Pale Ales, so I can't comment much on that. My favorites were the stout, the UFOs (unfiltered offerings), and ciders. Toward the end of our tasting session, our tour guide asked if anyone was feeling adventurous. Before I knew it, my hand was up and he was pouring me a combo of Big Squeeze Shandy, which is a grapefruit UFO, with the Boston Irish Stout. These two happen to be my favorites of the ones they had at the moment, so I was quite happy about the combo.
Doesn't it look just beautiful with the foam from the stout and the lightness of the shandy at the bottom?
Finally, we ended up in the beer hall for some pretzels. They actually use spent grains from the beer brewing process in the pretzels themselves. It comes with two dipping sauces, and my favorites are garlic butter and bacon ranch. If you like IPAs, they have an IPA cheese dipping sauce that is pretty unique. I totally forgot to take a picture of my pretzel this time, but they are amazingly soft, delicious, and filling! It's a good thing I don't live closer to the place, or else I'd just be popping in all the time to eat pretzels. All in all, I had a great time as always, and I'd definitely recommend visiting Harpoon if you're ever around Boston!
-jennkay
