Brewmaster's Collection Samuel Adams Mix Pack
Oh, Sam Adams, where to start? Part of me is happy to see locals doing well in craft brewing. The rest of me just wishes they'd do a better job making beer. Then again, maybe I'm not the target demographic for this. Sam Adams seems to brew a lot of beer that seems tailored to be a little bit like craft beer, but not to the extent that it will be uncomfortable to palates more used to big corporate beer. They do, however, make the occasional beer that I really like, so I thought I'd give this six pack a chance. The mix pack is a mixed bag.
Starting off, we have the Honey Porter. Stouts and Porters (the difference, historically speaking, is splitting hairs) are my favorite beer style, so I may as well start here. The best way to start with any beer is pouring it into a glass, and you should smell it before you drink it. There's not much hop aroma, which is appropriate to the style. The taste is strongly malty, and the beer tastes heavy without really being satisfying. It almost seems like they went really heavy on one of the specialty malts in a way that feels really out of balance. It's sharp and bitter and not particularly smooth. A much better bet for porter are the fine offerings from Left Hand or Otter Creek.
The Black Lager is a lot better. Not amazing, but much better. Beers made with dark malts and lager yeast aren't particularly common. At first smell, this has more hop aroma than the porter, but it's nice and subtle. The first sip has a very nice stout-like smoothness, but the lager yeast makes it into a different beast. It's also pleasantly bitter, and almost a little sour. This is very thick and bitter for a lager, and if someone just gave me a pint glass and didn't tell me what it was I'd probably never guess about the yeast. The grain bill feels a little out of whack in the same way as the porter, but not as strongly.
The Brown Ale is the best of the bunch. This is a very nice take on a traditional British style of beer, made slightly more assertive in a very American craft brew fashion, without losing the nice subtlety and balance of a proper brown ale. The hops come across a little stronger than in most British imports, but it doesn't jump down your throat like a lot of American beers. The label says they're using Spalt and Golding hops, neither of which are all that aggressive. Visually, this is the lightest of the bunch, but still a few shades darker, than, say, a Newcastle. The grain bill still tastes a little bitter and sour, but not much as the either two. I could do without the sourness. I might actually order this one at a bar.
I find it kind of frustrating that Sam Adams is so much more available than so many other, better beers, and that they present themselves as if they were craft brewers. The beer I get from them at any liquor store in Boston doesn't seem any fresher than beer from much further away, either. I wish they weren't so ubiquitous, and that some of that bar tap space could go to actual craft beers. On the other hand, they make everyone who works for them brew at least once batch of beer a year, no matter what they do for the company, and I kind of respect that.
In other beer news, ethanol production is going to make malt prices increase sharply in the future. More on that as I read enough about it to write a coherent post.
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3 comments:
Sam Adams seems to brew a lot of beer that seems tailored to be a little bit like craft beer, but not to the extent that it will be uncomfortable to palates more used to big corporate beer.
I think pretty much the same thing. However, you have to consider, for a mass-produced beer Sam Adams is solid in comparison to others like Bud, Coors, etc. Out in Nebraska, in the middle of nowhere, some buddies and I stopped at an Applebee's because there was practically nothing else besides fast food joints. Out in the more remote places you can still get your hands on a Boston Lager when the only other things you can find are bilge.
I've never tried the the Honey Porter. I find the Black Lager, even though dark in taste, to have a very light body and a crisp finish. As a matter of preference I prefer a heavier body in darker brews, so the drink, while it tastes decent is only so-so to me. The Brown Ale is similar to me. The taste is present but overall it lacks in character.
I like Sam Adams as a company. They are something of a bridge between mass-produced profit beer and craft brews. I think there's a legitimate passion for beermaking behind the label, but it's somewhat shaped by a need to make it palatable to a mass audience.
I've never tried their more ambitious brews like teh double and triple bochs or the imperial stout but eventually I definitely will.
I think my basic feeling about Sam Adams is that they're completely capable of making great beer, and that they intentionally hold back a great deal to make something with more mass market appeal. It's like a bunch of old crusties who played in grind bands for the past decade deciding they want to play really slick pop punk so they can sell more records.
I almost entirely agree with your analysis. The porter is very sub-par, although it was to my understanding that a porter is almost identical to a stout, with the defining difference being that the former has a bit more "fizz" going on.
I also feel that the Black Lager, not the Brown Ale, is the best of the bunch. It actually delivers a flavor that I think is more consistent with say an Anchor Porter than any lager I've ever had.
I love the site. Keep informing my addiction.
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