Frosty Goodness » Sam Adams

Sam Adams Octoberfest Lager. But not in Texas.

Frosty — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:01:38 +0000

As this is the last day I will let myself drink something with October in the title, I figured this was an appropriate time to review the latest entry in the Sam Adams seasonal lineup. I’ve always been a little wary of Sam and his “micro” brew. I figure that any brewery with a distribution that large has to tame down the flavor to make it appeal to a mass audience. Which is true, but I think in this case it may actually be to Sammie’s benefit. Often, “Octoberfest” labeled beer has a funny tang to it that’s just hard to get into. But this time around, Sam Adams has tamed the flavor down enough to make it great easy drinking beer. As long as you don’t mind only drinking it 2 months out of the year.

Oh, and apparently in Texas, this is “Ale”, not “Lager” … cause Texas is weird.

Speed Post: New Belgium La Folie & Sam Adams Double Bock.

Frosty — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:23:30 +0000

I called it New Belgium’s “last stand”, and it appears the Alamo survives another day. It’s labeled as Sour Brown Ale, and holy cow is it. Pucker up buttercup. But in truth, damn tasty. Having had a few “Oak aged” beers now, I can tell what flavor that is, and New Belgium does it excellently.

Sam Adams on the other hand, takes a beer type I generally enjoy, Bock. And turns into something more like BBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCCCCCKKKKKK!!! Like punch you in the face with malt Bock. This stuff was terrible and totally undrinkable. Tastebud attack!!

Traveling Man: Blue Moon, Palmetto, Ice House IPA (not the one you’re thinking of)

skylark — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 01:55:29 +0000

My backlog of beer reviews is growing due to “work” and “family” stuff (I know, I know… I need to get my priorities straight). I’ve been trying lots of new brews as I’ve traveled around for my job. I had a Belgian Wheat from Blue Moon ($1 at Tsunami in Charleston, SC) with an orange wedge garnish that was cheap if not pleasing. I also had a Palmetto Pale Ale in while at Slightly North of Broad (or S.N.O.B.) as it is known) which wasn’t bad but may have been good because of the insanely good shrimp & grits I was having. While in Virginia, I went to the Icehouse Bar & Grill in Herndon. I had their New York Strip & Crab Cakes special with their own Ice House IPA. It wasn’t bad, not up to NW standards but it was good to see those East Coast boys trying.

A lot of people (especially those from the East Coast) get offended when you say something like, “The East Coast doesn’t know what real beer is.” They bring up something about Sam Adams “inventing” micro-brewing. Whatever. I’ll give you Sam Adams but that is pretty much the only contribution worth mentioning. They may have started it, but we Northwesters have taken it to the next level. Thats right, and I’ll kick the crap out of anyone who says otherwise.

Anywhoo, my last trip to NYC led me to believe that the other coast was completely devoid of good beer. I’ve heard that DC has some good beers too. Who knows, maybe 20 years from now some East Coast dude will be hatin’ on Northwest beer like its old news.

An important lesson regarding beer temp and Cherry Wheat Beer

SwillJockey — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 23:43:19 +0000

We had another one of those impromptu bbq’s at work today. Fortune, or possibly misfortune, was smiling upon me as I noticed another Sam Adams Cherry Wheat was in the beer bin. I arrived to the bbq early, so the beer hadn’t had long to steep in the ice.

Now I see where some other people people got wildly different experiences from the Cherry Wheat than I did after my first taste of it. My first taste of the stuff was when it was VERY cold and it tasted wonderful. Today, it was just slightly cold and tasted of “cough syrup cherry flavoring”.

I was disappointed that the mere change in temp could affect this beer so drastically. I finished the beer, but the experience knocked a few points off of my previous rating.

I am thankful I wasn’t able to find this stuff sold by the case and didn’t end up saddled with lots of warmish beer flavored cough syrup.

Moral of the story: drink this shtuff cold or don’t drink it at all!

Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat

SwillJockey — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:29:31 +0000

**edit – I’m sorry to say that I’ve had to lower my ranking on this beer to a three. See above for the reasons for this beer’s fall from grace.

The company I work for had a BBQ on site last week. As usual with company bbq functions, they coughed up some beer for us. Yippeee!!! When digging through the bucket o’ goodness, I found some Sam Adams Cherry Wheat. Figuring that it would taste OK, I popped one open and took a swig.

THIS STUFF IS UNBELIEVABLY YUMMY!! It’s not overly fruity but it definitely tastes of cherry. It’s a mild wheat bear that’s incredibly well balanced and not too sweet. These guys know their way around a beer!