Brewmaster Jack: Total Eclipse

I love beers that steer slightly off the track. They don't have to be full of crazy ingredients and wacky labels and all sorts of things to be unexpectedly delicious. Case in point, a young brewer stopped by the store selling some Brewmaster Jack beers and handed me some samples. Stray Dog Amber Lager, Ambrewsia Imperial IPA and a Chocolate Rye Porter simply titled Total Eclipse. First glance at the beer and you notice all the labels look quant and simple, like they're designed on a Mac from 1993. But the bottles also contain something I truly love, details about the beer! What a novelty!  Locally sourced malted barley and grains plus details about the hops. At first I was pumped to try Ambrewsia, their Imperial IPA, but the beer I was floored by was Total Eclipse.
Total Eclipse smells like delicious chocolate, and as soon as it touches the tongue you get a nice hot rye blast, but the smoothness of this beer is equally shocking. It's so well layered in flavors. Chocolate, spicy, smooth and then bitter at the end. I can imagine making this in your kitchen realizing, "I have to brew this commercially for everyone." It's the kind of beer that you just sit back and sip and let it warm you up watching a movie.
Massachusetts has been exploding with new brewers over the past few years, but the selection on the shelves in Boston isn't always robust with out western state mates. Luckily Paper City Brewing Company helps produce some excellent beers that make it this way, including their own beer, High and Mighty Brewing Company and Backlash Brewing. And now homebrewer Tyler Guilmette is taking it to the next level and brewing some seriously delicious beers that we get to enjoy.

Tyler Guilmette named his brewery after his Grandfather, who as he says, wasn't a brewmaster, but brewed his own beer just like Tyler does now. Sometime you get locally made beers that just aren't good. They seem more like a money grab from someone seeing a niche market growing and wanted to get a piece of that pie. Tyler's beers taste like a labor of love, I mean, who'd start out with a 6 pack of an amber lager if they're hoping to just make money. No one! The money's in Pale Ales. Instead Tyler is making beers that he thinks are thee best he can make, and I'm right there with him. His beers are excellent and I hope we get a new beer soon from him.