This coming Monday, September 28, is National Drink Beer Day. If you’ve ever shopped our North Andover store, you know that Wine ConneXtion proudly supports a great number of local breweries and is privileged to often a lot of their exclusive and hard-to-get beers. Now, in honor of this upcoming national holiday, we wanted to highlight a few of these special local breweries and share a sampling of the frothy goodness they have to offer.

Greater Good Imperial Brewing Company

Greater Good Imperial Brewing Company is a craft brewery and taproom located in Worcester, MA – the Heart of the Commonwealth.

Featured Beers

Pulp Daddy. Imperial New England IPA. Pulp Daddy is created as an extension of the popular PULP (Paul’s Ultimate Lupulin Protocol). Like Pulp, this juice-forward IPA has a predominant citrusy aroma and tastes like nectar of the hop gods! Made with one modification to the base process for Pulp with a single objective in mind: dial up the haze. Objective accomplished. Pulp Daddy is easy-drinking and refreshing with perfect nebulosity and mouthfeel. ABV 8%. (from Greater Good)

Double Dry-Hopped Pulp Daddy. Imperial New England IPA. Double Dry-Hopped PULP Daddy features more than DOUBLE the hops of original PULP Daddy and it goes down like a tropical juice! PULP Daddy has become Greater Good’s most popular offering, so it was common sense to see what a DDH version looked like! Big, giant notes of orange, pineapple & mango all the way through for this masterpiece from the Citra hops. DDH PULP Daddy is truly our most hoppy beer ever. ABV 8%. (from Greater Good)

GG Vibes. Imperial New England IPA. GG Vibes is an exploratory new brew that combines our brewer’s New England juicy, hazy dry-hopping techniques with a definitive dose of one of our favorite Australian hops, Ella – the half-sister to Galaxy hops – and she delivers a psychedelic bright, complex tropical fruity and citrusy profile. Easy to hang with, an instant friend, and never to shy away from a good time – GG Vibes is a nod to our hop-farming friends from the land down under. ABV 8.2%. (from Greater Good)

Idle Hands Craft Ales

Located in Malden, MA, Idle Hands Craft Ales is a 100% family-owned craft brewery producing a wide array of Belgian and German-inspired ales and lagers. Its focus is to provide the freshest beer possible for the metro Boston market in a range of styles that go beyond the usual hop-focused offerings. Originally launched in 2011 as a small nanobrewery in Everett, it has grown organically through the years and in 2016 relocated to Malden to open a larger, more inviting facility complete with a tap room for visitors to stop by and enjoy our beer.

Featured Beers

Farmhouse Pale Ale: American Farmhouse Ale. Easy drinking farmhouse ale with an American twist. Notes of stone fruit, tropical fruit and bubblegum with a dry peppery finish. ABV 5.6%. (from Idle Hands)

Four Seam IPA: New England IPA. Four Seam conjures up thoughts of a tropical paradise with bursts of citrus, mango and guava that sit on top of a refrained malt backbone. Bitterness remains subdued to allow the true character of the hops to shine through while the cloudy appearance elevates the experience — a true New England IPA. ABV 6.6%. (from Idle Hands)

34: Robust Porter. A robust porter for a robust player, this is a tribute to David Ortiz. 34 will assault your palate with flavors of dark chocolate, burnt caramel and dark fruit while the sturdy malt body provides ample strength to hit anything thrown at it. A touch of sweetness persists through the finish balancing out the strong character found throughout the beer. ABV 6.7%. (from Idle Hands)

Lamplighter Brewing Co.

Lamplighter Brewing Co. is a Cambridge-based craft brewery focused on aroma-packed and flavor-driven ales, including New England IPAs, barrel-aged sours and unique seasonals.

Featured Beers

Rabbit Rabbit Double IPA. Double India Pale Ale. This beer is a veritable juice bomb, boasting huge hop flavors of mango, melon, and ripe fruit. Kick back and hop to it! Formerly called Jackalope. Tasting notes: tropical, hop candy and ripe mango. ABV 8.5%. (from Lamplighter)

Sweater Weather Saison. Provisional Saison with Cider. Sweater Weather is a beer-cider hybrid brewed with our friends at Shacksbury Cider (Champlain Valley, VT). Fermented with Belgian yeast and blended with 275 gallons of dry apple cider, this ester-forward ale is medium bodied and smooth. Keep cold and enjoy fresh! Tasting notes: nutmeg, granny smith apple and lemon peel. ABV 7%. (from Lamplighter)

Birds of a Feather. IPA. A New England-Style IPA brewed and double dry-hopped with juicy American hops. Birds has become a staple of our roster because of its fruit-forward flavors of dank citrus and passionfruit, coupled with a smooth finish and creamy mouthfeel. Tasting notes: sprucs, lemongrass and meyer lemon. ABV 6.8%. (from Lamplighter)

Whatever beer makes you most happy – porter, lager, ale, stout or anything in between – these featured beers are definitely worth sampling. Be sure to raise your ice-cold glass of beer next Monday and take the time to enjoy… Cheers!