“We focus on one thing, and always keep our eye on it: people who like stuff that tastes good.” It’s such a simple statement from Drink Craft Beer co-founder Jeff Wharton, but it sums up the company’s ethos perfectly. Fort Point tech workers and family guys Wharton and Devon Regan started the company in 2006, “as a blog to provide more accessible access to craft beer culture and knowledge for the folks that didn’t want to use a forum. It’s more for the craft beer curious, versus the uber enthusiast.”

Boston Beer & Cheese Fest, 2016 | Image courtesy Drink Craft Beer

The website created was, and still is, an active and informative place to find some of their favorite beer-of-the-month clubs, beer-centric savory recipes, homebrewing tips, and local craft beer news and events. The word ‘pairings’ is used in many ways: with beer, with friends, with food, and with a great vibe. “Sharing great beer and great food with great friends, you can’t help but have a good time,” says Wharton. “But we’ve always wanted to make the point that friends and being social should come ahead of the beer and food.” It was the focus on the social aspect that led them to create their first pairing event with Taza Chocolate in 2008;  it was, to put it mildly, wildly successful. “We expected 50 people to show up,” explains Wharton, “and 300 waited in line for a couple samples of beer and chocolate paired together.”

Fast-forward a few years, and the two now produce three popular beer festivals in Boston annually: Boston Beer & Cheese, Boston Beer & BBQ, and Boston Beer & Sweets. Coming up on March 10th & 11th at the Cyclorama in the South End (you may be able to snag one of a handful of tickets still available, if you’re lucky) is the Cheese companion event: over 80 New England craft beers and ciders from 25 different breweries, with unlimited samples of cheese from 10 New England creameries. Savor your oatmeal stout with a sharp Vermont cheddar, try a hopped-up IPA to cut through gorgonzola, pair a yeasty Hefeweizen with some soft, tangy goat cheese, or customize your own combo—no food rules apply. You’ll even come across some non-cheesy nibbles while you’re there to test out as well. The self-explanatory Boston Beer & BBQ is coming up in July, and the Boston Beer & Sweets Fest, featuring fancy truffles, specialty donuts, cookies, and ice cream for beer floats, will be scheduled for later this year.

Boston Beer & Cheese Fest, 2016 | Image courtesy Drink Craft Bee

It’s an excellent environment for tasty food and drink, knowledgeable vendors, and a fun crowd. “We saw a lot of the hyper-enthusiasts creating spaces on these internet forums that turned off casual beer drinkers,” states Wharton. “We wanted to be the opposite. So, from the beginning, we focused on tasting experiences, recommendations versus reviews, locality, and food. Brewers tell us they see increased sales and traffic to their tap rooms after our events, and people tell them they discovered their beer at a Drink Craft Beer event. This all means so much to us, because the goal has always been to help people learn about great food and drink in their backyards, get them out socially to learn this stuff, and help to bolster local companies. And it seems like it’s working.”

Drink Craft Beer – co-founders, Devon Regan and Jeff Wharton
Boston, Massachusetts
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Top image Boston Beer & Cheese Fest, 2016 | Image courtesy Drink Craft Beer

The post Quite a Pair: Boston Beer & Cheese Fest appeared first on Take Magazine.

The painted wooden sign was one of New England’s earliest art forms, starting back when colonial innkeepers lured customers with bold hand-lettering and eye-catching imagery such as bulls, lions, and goblets.

Portland, Maine artist Will Sears has a thing for wooden signs. His company Better Letter Hand Painted Signs makes signs for restaurants, shops, farms, and other small businesses that evoke the look of commerce in the early 20th century. But when it comes to Sears’ art, the medium is the message.

“My fine art is very closely tied to sign painting,” he says. Recent works involve sawing his own hand-painted, pre-weathered wooden signs into pieces, then re-assembling them to create really cool Americana-inspired abstract patterns.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, the 27 year old also does paintings and collages that cheekily combine hand lettering with old newspaper images, business stationery, blueprints, pornography, and photos from CPR manuals. Shortly after graduating from Syracuse University in 2010, he landed in Portland via a residency for young artists led by prominent sculptor John Bisbee.

“I really loved New England – my dad grew up in Hanover, New Hampshire,” says Sears, who also spent summers at Camp Belknap on Lake Winnipesaukee. “Before I knew it, it was home.”

Sears helped design the Oxbow Brewery’s taproom in Portland. Photo by Bret Labelle Photography

Sears is entrepreneurial, moving comfortably in and out of the commercial and artistic worlds. That’s also true of some of his clients, a major one being the local Oxbow Brewing Company of Newcastle and Portland. These days, where there is an art scene, there is usually also a craft brewery (or three). The artisanship behind Oxbow’s Belgian farmhouse ale-inspired brews is reflected in Sears-designed labels, as well as wall murals in the Newcastle brewery and, in the Portland taproom, barstool tops made from – you guessed it – wooden signs.

Sears is excited to be co-curating a show this summer called Ode to Letters through the Biddeford, Maine art collective Engine. “It’s a three-part show of work – graffiti art, sign painting, and letterpress – that exhibits a love for letters,” he explains. And he and his girlfriend, artist Tessa Greene O’Brien, recently received a grant through the Space Gallery’s Kindling Fund to start a mural initiative in Portland – one with a focus on contemporary art.

“It’s a chance to bring contemporary art, which might not be found outside of a museum or a gallery, to a public forum,” Sears says. Now, that’s a good sign.

The artist with his installation of sculpture and signage at Portland’s Space Gallery. Photo by Bret Labelle Photography

The article first appeared on the Take site on February 18th, 2015.

Will Sears and Better Letter Hand Painted Signs are on Instagram and facebook.

The post It’s a Sign appeared first on Take Magazine.