Hello! My name is Bob and I can read Roman Numerals. That’s all it took for me to be qualified to write this month’s Amory’s Tomb Newsletter. For a change, this month’s newsletter is mostly about…beer! Here’s what’s going on:
Petite Klassique On Tap Now!
In last month’s newsletter I wrote that the Beer Garden would open on March 1st without taps, and I also wrote that we wouldn’t seen any new brews from Amory’s Tomb until April. So, what happened? The Beer Garden opened on March 1st with 4 beers on tap, including a brand new saison!
That’s right, you can pretty much take last month’s newsletter and chuck it in a trash barrel. And then light that trash barrel on fire!
The new beer in question is Saison XVII: Petite Klassique. It’s a lower alcohol version of Saison I: Classic, with a slightly different hop profile. And that’s pretty much what it tastes like. Petite Klassique is the kind of farmhouse ale that we’ve all come to expect from Amory’s Tomb. It’s full of flavor and will be a great one to quaff in the Beer Garden throughout the spring. I can also personal attest that it goes very well with raclette!
If there is one style that is Amory’s Tomb’s specialty, it is, of course, the saison. Allen and Rick give many of them names with Roman Numerals, just like the Super Bowl, so you know they are a big deal!
I noticed something about their use of Roman Numerals, though. Here is a complete list of all Amory’s Tomb Saisons on Untappd in numerical order:
I: Classic
II: Petite Rye
III: Mandarina/Citra
V: EKG
VI: Hibiscus & Lime
VI(b): Hibiscus & Lime
VII: Brett Nelson
XI: Dandelion & Honey
XIII: [unnamed, but apparently an amber ale with pumpkins]
XVI: Amarillo Belle
XVII: Petit Klassique
XX(b): Citruses
XXIV: Lemon/Balm/Grass
XXVI [unnamed but apparently an imperial version of XIII]
XXVII: Sorachi Ace
XLII: Crystal & Meridian
Wow! There’s some deep cuts in that list! Some of them appear to predate the opening of the old taproom!
More than the obscurity, what I notice is that there are a lot of missing numbers. Just in the first 10 alone I see I, II, III, V, VI and VII but no IV, VIII, IX or X. Where happened to those beers?? The numbers of the Saison releases become even more sparse in the teens and early twenties. Then there is nothing between XXVII and XLII. By my count, that’s at least 28 (or XXVIII) mystery beers.
I have a few possible theories as to what has happened to the missing numbers such as Saison IX, Saison XVIII and (this one has to be good) Saison XXXVIII:
Allen and Rick drank all of the other ones before they could be released.
The other 28 beers were brewed with lactose sugar, and Allen and Rick are embarrassed to release them now.
A dog ate the other beers’ recipes.
The saisons are numbered according to numerical order as specifically decreed by Emperor Commodus in 191 CE, who banned all the other numbers.
If you have any better theories than the ones above, please email those to Allen! We’ll print the best ones next month, and also see if we can get the straight scoop from the brewers themselves.
Petite Klassique is on draught now at the Beer Garden and in select locations in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
A New Porter with a Very Long Name is Coming in April
Allen and Rick have a new porter coming out in April in honor of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution! It’s called “A Petition To the King For the Repeal of Intolerable Acts”. Said petition was sent to King George in 1775, after Lexington and Concord, laying out the colonies’s grievances, including (unless my historical knowledge is off) that it is silly to spell it “draught” rather than “draft”.
Allen and Rick actually announced A Petition To the King For the Repeal of Intolerable Acts (let’s just call it Petition from now on) in their update last week. They described it as a blend of “a blend of barrel-aged stale and brown ales conditioned on spruce tips and molasses.”
If you are like me, you read that description and thought, “stale?” I figured this was just another typo from Allen. It turns out stale means older beer! Who knew?
The cask version of Petition will be available exclusively at 2025 NERAX, which runs from April 2-5 in South Boston. You can buy tickets and get more info here:
If you can’t make it to NERAX, there will also be a limited number of 375ml bottles of Petition for sale at the Beer Garden. The bottles have the same combination of stale and brown ales, spruce tips and molasses, but additionally have been bottle-conditioned on hemlock (the good kind, not the Socrates kind!) syrup. I am really curious to taste this because I can honestly say I have never had hemlock syrup in a beer, or for that matter anywhere, before.
Allen and Rick are aiming to release the bottles around Patriot’s Day to coincide with all the 250th anniversary festivities in the area. But of course, since these are bottle-conditioned, timing is an inexact science at best. I can’t wait!
Amory’s Tomb Brews a New Hazy IPA?! And They Put It In a Can?!!
If there’s one thing we know about Amory’s Tomb, it’s that they don’t follow the latest craft beer trends. If they feel like brewing a beer with spruce tips and hemlock syrup, and give it an 11-word name, then that’s what they’ll do! It’s what I love about the place. Every Amory’s Tomb beer is expertly crafted, and many of them are in styles you don’t see emphasized as much elsewhere.
But, there’s nothing wrong with producing a more common and popular style, too! To that end, AT has a new IPA coming out called Game Don’t Change. It’s in AT’s Wizard-style of Vermont-inspired IPA’s.
It’s hopped with Simcoe and Whakatu Kora hops. You’ve probably heard of Simcoe - they’re everywhere. But if you are like me you never heard of Whataku Koura hops. They’re from New Zealand! Here’s a link that describes what they are:
https://hopalliance.com/products/whakatu-koura-phantasm-enriched-hops
As if it isn’t crazy enough that Allen and Rick brewed a hazy IPA with hipster hops from New Zealand, they also went ahead and did something they swore they would never do again with an IPA! They canned it! That’s right, Game Don’t Change will not only be available in the Beer Garden, it’ll be available in 4-packs to take home!
They are aiming for a mid-April release of Game Don’t Change. It’ll be available on draught at the Beer Garden and in cans! Allen describes this beer as “hazy but not flabby”. I have no idea what that means, but this sounds like the kind of beer that I will be pairing with tacos later this spring!
Robust Porter Takes 2025 Silver Medal from Untappd!
Untappd, the beer app, just released its 2025 awards, and Amory’s Tomb received a Silver Medal for the state of Massachusetts in the “Porter - English” category for its aptly-named Robust Porter!
This is second year in a row (and Untappd only started giving out medals last year) for Robust Porter, which won the Gold Medal for Massachusetts last year. Think of how many breweries there are in Massachusetts, and how many of them brew porters. Getting on the podium 2 years in a row is quite an achievement!
Even though It’s nice enough out now to sit in the Beer Garden, it is still March. It’s not like it’s t-shirt weather out there! If you ask me, these days in the 40’s to 60’s are perfect for sipping a draught of Robust Porter, then rating it on Untappd!
Perico’s Tacos Are Back on Starting on March 22nd!!!
The long wait is over!!! Perico’s Taco Truck will be returning to the Beer Garden on Saturdays and Sundays starting on March 22nd! Not a moment too soon!
Every time I have had some other tacos over the winter my thought as been “Meh, these are ok, but they’re no Perico’s.” Fresh corn tortillas, amazing sauces, flavorful meat, and they all go great with a Man Bun Pilsner (of course!) or The Golden Rule IPA. I always have trouble choosing between the pork and the beef, so I make the Solomon-like decision to get at least 1 of each!
For now, Perico’s will be at the Beer Garden every Saturday and Sunday. As the weather warms, their schedule may be adjusted. Could the return of Maynard’s hottest attraction of 2024 - The Friday Night Taco Dance Party - return this year? I couldn’t get a straight answer out of Allen on this one, so we’ll have to see!
As we head further into spring, Allen and Rick have more fresh beer coming! They’ve just brewed a fresh batch of Beer Garden favorite Farm Road. And more Maynard ESB will be brewed towards the end of the month, with this version brewed exclusively with Massachusetts hops! We’ll delve more into these beers in a future newsletter.
What’s that you say? Taproom update? Sorry, this newsletter is already too long! We’ll have to put that off until a future newsletter too! In the meantime, see you in the taco line!
