Sam Adams Summer Sampler!!!!!!!

I love all the Sam Adams flavors, except for Cranberry in the winter time. It's the worst beer I've ever had. It tastes exactly like blood. I could only get about halfway through.

 

God I hate this new fad of flavored beer. I'm sure most of the Sam's are good, but cherry wheat, or anything else with fruit flavor....yuck. It seems every new beer that comes out is flavored with lemon or line. EWWWW.

 

I don't think it's that new of a fad...Tequiza's been out for almost 10 years now.

 

Yeah, I mean Lindemann's has been making their Kriek for like 78 years. When will this fad end?

Fruit was traditionally added to beers when there was a bad batch, to cover up off flavors. And while I'm not a huge fan of most American fruit beers (the majority of which have a wheat beer base) there are some exceptions, including Pyramid's Apricot, New Glarus' Wisconsin Belgian Red, and a few other's I'm forgetting at the moment. And while not American (and I'm not sure they even still make it) Canadian Brewery Unibroue puts out Quelque Chose, which is actually best served heated up in winter.

That said, I've never had a Sam Adams fruit beer that I liked. The Cranberry was undrinkable and the Cherry Wheat tastes like cough syrup.

 

I'll stick to a nice pilsner or dark draft any day. I haven't tried any "fruit" beers and I don't know if I will.

lowsound

 

I had some Kriek a few weeks back. Gotta say I was surprised, impressed and really enjoyed them.

I just picked up a 12 pack of Sam Adams Summer Ale. IDK, I liked it last summer. Either my tastes have changed or this year's batch tastes differently. No offense to Sam Adams, but other than their Oktoberfest and Boston Lager, I've never been too wild about their varieties. I had their pale ale last summer and found it really bland.

I'm probably going to try my hand at brewing a summer wheat in a few days. I personally don't think it's the fruit flavor that's wrong with the beer, but the actual beer itself. I have a strong feeling that if a company with a great wheat beer and added a tasteful zest of lemon, it would rock out! I've had Anchor and Sierra Nevada's summer seasonals and those were both very good and I'd highly recommend them. The main thing is that these beers are supposed to have a refreshing vibe on a hot day.

I'm actually going to brew a German wheat sometime this week and add some lemon flavoring prior to bottling. I've tried that recipe before and had a great brew, so I figure the lemon zest should compliment it very well on a hot day.

 

I need to pick one of these up after i get moved. I'm a fan of the samplers-i've only had Sam Adams Boston Lager.

 

Says it all, right there.

 

I have to say it...You make a GREAT point

 

Fruit is a traditional ingredient in fermented beverages (which is what wine is) and there has been fruit in beer for almost as long as they've been making beer (thousands of years). It is NOT added to cover up "off flavors" but is either a main ingredient as a major source of fermentable sugar or is a minor ingredient because of its desirable flavor.

I've been making fruit beers for 20 years and I know that many people who don't even like beer will sometimes enjoy one of my raspberry stouts, cherry porters, or peach wheat ales. My sometime brewing partner and I also brew an annual "Old Money Grubber barley wine" which is a 14% alcohol barley wine (with raspberries and boysenberries making up 1/4 of the fermentables) and which is always a great hit with our friends.


Having said that, many modern beer companies make a "fruit beer" that is nothing more than a regular beer with a bit of fruit flavoring added into the bottle. These are not usually very good beers, in my opinion, and if this is your only exposure to "fruit beers" then you're missing out on the real thing.

 

Boston Ale FTW

 

I would LOVE to try a raspberry stout! I bet that would be killer! I am a big stout fan. Rogue shakespeare stout from Oregon is my favorite of all time.

 

Heh, I kinda said the same thing as the last part, but you said it better and have more credibility than me.

Oh yeah, forgot about the Sam Adams homebrew series. The Weitzenbock was a bit peculiar, but enjoyable. The grapeseed pale ale had a curious grape vibe as part of the aftertaste.

 

Cherry wheat. Yum.

 

He does? Just because they used fruit to cover up bad flavors back in the day doesn't mean they're still doing it today. I've had the Sam Adams Cherry Wheat and it is quite good. I had Mad Hat #9 yesterday which has a slight Apricot Flavor to it.

I will say that adding lime to beer is a fad. It's obvious now that Miller Chill came out and then Bud Lime came out shortly after. Now I'm waiting for Corona to get with the program and put lime in the beer instead of having to buy a lime and put it in yourself.

 

actually, I was only referring to the specific sentence that I quoted. Cheeze was basically saying that Big O had summed up his whole arguement with the one sentence that cheeze quoted, and I thought he had a good point on that. As far as fruity beers, I've tried quite a few, and don't like most of them, especially the ones with lime. But, I'm a little bit biased to begin with, since I rarely drink beer, can't stand wine, and mostly only drink bourbon and scotch.

 

Stout is my favorite beer type by far and I buy it as well as brew it all the time. Cream stout, dry stout, foreign stout, imperial stout, sweet stout, oatmeal stout, coffee stout and especially cherry stout and raspberry stout.

I've never seen a true raspberry stout brewed commercially and very rarely by homebrewers but I've been brewing several batches of raspberry stout a year for the past 20 years.

My latest recipe:

Raspberry Stout 5 gallons

10 lbs malted barley (or sub. 7 lbs extract)
1 # crystal malt
3/4 # roasted barley
1/4 # black malt
1/8 # chocolate malt
5 # red raspberries, crushed
Irish Ale liquid yeast
1 oz Cascade hops bitter
2/3 oz Cascade hops flavor
1/3 oz Cascade hops aroma

Mash grains at 152 F and sparge
Boil wort for 60 mins, adding hops as appropriate
add raspberries after boil, cool wort
transfer to primary and pitch yeast, ferment at 69 F
transfer to secondary and allow to clear at 65 F
bottle when clear and condition for 2-3 months

 

There's a time and a place for fruit beer. It's nice to have as a once-in-a-while, but I couldn't drink a sixer of it at a time. Just keep an open mind - everybody and their brother makes an IPA, a stout, etc. Try something new and different! For ever fruit beer I liked there have been four or so I haven't. It's all about experimenting.

And the Sam Adams summer sampler is good stuff. I'm more of a fan of their winter beers, though...

 

do you sell?????