Sights and Bites Along Cape Cod's Old King's Highway

Every summer, thousands of drivers get caught in the crawling queue that backs up the Mid-Cape Highway, chipping away at patience and time better spent at the beach or on the water. Starting in Sandwich on the Upper Cape, dodge the traffic and take a scenic detour down the Old King's Highway, a quieter road that hugs the coast out to Provincetown. From cranberry bogs to picturesque church steeples, there’s much more to see on Route 6A and plenty of places to pull off for a quick snack or leisurely diversion.

Founded in 1969 and recognizable by its wrought iron roadside statue, Titcomb’s Bookshop has evolved from a small antiquarian book dealer into a three-story business with an international following. Stop in to flip through A History of Chowder, grab a game for the kids, or pick up a paperback to bring to Sandy Neck Beach Park just up the road. Lifeguarded from Memorial Day to Labor Day, the beach is accessible with a parking sticker or a day pass ($15-20). Go for a dip, read under your umbrella, or take a short hike on the nature trail to look for signs of deer, reptiles, and wading birds. After a little sun, continue into Barnstable for a visit to Cape Cod Beer, a craft brewery that proudly advertises “a vacation in every pint.” Cape Cod Red, a full-flavored amber ale is their bestseller, but on a hot day, Beach Blonde, a golden-hued easy drinker might be a better choice. Time your stop with a tour and tasting (Monday-Saturday), or grab a growler to go (from $11).

Round Three: The Great Northeast Brewery Tour

It's been a busy winter. Definitely the busiest I can remember. Since January 15th, when Voyageur Press published my third book, I've been up and down the East Coast from Maryland to Maine and back. Snow and ice stymied my plans here and there, but overall it's been wonderful meeting so many people who want to learn more about craft beer, and I've enjoyed returning to many of the breweries Bethany and I visited during our research for The Great Northeast Brewery Tour. In fact, it's been so much fun that I'm hitting the road a third time at the end of the month, beginning in Newburyport, Massachusetts. 

Once again, for details about times and locations, please check out the book's Facebook page or follow me on Twitter. See you in a few weeks!

• Friday, March 21, 2014 - RiverWalk Brewing Company (Newburyport, MA) 
• Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - BRIX Wine Shop (Boston, MA) 
• Thursday, March 27, 2014 - Moat Mountain Brewing Company (North Conway, NH)
• Friday, March 28, 2014 - Oxbow Brewing Company (Newcastle, ME)
• Friday, March 28, 2014 - Elements: Books, Coffee, Beer (Biddeford, ME)
• Sunday, March 30, 2014 - Metropolitan Kitchen & Lounge (Annapolis, MD) 
• Thursday, April 3, 2014 - Thomas Hooker Brewing Company (Bloomfield, CT)  
• Friday, April 4, 2014 - The Spotty Dog Books & Ale (Hudson, NY)

A Honey Beer Hunt for Edible Boston

Made by bees and prized by bears, honey is a delicious natural sweetener that humans have collected and consumed for thousands of years. Mead, an alcoholic beverage produced when yeast ferments a mixture of honey and water, shares a similarly distinguished history. It's also experienced a bump in popularity in recent years. Honey turns up in other drinks though, namely brandy and braggot, a not-so-distant relative of beer. In the current issue of Edible Boston, I wrote about a handful of brewers who (in all but one case), use native honey to create distinctive ales and lagers that in some small way acknowledge their place of origin. Track down a physical copy of the magazine in eastern Massachusetts or read it here online, ideally while savoring a pint of Slumbrew Happy Sol, Rapscallion Honey, Bee Tea from Night Shift, or Fisherman's Honey Pilsner.

Massachusetts Brewers Go Mild

If you've paid attention to the world of beer festivals lately, you've probably noticed something rather remarkable. Every year new events continue to appear, vying for the attention of excitable beer drinkers eager to sample the Next Big Thing. Large, small, well known or obscure, there are Oktoberfests, harvest festivals, Belgian fests, and celebrations for nearly every style under the sun, from mild mannered session ales to big, bad barleywines. At times, it almost feels like there are as many festivals as there are breweries, a reality that poses a challenge for organizers: How do you convince people to attend?

One way to do it is to offer a collaboration beer made exclusively for the occasion. There are precedents. For their fourth annual gathering, the Massachusetts Brewers Guild will offer a limited release cask English Mild created at Mayflower Brewing Company earlier this month. Many of the guild's 40 members participated in this collaboration, including Battle Road, Cambridge Brewing, Harpoon, Ipswich Brewing, Mayflower, Samuel Adams, Watch City, Wormtown, and Portico. The difference in this case however, is that the ale will serve as a base beer to which each participating brewery will add their own twist, be it maple syrup, oak chips, a favorite hop variety, or another ingredient that plays well with the style's light flavor and body.

Tickets for the event, scheduled for Friday, August 30th at Boston's World Trade Center Head House Concourse, are still available. The $40 price of admission includes beer samples from more than 30 member breweries, and proceeds benefit the guild, a non-profit organization established to promote and protect the interests of craft brewers across the state. Three Day Threshold, a local country group that also provided music for the Discovery Channel's short-lived "Brew Masters" series, will once again supply the live soundtrack, and casual dining options from the Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center will be available for purchase. For a preview of many of the featured beers and breweries (including newcomers Riverwalk, 3 Beards, Banner Beer, Battle Road, Brewmaster Jack, and Kretschmann), visit BrewGene. As for the nine or so takes on the English Mild, you'll just have to get tickets to find out what they are, won't you? 

Covering Beer Cocktails for DRAFT

In case you haven't been paying attention, beer cocktails have arrived. From the reemerging popularity of the time-tested shandy to the Red Robin burger chain and even ABC's The Chew, beertails or less frequently, bocktails seem to be everywhere this summer. Earlier this year I covered the trend for DRAFT magazine, writing about five of the best in the Boston area. Here's a recipe for one of my favorites, Christopher's Baggy Eye Beer Punch (pictured at left), a potent drink created by Ben Greeley, the General Manager at Christopher's Restaurant and Bar in Cambridge.

To a 16-ounce Boston Shaker glass, add: 

3/4 oz. Kahlua
3/4 oz. 888 Vanilla Vodka
1/2 oz. Chocolate syrup
1 oz. Espresso
2 dashes Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters 

Shake vigorously to combine. Top with Guinness and garnish with a cherry.

The Hiker's Pantry: Beer Brittle

Last week I discovered my new favorite trail snack. It's probably not the healthiest thing you can toss in your backpack, but considering it was an impulse purchase I picked up after a tour of Cape Cod Beer's Hyannis brewery, I don't think I chose too poorly. Bonus: this particular confection comes in both sweet and spicy varieties. Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, for example, adds jalapeño to their version. 

The beer brittle I bought was made by Cabot's Candy of Provincetown, Massachusetts, and included a pinch of cayenne pepper along with peanuts, sugar, corn syrup, butter, Cape Cod beer, milk, baking soda, salt, vanilla, and cinnamon. In terms of nutrition, my eight ounce package was 210 calories including 11 grams of fat (2 g saturated), 2 grams of fiber, 17 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein per serving. If you're the sort of person who knows how to use a kitchen, you can also make your own—the Homebrew Chef has a simple recipe. Just remember, if you do decide to carry beer brittle on your next day hike, the Leave No Trace principles remind us to pack the empty bag back out with our other trash. Oh, and no matter how excited you might be to try this or any other trail treat, don't forget to bring a map.

Rails to Trails Cover Feature

Back in the spring, I spent a couple of days on Cape Cod, talking to locals, sampling the seafood, and riding from Wellfleet to South Dennis on their 22-mile rail trail. I was on assignment for Rails to Trails magazine, exploring the area for their Fall 2010 issue. 

Although I didn't make it all the way out to P-town, cyclists with more time than I had should also check out the Cape Cod National Seashore trail network. There are nearly ten miles of additional bike paths within the park's boundaries. And finally, as I have mentioned before, if you're planning a trip out to one of the towns on the Cape, consider booking a stay at the Fort Hill Bed and Breakfast in Eastham. The views, the hosts, and the three-course breakfasts (more energy for long rides) are truly exceptional.

Rooms With Views

National Park Week—your chance to visit any of the 392 national parks in the United States for free—comes to an end in three short days. Of course, many of the best weeks for exploring America's natural heritage are still ahead. Park attendance around the country typically spikes during the summer months.

During a trip to Massachusetts earlier this month, I spent a couple of nights at the Fort Hill Bed and Breakfast, a historic farmhouse that innkeepers Gordon and Jean Avery have turned into an absurdly comfortable place to stay within the Cape Cod National Seashore. Besides offering unobstructed views of Nauset Marsh and the ocean beyond, Fort Hill is steps from the Red Maple Swamp Trail and a short distance from the Salt Pond Visitor Center. Hiking, biking, swimming, and surfing are just some of the activities available to visitors who stay at this unique B&B.