Science, art, and love. The three ingredients that created Bent Water Brewery. Located in Lynn, Massachusetts, this brewery got its roots from 3 friends from the North Shore. Bent Water’s philosophy is, “Every beer begins with water, and with careful, creative manipulation, we bend water into unique, careful brews.” They are a self-canning, self- distributing brewery with 13 rotating taps in their taproom. And the best part is- they welcome pets on their patio during the warmer months. Good brews, great weather, and furry friends, what more can you ask for?

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Bent Water offers a very wide variety of brews from IPA’s to Pale Ales and everything in between. They have released an experimental series called the X-Series. There are 22 different batches in this series, that are each brewed differently with their own distinct flavor.

Here are a few listed below that sound too good to be true –
X-6: Raspberry Lime Wheat Ale
X-9: Apricot Ale
X-12: Vanilla Chamomile Stout
X-15: Chocolate Milk Stout
X-17: Blood Orange Acid Beer

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They also have a selection of new arrivals to try, such as –

  • Double Thunder Funk Double IPA and Sluice Juice New England IPA.
  • Double Thunder Funk Double IPA: a recreation of the original Thunder Funk, adding more grain and more hops, resulting in more power and flavor.
  • Sluice Juice New England IPA: With aromatics of orange, tangerine and lime peel, this is their juicy, hazy and smooth New England IPA.

From their bold packaging and can designs to their wildly interesting flavors and brew names, Bent Water Brewery has a lot to offer. With Summer almost coming to a close, if you haven’t gotten a chance to try their X-Series or new brews now is your chance! With one of their 6-pack’s and a good group of friends, your night has already transformed from a good one to a great one.

Stop into Mystic Wine Shoppe and shop the Bent Water Brews we carry!

Photos from the Bent Water website.

This past weekend we hosted our annual Grand Rosé Wine tasting at Mystic Wine Shoppe.  We had 3 great wine reps sharing samples of 12 delicious rosé wines. Guests from near and far (some folks joined us from Western, MA) enjoyed finding their favorite new rosé wine(s).  Thank you to everyone who joined us for this fantastic event.  Keep an eye out for our Fall Grand Wine Tasting in October.

Special thanks to local Author Kathleen E.R. Murphy for being our special guest.  Her book, Wisdom Whisperer, is on sale now! Buy it now… it makes for a great gift for Graduates.

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Thanks again for your support!

The Mystic Wine Shoppe Team 🙂

 

 

Last summer rosé and frosé (frozen rosé) was all the rage and we think it will only become more popular this summer. With new rosés coming out left and right, the options for tasting and creating cocktails is endless. This month we’re sharing a super simple recipe to make your own frosé at home.

Check it out –

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Mystic Wine Shoppe Frosé Ingredients:

  • Bottle of rosé – we found the darker colored rosé worked well to hold its color
  • Juice of a lemon
  • Handful of rasperries
  • 1/2 cup sugar

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Prep:

  • Freeze your rosé for at least 6 hours – we used ice cube trays
  • Place sugar into a small saucepan and add half a cup of water. Heat and stir constantly until sugar dissolves. Add crushed  raspberries to the sugar/water mixture. Let it all sit for a couple of minutes in the freezer. Strain out the liquid and place to the side.

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Directions:

  • Mix together frozen rosé cubes, handful of ice, raspberry liquid and lemon juice
  • Blend to perfection and serve!

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This would be perfect for all your summer cookouts!  Next month we’re adding strawberries and vodka to take it up a notch!

Thanks for your support – Cheers,

Mystic Wine Shoppe

 

What happens when you take three friends, a love for beer, and an interest in homebrewing? You get Night Shift Brewery of Everett, MA. Founded in 2012 through love and passion, three friends brought their homebrewing to life. In 2007 they began homebrewing in their apartment kitchen. They were desk workers by day, homebrewers by night. They called themselves “Night Shift Brewers“.
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Night Shift offers a wide variety of delicious brews year-round. First up, is The Crew. This group of beer is their core crew of brews on tap year-round and consist of –
  • Whirpool- New England Pale Ale
  • Santilli- American Indian Pale Ale
  • The 87- American Double IPA
  • One Hop This Time- Rotating single-hop IPA series
  • Morph- Rotating IPA series
  • Nite Lite-Craft Light Lager
Next is the a group of seasonal brews called The Rotators. This group is their smaller-batch, limited release offerings crew. They may not always be available, but when they are, they’re worth picking up a pack or two.
  • Awake- Porter aged with coffee
  • Bennington- Oatmeal stout brewed with dutch-processed cocoa and maple syrup
  • Furth- German-style hefeweizen
  • Matisse- Classic Saison
Looking for a great sour beer? Try their Mixed Fermentation Sourswhich are fermented exclusively in stainless steel tanks with both lactobacillus and brewer’s yeast to achieve a high level of complexity and refreshing tartness.
  • Ever Weisse- Aged with Strawberries, Kiwis, and Hibiscus. Available: March-May
  • Rickey Weisse – Aged with Raspberries and Limes. Available: June-August
  • Mainer Weisse- Aged with Blueberries and Cinnamon Sticks. Available: September-November
Last but not least, is their Special Guests beers.  These brews are a specialty group, that are only released every once in a while. Regardless how often they’re released, they’re sure to be worth celebrating. Night Shift has a long list of “Special Guests” so here are a few of our favorites:
  • Cul-De-Sac – Cream ale dry hopped with Amarillo
  • El Lechedor- Horchata-style milk stout aged in bourbon barrels with poblano peppers, vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon
  • Marilyn- Barrel- Aged blonde barleywine-style ale
  • Pfaffenheck- German-style pilsner
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Night Shift also offers so many great opportunities to try their beer.  Check out their online event calendar, which is filled with tastings, food trucks, and tours. They also hold private events in the taproom. With summer right around the corner, Night Shift is the perfect brew to bring to any get-together, BBQ, or with just a few friends. It’ll sure to be a crowd pleaser.
Stop into Mystic Wine Shoppe and check out all the Night Shift beers we have available!

Summer is the time of the year that I come alive.  Having grown up in India, on a beach in Goa no less, I am still accustomed to sunny days and warm ocean breezes.  Right now, I feel like a bear emerging from hibernation, as the crocuses finally pop up and the forsythia celebrate the changing season with bright yellow sprays of color.

And speaking of celebrating, what better way to cheer on the warmth, the long, lazy days and heat of the sun on your bare skin than to chill down a beautiful bottle of rosé and throw the windows open for the fresh air.  That is exactly what I have been doing with a dry, refreshing bottle of Castello di Bossi Rosato.  Just saying the name of the wine makes me happy.  
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The Castello di Bossi Rosato, made from 70% Sangiovese grapes and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, uses the maceration method to gain some color from the red grapes.  That means that it spends approximately 3 hours in contact with the red skins of the grape before the juice is pressed off and fermented separately.  There are two other methods for making rosé wines.  One is just to blend in some red wine to add color.  This is generally not allowed in most wines that want to be labeled as quality wines.  The second is to use a technique called “Saignée”, which means to bleed off.  In this method, some of the wine in a red wine fermentation is bled off after a short period of time to be fermented separately as rosé, which leaves less juice and more skins in the main vat to concentrate the flavors of the red wine.  This technique is used in places like Bandol in Southern France where the grapes may not have ripened enough or in places like Napa Valley, where vintners want to make richer, more extracted wines.  
This Rosato is a dry, dusty, wonderfully aromatic wine full of bright cherries and cranberries and hints of fresh, wild herbs.  On the mouth, it has a bright acidity on the open with a fruity, yeasty lingering finish.  One of the secrets to enjoying a good wine is to appreciate what comes before and after as much as the actual taste.  You should smell it, swirl it, smell again.  As the volatile compounds are released, they tease you with elusive scents that change from second to second.  When you finally taste it, you are invariably surprised because the nose did not reveal all of its treasures.  And then, for a really good wine, you can just enjoy the lingering aromas after you have swallowed it.  Sometimes that is even the best part of the whole experience.  This wine gives you a similar experience.  Each part of the tasting gives you a different impression and a different experience.  And you realize after each sip that the process was so enjoyable that you want to experience the whole thing again.  
 
Serve this wine well chilled – in an ice bucket – with a plate of caprese salad and prosciutto, a light pasta with fresh vegetables and herbs, grilled chicken sausages and sage-scented butternut squash soup (like we did!) or a creamy mushroom risotto…you will be in heaven.
Thanks for reading, Seema

Bird

Bird Big Barrel Pinot Noir Tasting Notes:  There is not much one can say about this wine without gushing.  It is delicious. From the remarkable color to the nose full of delicately scented cherries and roses and baking spice and the taste of a very carefully and lovingly vinified Pinot Noir, it is to be savored. If handled improperly, Pinot Noir grapes will still yield a juicy wine, but it will lose all the uplifting aromatics.  Therefore, this wine is made in the eponymous big barrels to keep the oak from overpowering the essence of the grape.  The winemaker also uses an unusual “Vernou roll” technique that allows the wine to come into contact with the skins very gently and with limited exposure to oxygen, thereby preserving much of the flavor and intensity without extracting harsh tannins.

 

Pork or Veal Loin Glazed with Pomegranate and Oranges

  • One 3-pound roast of pork or veal, or two 1 1/2 pound tenderloins
  • Marinade
    • 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
    • Grated zest of one orange
    • 2 tbsp soy sauce
    • 2 tbsp peeled and grated fresh ginger
    • 2 tbsp pomegranate syrup or pomegranate molasses
    • 2 tbsp hot mustard
    • 2 tsp freshly minced garlic
  • Basting sauce
    • 1/3 cup fresh orange juice
    • 3 tbsp honey
    • 3 tbsp pomegranate syrup or pomegranate molasses
    • 2 tbsp soy sauce
    • 2 tbsp reserved marinade
  • To Make:
    • In a large bowl, combine the ingredients for the marinade. Reserve 2 tablespoons. Then marinade the roast in a dish, covered by plastic wrap or a lid. Marinade for at least 6 hours, overnight if possible.
    • Combine the ingredients for the basting sauce. Reserve 1/4 cup for spoon on at the very end.
    • Broil or grill the roast or tenderloins not too close to the heat source, turning the meat and basting with the sauce at least 4 times. Cook until a meat thermometer registers 140 degrees Fahrenheit, 20 to 30 minutes for a large loin, 5 to 7 minutes per side for tenderloins.
    • Or, in an oven, place in a roasting pan at 400 degrees.  Baste every 5 minutes, until meat thermometer reads 140 degrees, about 40 minutes.
    • Transfer meats to a carving board and let rest for 10 minutes. Slice thinly. Simmer reserved basting sauce until slightly thickened. Spoon over meat to glaze.
While everyone has heard of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas (pronounced ghee-gohn-dass) is a bit more in the background.  First of all, why is the last “s” pronounced?  I am told it is a dialect difference in the south to pronounce more of the last letters.  Second of all, what is Gigondas and why should we be drinking it?  The short answer is, it is delicious and it has a great quality to price ratio (QPR).

Gigondas is an appellation in the Southern Rhone region of France that is nestled in the valleys and foothills of the romantic sounding mountains, Dentelles de Montmirail.  This area has a warm, mediterranean climate that ripens the constituent grapes in Gigondas to perfection.  Grenache is a lovely, fruity grape whose vines are resistant to both heat and drought.  They are often not trellised but rather “head trained” – allowed so stand on their own and are pruned to be close to the ground and provide shade to the bunches of grapes it produces.  It ripens relatively late, but can develop enough sugars to push the alcohol levels it can produce to over 15%.  And because it has thin skin, it can be relatively low in acids and tannins which makes it an ideal partner for the more forceful Syrah and Mourvedre varieties.

Wine made from Syrah is powerful – with dark berry flavors offset by notes of white and black pepper and relatively high tannins.  It is more famous for its massive wines from Hermitage, Cote Rotie and under its alias, Shiraz, from Australia.  But it is one of the most important parts of Southern Rhone blends – from Chateauneuf-du-Pape to Vacqueyras – as well as in Languedoc and Roussillon.

Mourvedre is made less as a single varietal because it can be very tannic and overwhelming – but in blends, it can be sublime. It is also known under the names Monastrell in Spain and as Mataro in Australia where it has thrived.  It is also a heat loving, late ripening variety that brings a meaty, herby and potent character to wines.

Together, in a 50% Grenache, 40% Syrah and 10% Mourvedre blend, the 2013 Lavau Gigondas is a wonderful example of how these very different grapes work harmoniously together to create a big, rich, fruity, spicy wine that can stand up to anything you throw on the grill or any spices you might add.  This wine has had 5 years in the bottle to meld its various parts, mellow out its rough edges and become downright luscious.  It is filled with blackberry, black currant, peppery notes and licorice on the nose and is almost chocolate-like on the tongue.  Having already finished one bottle, I am already anxiously planning when I can have more!

Cheers, Seema
Photo of Gigondas by Slow Tours

It’s almost that time of year again! Warm weather, blue skies, sandy toes, BBQ’s with friends and family. Summer is quickly approaching and what better way to kick it off than with Harpoon’s Summer Ale’s?

Harpoon was born in 1986 by three friends, Dan Kenary, Rich Doyle and George Ligeti. They all shared the same love: drinking beer. They realized that beer choices were limited and they quickly wanted to change that. The first Harpoon Ale was brewed in 1987 in a transformed warehouse space on the Boston waterfront. Here, the three friends took their love and passion for beer and created local craft brews for everyone to enjoy. The rest is history.

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What’s better than enjoying good times with good friends than cracking open one of Harpoon’s summer brews? One of the hardest parts of the craft beer world is deciding which brew to choose. We know- it’s a make or break decision, so we’ll help you try to decide which one is perfect for your occasion. If it were up to us, we’d have them all.

  • Camp Wannamango: This pale ale brewed with mango begins with a subtle tropical aroma of passion fruit and mango. Golden-copper in color, it has a light body, slight hop bitterness, and malty sweetness, and finishes with a kiss of mango.
  • Hibiscus Cider: Hibiscus flowers give the cider its festive, effervescent deep pink hue, as well as a floral tartness that complements the sweetness from the freshly pressed apples.
  • Citra Sea: Citra hops provide a juicy citrus character in this grapefruit peel-infused IPA. The malt blend adds depth and a touch of sweetness and gives the beer its bronze hue and medium body. The finish is all citrus, all day. This IPA is easygoing and ripe with citrus flavor
  • Midsummer Fling: features a bright golden color, light mouthfeel, and citrusy aromas and flavors derived from the combination of Citra hops, elderflower, and lemongrass
  • Summer Beer: Their version of the traditional German Kölsch-style ale. This beer, which is light and refreshing, appears to resemble a lager rather than an ale. The body is soft and delicate with a dry, crisp finish.

Harpoon Mystic Blog

Still unsure of which summer ale you want? Don’t fret, Harpoon also offers a Summer Vacation Mix Pack. Boston’s Harpoon Brewery has been a standout in the local craft game for years. Stop by Mystic to browse our Harpoon selection, and sit back, relax and crack open a cold one.