Beer-a-Day #34
This is the beginning of Samuel Adams week. I picked up a mixed-six of Sam, a number of which I’ve actually never had. I’ll be sampling them over the next…uh, six days.
I think Samuel Adams gets overlooked in the realm of beer geekdom. I suppose since they left the world of “micro” brewing behind long ago, have national television and radio advertising, national distribution, near ubiquity, and is one of the few beers known to folks who don’t see much beyond the Bud-Miller-Coors hegemony, beer explorers don’t feel there’s anything new to discover. I even admit to going into my retailer on a quest for something new and/or interesting, and passing right over the (admittedly many) offerings from Samuel Adams.
Nice medium amber with orange highlights, two fingers of cream-colored head, which leaves a nice lacing on the glass. Cinnamon and toast in the aroma. Pleasantly malty, with more cinnamon and just enough bitterness. I like it. So does my wife.
The first time I tried this beer was the inaugural meeting of a beer tasting club I hosted a couple of years ago. I picked several winter seasonals, all of them enjoyable, but I made the mistake of putting this beer between two much more assertive beers. For curiosity’s sake, I had everyone vote on their favourite beers of the evening, and the Sam Adams came last. I think if I’d changed the order we consumed them, and perhaps started with this beer it would have picked up more votes.
It’s a subtle winter seasonal, but like you say, I think quite a fine one. Glad you enjoyed it.
A beer tasting club? How did that work out?
Surprisingly well. A couple of my seminary friends encouraged me to lead it, oddly enough, promising they would get a crowd together. I think that first night we had 13 people, and we would average 15 with a peak of 20. There was a range of experience with craft beer among them, but most were barely acquainted.
Basically everyone would contribute $10 per meeting, which would get them 5 different beers that I had bought earlier. Each time I would pick a different beer style a choose beers that I thought would represent some diversity within that style.
I’d give a primer on the history of the style and what they might expect to taste/smell etc. With each beer I’d talk a little about the brewery, then we’d taste them together and talk about what we found.
We’d usually try 3 of the beers and would have a couple to take home and try later.
It was a whole lot of fun, but with my schedule getting crazy I kind of let it fizzle out.