Slightly gold-hazed eccentricity integrates wildflower honey sweetness with profound ginger spicing, fluctuant chamomile restraint, and latent lemon peel bittering, retaining floral finish as well as hard-candied lemondrop appeal.
(SAMUEL ADAMS) PATRIOT COLLECTION- 1790 ROOT BEER BREW
Advertised ‘herbs, spices, vanilla, honey, and molasses’ only play dinky role in precariously overdone 5.5% alcohol-laced root beer. Instead, resounding black licorice foundation overwhelms expectant sarsaparilla twang, maple snip, and peppery wintergreen reminder. Good for a sugar rush and better than sticky Schnapps.
(SAMUEL ADAMS) PATRIOT COLLECTION- JAMES MADISON DARK WHEAT
Plain, inexpressive, unfiltered mahogany-hued ale can’t find the right groove. Subtle rye-cocoa illusions get buried beneath prickly citric hops and blanched barley roast. Earthen red-white oak finish recedes to bland nuttiness, deadening ginger, allspice, and clove tingle.
(SAMUEL ADAMS) PATRIOT COLLECTION- GEORGE WASHINGTON PORTER
Indistinct dry-bodied porter brings raw molasses bittering to sweet licorice setting, finishing closer to a black ale with its ashy mocha malting and dirty earthiness. Arid hop char brackets dark fruited smidgen and gingerbread remnant, but smoked hickory illusion gets lost behind rampant anise stickiness.
SAMUEL ADAMS PALE ALE
Dried lemon vapidity, tinny hop tepidity, and warbled phenol flow disrupt cereal-grained toasting. Wafts of barnyard hay produce alfalfa, maize, and wild oat illusions.
SAMUEL ADAMS OLD FEZZIWIG ALE
Brewed with cinnamon, ginger, and orange, this well-seasoned ale scores points for brevity and originality. Spice-fueled adjuncts arouse lactic chocolate malts and impending plum-fig-cherry souring, but tangy orange flavor gets lost in wintry barleywine-sherry mix. Peculiar for starters, but top notch for seasoned pros.
SAMUEL ADAMS OCTOBERFEST
Rustic Bavarian-styled four-malt lager ‘to celebrate autumn’ draws strength from sweet ‘n sour malt variance, dried fruit binge, toasted nut singe, and delicate maple tinge. Caramel-burnt butterscotch sweetness consumes spice-hopped finish.
SAMUEL ADAMS LIGHT PILSNER
Impressive burnished amber tone, crystal malt palate, and husked wheat dryness make this a first rate low calorie alternative. Though watery, blandly sweet, and unobtrusive, moderate grain flow remains steadfast.
SAMUEL ADAMS IRISH RED ALE
Though lacking stylistic distinction, expectant dry hop-spiced bittering and brown sugared caramel malting nicely moderate slightly diacetyl medium body. Recessive black cherry, white grape, and green apple sourness placate fatigued apricot murk and earthen floral-herbal tinge to cracked wheat spine.
SAMUEL ADAMS HOLIDAY PORTER
Lactic chocolate chalking never restricts sugary Christmas spicing, debonair coffee-espresso nicety, mild fig-date souring and sharp nut sear of rocky tan-headed maroon-bodied porter. Frothy mocha-molasses broth deepens seasonal cinnamon-nutmeg clip, scanty coriander-currant dip and peanut-shelled hazelnut, butternut and pecan snips. By phenol vanilla finish, toasted Fuggle hop char embitters tobacco chew spew and ashen tar-like thicket.
SAMUEL ADAMS HEFEWEIZEN ’05
Easygoing hazy amber ’05 version integrates euphoric honeyed wheat biscuit sweetness with gently fizzed floral serenade. Curdled butterscotch midst perfectly complements slightly syrupy slurp.
SAMUEL ADAMS HEFEWEIZEN
Minor cloudiness invades flat, chartreuse, Bavarian-hopped half-wheat knockoff. Mild banana-bubblegum odor fades to metallic shrill as lemon-soured grapefruit snippet reaches wheat-cracked sourdough midst. Candied orange caress and unexpected licorice lament hidden beneath. Dreary peculiarity finds only middling success.