Harpoon Brewery Tour

As I sit here and write this post, I am still amazed at how this Saturday was the best $5 I’ve ever spent.  Beer and Boston hold a special place in my heart since I was a high school senior. I tasted my first craft beer in the form of a Sam Adams Boston Lager at the tender age of 17. I was away on a camping trip with some friends and we had managed to score some beers. I remember thinking I wanted to be cool, and seem more experienced than my other friends who had chosen Heineken and Corona. From the moment I tasted it I liked it. I couldn’t pick out any of the flavors, or ingredients that make Boston Lager what it is, but I knew I liked it.

Beer Info for the nerds!

For the next 4 years, Sam Adams was THE craft beer for me, Old Feiziwig, Summer Ale, Winter Lager, Black Lager, an amazing Boysenberry Wheat ect ect. Sam Adams was something of a pride thing for me, being raised in New England and all. The first time I was exposed to Harpoon was in the form of their IPA. I wasn’t anything close to being the hop head I am today so like many others, the IPA’s powerful floral taste and aroma was a bit too much for me. Unfortunately that was enough to set me off of Harpoon until I was introduced to Summer Beer, and the fun fact that Harpoon was also based in Boston.

Fast forward to this Saturday, I went to Harpoon at 10:30am to pick up my tickets for the 4pm tour. I can’t stress enough how important it is to do this. By the time me and my friend arrived for our tour (we got there at 3 for some reason) all the tours were booked solid. I’d done Harpoons free tasting, yes FREE, 3 times or so, and have sampled almost all they have to offer. They do rotate their 100 barrel series and seasonals, so there is always something new there.

fresh out of the vessel!

Our tour started promptly at 4, and we were greeted with a glass full of their newest addition Rye IPA. Harpoons new rye IPA is in celebration of it’s 25 year anniversary. Our tour guide went through the usual water, barley ,hops, yeast and basic brewing process steps as we sipped our IPAs. It was interesting to note that they are in possession of 1 of only 2 pressure boilers in the world. It’s a pretty neat system that lets them boiler at a higher temperature under pressure, allowing them to shave 20 minutes off their brew time. That equates to an extra batch brewed a day! I also thought it was fantastic that their spent grain was shipped out to Westport daily ( I am originally from that general area) and fed to the cattle on local farms, thumbs up Harpoon!

We then traveled down the brew deck to experience something truly special and unexpected. We were walked over to the fermentation vessels, and after a quick talk about the entire process we were given the chance to sample their flagship IPA….green! Now green was a relatively unknown term to me until I started home brewing, and I’ve really only been to 2 other breweries, Sam Adams and the former Buzzards Bay Brewing, and neither offered me this chance. As a homebrewer this was such a great experience to actually taste a successful brewery’s product way before it was finished. It gave me great insight as to how far a beer goes, and I having tasted my own product throughout the process, even the big guy’s beer tastes a little funky before its done!

L to R: Rye IPA,IPA,Summer,100 Barrel,
Leviathan,Chocolate Stout,Cider,UFO Ras,
UFO,UFO Pale

After walking through the bottling and kegging line it was time to get to the business end. Harpoon spares nothing in terms of their beers and tasting them. The staff always encourages you to try what they offer, and go outside of what you normally drink. I had tasted most of what they had, so I went with their UFO Pale Ale, Catamount Maple Wheat (100 Barrel Series) and the Leviathan Quad. I still can’t stress how good this tour was, and I will most definitely recommend this to anyone that asks me, Harpoon, you left your impression on me Saturday.