April 27th, 2007
Letter to the Red Sox
Good afternoon,
I’m drafting this letter this afternoon to suggest yet another improvement at Fenway Park, although this one won’t require the services of Janet Marie Smith. I’ve been to plenty of games at Fenway over the past 20 years that I’ve lived in New England, but not until this year had I been all that cognizant of the beer selection.
As someone who is now engaged in the promotion of local and regional craft beer, I was disappointed when, after taking our seats, my girlfriend and I went out to grab a couple beers and were hard pressed to find anything other than Miller Lite. We finally came upon Sam Adams Lager, but we couldn’t even find Sam Adams Summer Ale, a hugely popular beer. We were sitting in the loge box behind home plate, and I grew increasingly frustrated not being able to find a quality local beer.
We’re very fortunate in the Boston area to have an abundance of local and regional breweries that produce an insane amount of very high quality beer, and I can’t think of anything more appropriate to pair with the high quality improvements that have been made both on the field, and in the park.
Now, I’m speaking in a vacuum of course, as I have no idea if you are contractually obligated to only serve certain beers, but I’ve been to other ballparks that go out of their way to have dedicated stations where you can get a variety of regional beer. I know that as a fan of the Red Sox and of craft beer, nothing would make me happier than sitting at Fenway, watching the Sox, and drinking a high quality beer.
I’m sure I remember being able to find Harpoon in the park in the past, which is great, but 1) I couldn’t find it behind home plate and 2) the local market is saturated with other offerings, and it would be great to see some of them on display in the park.
One that could have a great tie-in is the Magic Hat #9, for obvious reasons.
Cheers!
Ian Cowpar
www.2beerguys.com