Extreme Beer Festival 2020: Starting The Year Off With A Bang

Usually a week after New Year’s, I get the itch and count down the days to my trip to Boston and the Extreme Beer Fest! This is my third year in attendance and I was accompanied by a few of my close friends and fellow beer connoisseurs.

The EBF is a beer festival like no other! Hosted by Beer Advocate, the top beer resource site, and presented by Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales, Milton, DE’s heavy hitter for the last 25 years, this beer fest has been around for 17 years and never disappoints.

“The Extreme Beer Fest is all about pushing the boundaries of brewing through creativity, innovation and finesse” along with challenging each of the 32 breweries to debut an “extreme beer”, having an ABV of 5% or less.

Normally this festival takes place at the Seaport World Trade Center; however, due to renovations for the next year or so the event was moved to The Cyclorama, a beautiful 1800’s building located in the south end of Boston which is currently being operated by the Boston Centre of Arts.

The EBF takes place during the weekend of the Superbowl, with a 3 hour tasting on the 31st of January and another on the 1st of February. Ticket prices were $75 for regular admission and $100 for early access, including a 2 oz tasting glass for both ticket tiers. Normally the festival can bring in 4,000 craft beer enthusiasts; however, due to the new location, the event was a lot smaller with a total attendance of 725. This definitely helped with faster entrance, shorter beer lines and a more intimate experience.

Although the location was significantly smaller, the EBF was able to host 32 breweries serving a total of 132 unique beers for our enjoyment. Due to the fact that lineups were no more than 5 minutes for popular breweries and 2 minutes for the others, I was able to try many beers. The night before I was at Trillium and tried many IPA’s and DIPA’s, so I stuck mainly with fruity Berliner Weisse and Sours at the festival.

I usually don’t have time to get something to eat before the festival, which is not a good thing, especially if you have a night of drinking a head of you. So if you are like me, there were a few food vendors on site to fill up your stomach. Here were our choices,

- Jaiu Pierogi - Local Polish pierogies made from scratch.

- KO Pies - Authentic Australian-inspired hand pies from East Boston.

- Waffle Cabin - Some of the best waffles you’ll ever try!

I loved the location and its atmosphere, especially being a 2 minute walk from our hotel.

As for the breweries, each had something special, unique and tasty to offer, along with friendly faces, conversations and answers to any questions we may have had. For the beers, well, of course I had to make a list of my favourites. As always I was very happy and grateful, I got to try these sought after “Whales”:

Mortalis Brewing Co. (Avon, NY)

- Cerberus - Berries and Cream Berliner Weisse 5%

- Medusa - Banana Nut Muffin Berliner Weisse 5%

Burley Oak Brewing Co. (Berlin, MD)

- J.R.E.A.M. - Double Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Berliner Weisse 7%

- J.R.E.A.M. - Painkiller Berliner Weisse 4.8%

- J.R.E.A.M. - Raspberry Cheesecake Berliner Weisse 4.8%

Great Notion Brewing (Portland, OR)

- Blueberry Muffin - Berliner Weisse 6%

- Double Stack - American Imperial Stout 11%

- Jumbo - American Imperial Stout 13%

Kane Brewing Company (Ocean, NJ)

- A Night to End All Dawns - Banana, Peanut Butter and Granola American Imperial Stout 12.40%

- Barrel-Aged French Toast - American Imperial Stout 12.30%

Definitive Brewing Company (Portland, ME)

- Euphoric Nights - Blueberry, Raspberry & Vanilla Berliner Weisse 7.5%

Burley Oak - J.R.E.A.M. - Painkiller - Berliner Weisse 4.8%.

Artisanal Brew Works - Warheads Extreme Sour American Wild Ale 5%.

All in all, after experiencing my third EBF in a row, the newer, more intimate setting, as well as being a more defined beer enthusiast, I have to honestly say I really enjoyed my night, the beer and the conversations I had with fellow beer geeks and brewers.

If you are a true beer lover and enjoy beer festivals, I strongly suggest you get your tickets when they drop in July and plan your trip to Boston next year. This is one beer fest you need to put on your bucket list!

Cheers!

Photography by Rye Rye The Beer Guy.

Ryan

Ryan is a craft beer enthusiast from Montreal, QC, with 4 years of experience in the beer community and over 800 unique beer tastings. A beer lover of all types, specifically IPA’s, DIPA’s and sours, Ryan enjoys sampling as well as capturing sought out beer from Quebec, Ontario and Eastern United States.
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