Sam Adams Variety Pack

I’ve gone on record here about how I feel about Samuel Adams and the Boston Beer Company but I’ll say it again anyway.

They make good beer. Tim Koch has carved out a little niche between the humongous but bland MillerCoors/Anheuser-Busch empire and delicious regional craft beers made with care and respect for the beer drinker. Sam Adams makes kick ass brew that everybody across the entire country can enjoy. I always look forward to trying new Sam Adams flavors and jumped at the chance recently to sample three beers for the price of one sixer. The variety pack consists of Irish Red, Black Lager, and the 2008 Beer Lover’s Choice Blackberry Witbier.

The Irish Red is my least favorite but still a very respectable beer. Sweet and rich caramel and vanilla dominate the aroma and taste though the color, deep red, somewhere between ruby and amber, is the most remarkable thing about this beer. For being so sweet, the malt and hops are surprisingly balanced.

Most darker beers you’ll see are a porter or a stout (both British) which both come from the ale family and both have a very strong hop flavor. Sam Adams’ Black Lager uses bottom fermenting lager yeast that gives this beer a deep, roasted malty flavor while retaining a medium body, characteristics of the classic German Schwarzbier (meaning “black beer”).

The Blackberry Witbier was my favorite of the bunch and it’s easy to see why it was the Beer Lover’s Choice in 2008. The award is given to a beer that is selected by random taste tests from brewery patrons. When I visited the Sam Adams brewery in July there was a table set up outside where brewery workers were giving away even more free beer than what was inside. They made my friends and I sample two beers and tell them which one they liked the best. One was a classic Pilsner, refreshing and light on a hot summer day. The other was an IPA, strongly hopped and medium bodied. My guess for the Beer Lovers Choice of 2009 will be the IPA, simply because they are in fashion now.

Brewed with orange peel and coriander, not to mention sweet, tart Oregon blackberries, the Blackberry Witbier is fruity without being obnoxious. Not too sweet and not dominated by the blackberries, they back up the flavor of the beer instead of overshadow it. The malted barley and wheat give it a nice texture without being bready.