Like visiting a half-dozen top notch breweries at once
Welcome to the Boston Better Beer Bureau, our latest incarnation of the trusty suds reporting we’ve done at DigBoston ever since people referred to beer as suds. Really, we remember the days when we’d spend half our checks on fancy German bottles just so that we could review them, whereas these days breweries from all around New England kindly send us samplers and stay in touch. The BBBB is our attempt to return that love, all while sharing more news about the innumerable microbreweries and pubs among us.
It is almost unfathomable that Dorchester Brewing Company has only been around since 2016. Sure, four years is forever in a region where restaurants and breweries are at one another’s necks, forcing each other out of business regularly with help from foul weather, construction, and Yelpers—but it still doesn’t seem long enough for what this budding beer behemoth has accomplished. You see, it’s not just Dorchester’s own branded magic that the brewery and tap room are increasingly known for, but rather for those selections as well as a stellar roster of brews they pour from (and in some cases brew for) other companies at their Mass Ave home base.
At the time of this writing, Dot Brewing has two of the Public Servant editions from Evil Twin Brewing in Queens—the Firefighter double IPA, which packs a whopping 9% ABV, and the 7% ABV Teacher IPA—on tap, plus picks from Radiant Pig Beer Company in Manhattan, Winter Hill Brewing in Somerville, and Lone Pine Brewing in Portland, Maine. The latter’s Tessellation, an 8.1% double IPA exploding with Mosaic hops, is one of those deceptively sweet and light yet bold and filling numbers, and is easily one of New England’s greatest offerings. And it’s this clandestine style that Dorchester also delivers in some of its most impressive styles.
Ultimately, we wound up draining a whole lot of its Embarrassment of Riches and even taking home a growler for $11. One of the beers that’s done under the house name, it’s stern but fruity and delicious with an afterglow that your mouth will remember. At first glance in the glass, Embarrassment has something of a see-through champagne quality that may turn off some hardcore hopheads, but don’t be fooled. Just consider it a great beer in disguise—like a partner who you didn’t know had such a banging body until they took their clothes off. Whether you sip, lick, or pound it, though, it’s a unique treat that alone makes the trip there worth your time.
Of course, you’ll also want to grab some hard pretzels and mustard and hang with the new Dot set, an actually diverse mix of young and middle-aged professionals salted with a couple of old neighborhood heads who have come to accept that Dorchester Brewing is here to stay and has a heap to offer. After all, in a city as transient as this one, four years is basically a lifetime.
Citizen Strain/Grain is an amalgamation of a bunch of us who, in addition to the hard and oftentimes depressing journalism we report for the Dig, also enjoy sampling and writing about the various beers, spirits, and cannabis products that vendors from near and far send our way. If you want us to check out your product, please contact us at info@digboston.com.
