Craft Beer Fridays – Pretty Things’ Saint Botolph’s Town

The only thing better than grabbing a 22-oz. beer for a(nother) snowy weekend is knowing your winter-warmer is keeping the heat on in a neighbor’s house!

Founded in 2008 by husband and wife team Dann and Martha Paquette, the Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project is right around the corner in Somerville, MA (and we’ve been fans for a long time!). Their Saint Botolph’s Town brown ale was originally conceived as a tribute to the city of Boston. Apparently the original Boston (England) was a linguistic mutt: named after the medieval saint, it started out as either “Botolph’s Town” or “Botolph’s Stone,” but over time, muddy pronunciation left us with the “Boston” that we know (and love!) today.

Though this beer isn’t nearly as heavy as Southern Tier’s Imperial Choklat, it has more than enough body to stand up to a wintry day. Malty,  nutty, and just a little toasted-tasting, this smooth ale perfectly complements a cheese tray (and cold days).

Make sure to snap up bottles of St. Botolph’s Town, and any of Pretty Things’ beers, when you see them; as tenant brewers (they rent brewery space, brew in the middle of the night, and let the host brewery bottle for them), just about everything they make is limited-edition, at least until they can get back into the brewery!

TGIF Craft Beer Salute of the Week

Rabbit, Rabbit everyone! It’s the first &VM words of June!!! I’ve been looking for an occasion to write about Somerville, MA’s,  Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project for a long time now, primarily for two reasons: one, they are one of my favorite craft beer producers of all time and two, because almost every beer I’ve tasted from my first sip of Baby Tree to this spring’s offering of Fluffy White Rabbits has been remarkable. Let me begin at the beginning:  Pretty Things isn’t a brewery. It’s a project, but most importantly, it’s a project that allowed owner Dann Paquette to not give up on his dream of brewing. Pretty Things founders Dann and Martha Holley-Paquette had no money to build or buy a full-scale brewery so they found an alternative—they rented a brewing space the way tenant farmers rent land. Today, the couple does everything from brew the beer to draw the labels to holding local tastings of the lovely elixirs they concoct.

I took my first sip of Pretty Things last summer at the restaurant where I worked, one of the first places in Boston to carry the duet’s clever, head-turning names on draft. Some short time later, I began to see some of my favorite local establishments carry some of the Pretty Things beers in their trademark 22-oz bomber bottles, I.e. Cambridge’s revered one-screen wonder, the Brattle Cinema (as if I needed more of a reason to be a Brattle junkie).   And so I slowly made my way around town and through their catalog. Despite each beer being brewed in a different style, each Pretty Things pint I tasted made me smile in wonderment.

Fluffy White Rabbits is brewed with Saaz, Styrian Goldings and Amarillo hops and they describe it as their take on a Triple, a beer style similar to a strong pale ale.

If you’re a Pretty Things novice, I recommend you go out and buy a different bottle each week and see which one you like best—the ones in between won’t disappoint, I promise. For me, Fluffy White Rabbits with it’s hazy golden hue is one of the crispest tasting beers they offer, making it a perfect beer for the oncoming warm weather Along with Baby Tree and Field Mouse’s Farewell, Fluffy White Rabbits is one of my favorites from this coolly eccentric label.

On a parting note, if you like beer and live in the area, the American Craft Beer Fest (ACBF) is today at the Seaport World Trade Center with some of the country’s coolest craft brewers. This is the East Coast’s largest craft beer festival and 50 bucks in cash gets you the chance to taste over 500 craft beers from 2oz tasters. Until next time, enjoy Fluffy White Rabbits and remember the Pretty Things motto, “These beers are for fun, not for display! Our beers are not precious jewels, they are happy peasants! Our motto is “Good Time Artisanal Beers”: hold us to it!” Happy Friday everyone.

To Market, To Market, To Buy Something Vintage…

Great news, friends! This month, Ampersand Vintage Modern will be setting up shop for two days only at the Drill Hall Flea Market in Somerville, MA. The flea market is a bi-monthly event that takes place every other Sunday at the Armory. If you’ve never been to the Armory, you can’t miss it. Just look for the large, white fortress-like structure at 191 Highland Avenue.

We’ve signed up for the flea market this Sunday, April 15th and again on April 29th. We would love to see you, so swing by and say hello! There will be lots of vintage modern wares to choose from–some from our website and some that you’ve never seen. I’m trying to talk Clytie into doing face-painting…we’ll see.

If I were you, I’d make a day of it! Not from the neighborhood, no problem! Drive or take the Red line T to Davis Square. Walk up Highland, and be sure to stop off at 3 Little Figs for a coffee and tasty pastry. Then, you’ll be ready to make some deals at the flea market. You may want to stretch first. After you’ve spent your monthly allowance at the &VM booth, stroll over to Highland Kitchen for lunch, and to chat with your friends about all of the fabulous goodies you just scored and how charming we are! Sounds like a perfect Sunday to me!