Sam Adams...yes, it's a bit bourgeois...

[N8YX]

...but it's what in the fridge.

'DSG brought home a holiday sampler pack. Currently drinking a Holiday Porter, and I really don't care for most porters - but this isn't bad a-tall.

Had a Black & Brew from the assortment last evening. Pity one cannot buy that flavor in quantity. Chocolate Bock is also quite palatable for those who like the stronger of the mix.

[W5GA]

This is better than Sam Adams

4901

[W3MIV]

This is better than Sam Adams

4901


Agree.

[n2ize]

Cheap vodka is better !!

[W1GUH]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_M54XLqjBLNg/TLxTeJFt3PI/AAAAAAAABrU/HPaZvaQXLHc/s1600/yuengling_eagle.jpeg

[NQ6U]

http://www.stonebrew.com/images/beers/assets/bottles/ipa.png

Local favorite.

[KC2UGV]

I do prefer Sam Adams to a whole lot of others. It's on the bottom rung of "Good beers"; right next to Yeungling.

[W1GUH]

So OK...Lager? Pale Ale? Pilsner? Porter? For me, it's lager or nothing. Maybe a Porter.

[N8YX]

This is better than Sam Adams

4901

Can't get that here, unfortunately.

[W3WN]

I simply cannot take Samuel Adams seriously.

Remember, it was originally brewed for them under contract by Iron City Brewery in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh.

Now I understand that "Ahrn" has improved in taste since they moved the brewing operation to the old Rolling Rock brewery in Latrobe, and aren't using water directly from the Allegheny River anymore, but still...

[n4aud]

I believe most Sam Adams is brewed in Cincinnati. Beer does not age or travel well, so the closer you are to the brewery and the faster you drink it after it's bottled the better it will be. I live pretty close to Cincinnati and I've liked all of the Sam Adams variants I've tried. If you live farther away and the beer sits on the shelf longer your experience of it may not be as positive. I think some Americans have had some imported beer that may be very good when sampled on it's native soil but has lost something on it's transatlantic journey.
As far as beer being made under contract, some knowledgeable brewmeisters have told me that a recipe is a recipe, that even the type of water can be duplicated. I used to be an amateur brewer so I'm just not anywhere near the same level of experience as those guys but I remain a skeptic on that point.
But I do like Sam Adams (and Yuengling) amongst others.

[NQ6U]

some knowledgeable brewmeisters have told me that a recipe is a recipe, that even the type of water can be duplicated.

You are absolutely correct about this. I know both the guys who started up the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and they have told me as much. With modern water treatment technology, you can make plain city water into anything you want.

[KC2UGV]

You are absolutely correct about this. I know both the guys who started up the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and they have told me as much. With modern water treatment technology, you can make plain city water into anything you want.

Not to mention ALL beer has attempted to emulate the water used in original beers. Hence the limestone added to brew water :)

[W3WN]

I believe most Sam Adams is brewed in Cincinnati. < snip >According to our friends at Wikipedia:
The brand was first produced under contract by the Pittsburgh Brewing Company (http://forums.hamisland.net/wiki/Pittsburgh_Brewing_Company), best known for their Iron City (http://forums.hamisland.net/wiki/Iron_City_Brewing_Company) brand of beer. Over the years, the brand has been produced under contract at various brewing facilities with excess capacity, ranging from Stroh breweries, Portland's (http://forums.hamisland.net/wiki/Portland,_Oregon) original Blitz-Weinhard (http://forums.hamisland.net/wiki/Blitz-Weinhard) brewery (shuttered in 1999), Cincinnati's (http://forums.hamisland.net/wiki/Cincinnati,_Ohio) Hudepohl-Schoenling (http://forums.hamisland.net/wiki/Hudepohl-Schoenling) brewery (eventually purchased by the Boston Beer Company in early 1997), and industry giant SABMiller (http://forums.hamisland.net/wiki/SABMiller). The Boston Beer Company also has a small R&D brewery located in Boston (Jamaica Plain (http://forums.hamisland.net/wiki/Jamaica_Plain)), Massachusetts, where public tours and beer tastings are offered. The brewery occupies part of the premises of the old Haffenreffer Brewery.[5] (http://forums.hamisland.net/#cite_note-4) [6] (http://forums.hamisland.net/#cite_note-5)
In the mid-1990s, Jim Koch returned to his hometown of Cincinnati to purchase the Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewery, where his father apprenticed in the 1940s. This was also one of the first steps the company took to reduce reliance on contract brewing.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_adams_beer

[W3WN]

You are absolutely correct about this. I know both the guys who started up the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and they have told me as much. With modern water treatment technology, you can make plain city water into anything you want.But do they?

Don't get me wrong, I hope they do. But you wonder sometimes.

When one of my wife's cousins got married, about 10 years ago, I got roped into the Bachelor Party (missed the dancing girls, but then, they had it at the hotel where the reception would be, the night before, with BOTH families in attendance), and got served some locally-brewed swill that was called a "wheat beer." Tasted like the water came out of the Delaware River... in the vicinity of the Port of Philadelphia... unfiltered. Well, either there, or from the Delaware Canal, immediately downstream from the mule barge tourist excursion in New Hope. "Yeccccch!" doesn't begin to describe it.

(Of course, the wedding party was already smashed. You could have served them liquid sterno and they couldn't have told. But that's another story)

[X-Rated]

WWBP?

[W3WN]

WWBP?
What Would Bubba Pour?

[X-Rated]

Damn. You're good.

[N8YX]

What Would Bubba Pour?

Corn likker.

[K7SGJ]

That would explain the likker license. I thought those were only needed by........never mind.

[KC9ECI]

Guinness has a new flavor out, Black Lager...fairly delicious if you ask me.

[K7SGJ]

There is only one way to settle this.

WHERE THE HELL IS OUR ISLAND BARTENDER????????????????

[KB3LAZ]

I dont much care for thick or dark beer. Then again I am not much of a drinker at all. Beer is the only thing I will drink and I only drink one with dinner. At the most once every six months or so. Maybe I dont have taste but I enjoy a heineken with my dinner.

[HUGH]

Sam Adams has been a saviour whenever I've visited the US on business even though it may not be a prize-winner. Most bars or hotels serve the usual bland, tasteless stuff but can usually find some Sam Adams somewhere. I did consume the entire stock from a Marriot Courtyard's bar one evening.

This is more my thing (yes Offa was actually a Mercian king a few hundred years ago and the dyke was a 150 mile long ditch he had built):

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z198/BereniceUK/UK%20travel/Shropshire/Trefonen/IMG_7666.jpg

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z198/BereniceUK/UK%20travel/Shropshire/Trefonen/IMG_7682.jpg

[K7SGJ]

Heh heh heh He said dyke :bbh:

[NQ6U]

There's a lot good brew to be had in the United States, Hugh, you just have to know what local craft beers to ask for. The beer situation here is much, much, better than it was twenty years or so ago when all you could expect to find was tasteless, piss-yellow crap from the big mega-breweries like Budweiser or Miller. Should you ever get to San Diego, drop me a line and I'll introduce you to a whole lot of good beer. This burg has become well-known for it's plethora of fine, small microbreweries.

[HUGH]

There's a lot good brew to be had in the United States, Hugh, you just have to know what local craft beers to ask for. The beer situation here is much, much, better than it was twenty years or so ago when all you could expect to find was tasteless, piss-yellow crap from the big mega-breweries like Budweiser or Miller. Should you ever get to San Diego, drop me a line and I'll introduce you to a whole lot of good beer. This burg has become well-known for it's plethora of fine, small microbreweries.
A splendid offer. It used to be visits north of Detroit, way north of L.A. and north of Houston. Latterly it's likely to be family visits in the northern districts outside L.A. but we may go touring towards northern California.

[NQ6U]

Well, San Diego is south of L.A., right on the Mexican border, but the offer still stands.

http://sandiego.about.com/od/diningandnightlife/tp/sd_brews.htm
(http://sandiego.about.com/od/diningandnightlife/tp/sd_brews.htm)

EDIT: The offer stands for any beer-drinking Islander. Even you, Paul! ;)

[W5GA]

Carlo, is Croce's still there?

[ab1ga]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_M54XLqjBLNg/TLxTeJFt3PI/AAAAAAAABrU/HPaZvaQXLHc/s1600/yuengling_eagle.jpeg

I love the label: a beer brewed at America's oldest brewery is called "Youngster"!

[ab1ga]

...
and got served some locally-brewed swill that was called a "wheat beer."


The funny taste could have been the water, or it could have been the beer.

"Wheat beer" directly translated to German is "Weizenbier", which is beer with at least 50% wheat content. That name tends to be used in southwestern Germany and northern Bavaria. Around Munich the same stuff is called "Weissbier" or "white beer" because of its generally lighter color.

In Germany I usually saw the stuff only in the summer, and I preferred it in hot weather because it sat easier on the stomach. It's got a bit of a sweet taste, which some beer drinkers don't like, and sometimes a slice of lemon helps out a lot. Some brands have a bit of a medicine taste, too. Closest taste I've come to here is Corona. You also have to be careful pouring it, because it foams up like the devil.

But don't be fooled: like those silly umbrella drinks, three will make you silly, four will make you wobble, and five will make you sit down and smile for a while. I had more than a couple on a school field trip and almost didn't make it back to the bus for the ride home.

73,

[NQ6U]

Carlo, is Croce's still there?

Yep, it sure is. Still run by Jim's widow and (I think) son.

[HUGH]

Here's a little encouragement for you to start your own microbrewery. It doesn't need expensive premises, this fellow bought a small, stone house with an old poultry shed, turned it into the Stonehouse Brewery and remarkably successful it is too:

http://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/60/88/608811_bd78fbec.jpg

[KC2UGV]

A splendid offer. It used to be visits north of Detroit, way north of L.A. and north of Houston. Latterly it's likely to be family visits in the northern districts outside L.A. but we may go touring towards northern California.

Same offer stands if you ever visit the Buffalo-Niagara region. We have numerous craft brewers here as well. Flying Bison and Pearl St Brewery are at the top of the list.

[KC2UGV]

Well, San Diego is south of L.A., right on the Mexican border, but the offer still stands.

http://sandiego.about.com/od/diningandnightlife/tp/sd_brews.htm
(http://sandiego.about.com/od/diningandnightlife/tp/sd_brews.htm)

EDIT: The offer stands for any beer-drinking Islander. Even you, Paul! ;)

I might be taking you up on this come summer. Might have some business to attend to there :)