Boston brew tours.

A few weeks ago, in preparation for Sean's birthday, I asked him how he would like to spend his birthday weekend. He told me he'd like to drink beer and hang out with friends. So, today -- we did just that. We went into Boston with friends and toured the Sam Adams brewery and the Harpoon Brewery. We also had lunch/dinner at Jerry Remy's on the water. It's still chilly but it was sunny and right now we'll take 50s with sun any time. I don't like beer but I tasted some (and wished I had another drink to wash it all down with) and I preferred Sam Adams over Harpoon. 

It's surprising to me that we hadn't toured the Sam Adams brewery ever before. I imagined it being much larger. I think of "Sam Adams" when I think of beer. I guess it's not as big as I thought because it was on the smaller scale. It's located in a neighborhood! There were many positives about the whole experience: we found street parking, the tour was free, we got to play checkers with bottle caps while we waited for the tour to start, there wasn't too much walking involved, the tour guide was hysterical, the tasting room was neat and we got to sit down, we got to pour our own drinks and got a free Sam Adams 7 oz. glass to keep. It was sweet.

The Harpoon brewery was a lot larger than the Sam Adams brewery. It cost $5, it was crowded but there was a parking garage across the street that offered the lowest prices to park in Boston that I've ever heard of. The tour was good but I didn't like having to wear safety glasses in the warehouse. I'm pretty certain I'm going to wake up with conjunctivitis from having to wear non-sanitized shared glasses. I hear Sean and our friends talking about beer and brewing beer so much I found that I knew exactly what the guide was about to say. We were that group that knew all the right answers to the questions asked to "stump" the audience. I feel like I'm going to have dreams about water, barley, hops and yeast. 

All in all it was a really fun day and a great way to kick off Sean's birthday weekend. As a non-drinker, and the designated driver (hooray for me for driving around Boston) it was fun just to be out and about and not sitting on the couch or painting the walls. :)