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Sam Adams

T

TheDarkReaver

Inactive
Mar 20, 2006
3,337
14
39
Lincolnshire, UK
#1
So I've been on this pub crawl tonight and we went to this bar/restaurant called 'old orleans'. It's basically this New Orleans/Cajun themed place. They had bottled beers quite cheap and one of them was Sam Adams. Now I've heard you guys speak of this beer but never seen it over here. I thought why the heck not and tried it. I have to say I'm rather impressed, for an American bottled beer it was actually rather good. It was a lager but it had a bit of an ale taste to it.

For the first time in my life I can say that American beer doesn't suck all that bad. Well done! :D
 
#4
SuperDuck said:
While the real strength of American beers lies in micro breweries, Sam Adams is one of the best "big" brewing companies around. They have a variety of beers, and many of them are outstanding!
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+1. Sam Adams is a safe bet beer for me. When I show up at a bar, it's typically one of the first beers I'll ask about.
 
#7
The giant American beer factories (Miller, Bud, Coors etc..) make their beer as cheaply as possible, substituting rice and corn for barley and using hi tech additives and preservatives but low quality grains and hops. Result: crappy tasting beer.

Sam Adams (Boston Beer Company) is also a large brewery but they actually brew beer according to a more traditional approach - no adjuncts or preservatives and much higher quality base grains, specialty grains and hops. Result: decent tasting beer.

Another thing I like about Sam Adams is they are not afraid to use a little variation in their recipes from batch to batch and I can easily taste different amounts of specialty grains or hops.

The big American beer factories would be horrified if one of their customers wrote them an email telling them they could taste a difference between Bud Lite from November '08 and Bud Lite from December '08. :rollno:
 
#8
Sam Adams went through a "phase" a couple of years ago when they upped the amount of hops in all their recipes and I didn't like it because their beers were all out of balance (too bitter). I like a nice hop character, but they kind of went overboard. I think they got a lot of complaints because they've since toned it back down.

A lot of the smaller craft brewed beers have gained some popularity by being ultra, ultra hoppy and I think Sam Adams thought they could gain some wider appeal by hopping aboard that bandwagon.

Get it? "Hopping"? :D






:hiding:
 
#10
hbarcat said:
Sam Adams (Boston Beer Company) is also a large brewery but they actually brew beer according to a more traditional approach - no adjuncts or preservatives and much higher quality base grains, specialty grains and hops.

Another thing I like about Sam Adams is they are not afraid to use a little variation in their recipes from batch to batch and I can easily taste different amounts of specialty grains or hops.
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See what I mean about my earlier post? Those commercials are totally believable.

I think it's probably the guy in the Carhartt coveralls who looks kinda like Scott Ian. :D

-Mike
 
#13
I love the Boston Ale and you can't really go wrong with most of their brews, especially the seasonals (well except spring, but that's not my type of beer)

They also host a home brew competition and they "publish" the winners beers in a sampler pack. As a home brewer myself this gives me a greater respect for Sam, that and the fact that they use proper brown bottles and not twists.

Long story short Sam is one of the few big name domestics I drink and I wish the rest even compared.
 
#15
MJ5150 said:
See what I mean about my earlier post? Those commercials are totally believable.

I think it's probably the guy in the Carhartt coveralls who looks kinda like Scott Ian. :D

-Mike
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I started homebrewing in 1988 which was the same year that Sam Adams beer went from a 500 bbl microbrew to brewing 36,000 bbls (the giant breweries brew millions of bbls/year). Sam Adams still brew beer today in a scaled up version using traditional microbrewing techniques and with quality of ingredients being a higher priority than cheapness.

Along with many other homebrewers I've known over the years, I've brewed clones of some of Sam Adams beers and it can't be done by substituting rice and corn for barley, taking shortcuts and going cheap. Some of my homebrewing friends have toured the Boston brewery and it's brewed the way they say.


532738203_17ed6b6c2f.jpg



Scoff if you want, this is how good beer is made commercially. :p
 
#19
hbarcat said:
+1 Their Boston Lager and Boston Ale used to be a lot mellower and I haven't been that fond of either of them for a few years since they've made them more aggressive. The Octoberfest is very good but I will truly never get tired of their cream stout.
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I've been a fan of the Honey Porter...hard to get in these parts though.

And for some reason...the Oktoberfest, and Winter Lager tasted better three years ago...just my humble opinion...
 

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