I spent last weekend in Boston, Massachusetts and in honor of my trip I made the obligatory trip to a local brewery. Over debating with myself to head to the Boston Beer Company (a.k.a. Sam Adams) or the Harpoon brewery, I discovered that the latter does free tasting tours every Friday, precisely the day I was looking to indulge.

I’m going to put it right out there: Boston might be a better beer city than New York. This isn’t looking at New York State, but the city of Boston vis-à-vis the city of New York—it’s pretty close. Now I know that there are a lot of differences; Boston is much smaller, there are less people, etc etc etc. However, the Harpoon brewery is 20 minutes on foot from the financial district in Boston. I know that there are a bunch of Heartland Breweries scattered throughout the city, but it’s not like I can buy a six pack of Heartland around the block from my house, and the only way I can walk into the Brooklyn brewery is if I’ve taken the subway into Williamsburg. Also, every single bar I entered while in Boston had at least one Harpoon on tap. The same can’t be said fro Brooklyn, Six Point or Bluepoint beers in New York. Harpoon also coordinates four really, really big beer festivals in the city. At the last St. Patrick’s Day bash, they kicked 300 kegs while partying in the rain. While I now love both cities, the beer drinkers in Boston seem to be fiercely loyal to their local brew. This is definitely a good thing.

There are a few interesting facts about the Harpoon brewery. To start, it owns the first brewing license in the state of Massachusetts, making it the oldest brewery there. Also, their Winter Warmer seasonal is the 2nd oldest annual seasonal beer in the states (I’m still trying to find the first). They use their own proprietor yeast (meaning that you can’t find their yeast anywhere else in the world) and they are one hell of a supporter of the local beer scene. The giant beer fest I attended back in the summer was put on by Beer Advocate and Harpoon brewery. Speaking of which, Harpoon actually sponsored a teeny, tiny beer fest I went to back in Binghamton, NY. Way to go Harpoon.

Basically, I like this beer. If you are ever in the area, take the time to hit up the brewery for their Beer Tasting Tour. Unlike other breweries that schlep you around the beer vats and the bottling line and spit out facts, the people at Harpoon sit you down at their tasting bar, give out a bunch of samples and give you the details on each beer while going through the history of the brewery. It’s interesting, informational, and most importantly, delicious.