Boston News Today - BEER-Y TRAVELER

Sure, there are only a few calendar weeks left of our precious summer. No matter though. The craft beer festival season is still on an intoxicated rampage around New England, so here are a few to keep in mind in order to get the most suds out of your drinking season.

LOBSTAH BOIL AND BREW FEST | AUGUST 3

Newton’s first-ever commercial brewery, Hopsters, will be hosting their inaugural lobster boil and brew fest this Sunday. The training ground for home brewers won’t be offering brewing sessions during the party, instead swapping them for boiling sessions. Their copper kettles will be employed as scalding death baths for cooking the large crustaceans to a crimson hue, and you’ll get various sides and specialty draft ales brewed just for the occasion. Creepy yet wonderful.

HOPSTERS. 292 CENTRE ST., NEWTON.

BREW AT THE ZOO | AUGUST 16

Featuring more than 30 local breweries, food from several area restaurants, and live music, it’s the only reason you should ever be blitzed among zebras and other incarcerated animals. Connecticut’s Two Roads Brewing and Somerville’s Pretty Things will be on hand, along with national favorites (New York’s Brewery Ommegang, Green Flash Brewing from California). Warning: May result in drunken arguments with some monkeys.

FRANKLIN PARK ZOO. 1 FRANKLIN PARK RD., BOSTON.

PORTLAND BREW FESTIVAL | AUGUST 29 – 30

Forty breweries, mostly regional, will take over a combined 35K-square-foot space this month in Portland. Custom sampling glasses for sampling more than 110 varieties of choice suds (Portland’s beloved Allagash Brewing, local powerhouse Harpoon and New Hampshire’s Smuttynose), cider (think: Bantam and Downeast out of Massachusetts) and even mead from the likes of Fat Friar Mead and Maine Meadery. You’ll have live brewing sessions and a whole head-load of beer education. Which may be lost the next day should you overdo it.

THE PORTLAND COMPANY. 58 FORE ST., PORTLAND, ME.

HOP JAM | August 30

If the name is any indication, expect a strong musical contingent, but also a serious beer focus highlighting mostly the Green Mountain State. The brag-worthy lineup includes coveted Hill Farmstead Brewery, Zero Gravity Craft Brewery, the Alchemist, Lost Nation Brewing, and Lawson’s Finest Liquids, as well as a killer round-up from beyond the state. Expect about 20 rotating drafts, with special limited releases tapped between music sets, and a cask selection for VIP ticket holders. It’s the Bonnaroo of beer.

BOLTON VALLEY RESORT. 4302 BOLTON VALLEY ACCESS RD., BOLTON VALLEY, VT.