Beer #269 – Longshot Honey B’s Lavender Ale by Samuel Adams

Longshot Honey B's Lavender Ale by Samuel Adams

Another day…another beer, beer #269 that is.  Today’s beer is Longshot Honey B’s Lavender Ale by Samuel Adams.  Brewed in Boston, Massachusetts, this Herbed/Spice Beer has an ABV of 5.5% and it part of the Sam Adams Longshot series Sam Adams hombrew contest) created by Caitlin Declerco, a Sam Adams employee.

The color of this brew was a clear gold with a white head.  The nose was herby and floral with a touch of honey and a bit grassy.  The aroma of lavender was unmistakable.  The honey hit me first in the taste and all throughout the mouthful was the lavender…almost too much of it as it was sweet to the point of being sickening.  There was a nice underbelly of malts in the flavor of toast all throughout.  It had a body bordering on being heavy and syrupy with a moderate amount of carbonation.

I wasn’t a fan of this, sorry Caitlin.  The sweetness of the lavender wasn’t my thing but I will giver her props for trying something different.  I did enjoy the honey and the stickiness of this brew though.  So it wasn’t all bad.

Rating: D

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Beer #198 – Samuel Adams Summer Ale by Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams Summer Ale by Samuel Adams

Looks like I will have to wait a few weeks for Derek Jeter to get hit #3000.  On to the 15 day disabled list he went today.  Although, looking at the schedule, it sets him up nicely to get #3000 in New York…at Citi Field, home to those cross town bums called the Mets.  Actually, that would would be pretty sweet.  I can’t stand the Mets and I despise them almost as much as I do the Red Sox.  It could be a good thing for the Mets and their money troubles though…they could keep the ball, steal his bat, and auction them off to the highest bidder.

Beer #198 is Samuel Adams Summer Ale by Samuel Adams from Boston Massachusetts.  This was served in a large glass on draft from Ruby Tuesdays.

Stats – American Pale Wheat Ale with an ABV of 5.3%.
Appearance – Pale straw yellow with a white head.
Nose – Kind of light with grains, wheat, lemon.
Taste – Wheat and grains up front finishing off with a lemon zest like flavor and bitterness.
Mouthfeel – Medium body, nice prickly carbonation, refreshing.

Not too shabby.  This was a pretty good beer that was super easy to drink. Mine came with a slice of lemon.  I’m not a huge fan of fruit slices in beer as I think they usually cover up bad tasting beers (Corona for example) but the lemon here complimented the beer.  I could see this as a good backyard BBQ type beer on a hot summer day…add that slice of lemon and it could be quite refreshing.

Rating: B

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Beer #136 – Longshot Friar Hop Ale by Samuel Adams

Longshot Friar Hop Ale by Samuel Adams

Another Longshot series winner tonight, beer #136 is Longshot Friar Hop Ale by Samuel Adams.  This is a Belgian IPA with an ABV of 9%.  This winning recipe comes from Richard Roper of Georgia.  Lets see  if it is as good as last nights Blackened Hops.

It said it was a Belgian IPA, so why not use a Duvel tulip for the pour.  Look at that amber orange color but wait…where is the head?  Alas…it was not to be found here…shame.  I swirled and sniffed…spicy, yeast, orange, caramel malts, and alcohol (slightly).  Lets taste, shall we?  Hmm…bitter, like orange peel, slightly sweet, some sort of spice going on in here, boozy…*sigh*…not doing it for me tonight at all.  It lingered, a bit too long with the sweetness and bitterness…and it wasn’t all that pleasant.  Medium body and highly carbonated… it felt harsh in the mouth.  Took me a while to finish this…not overly drinkable for me.  It didn’t get much better coming down to room temperature, well, maybe slightly.

This was not nearly as good as the Blackened Hops.  If this was one of the Longshot winners, I wonder what some of the losers tasted like.  Sorry Richard, this wasn’t for me.

Rating: D

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Beer #135 – Longshot Blackened Hops by Samuel Adams

Longshot Blackened Hops by Samuel Adams

A Vacation in Every Pint…I love that saying on the pint glass from Cape Cod Beer that brew #135, Longshot Blackened Hops by Samuel Adams, went into.  We all know that Sam Adams is brewed in Boston, Massachusetts (at least I think we do) and this concoction is an American Black Ale with an ABV of 7%.  This is part of Sam Adams Longshot series where a homebrewer can get his or her beer brewed by said brewer after winning the Longshot competition.  Interesting to note that Sam Adams has been doing their Longshot series, a competition really, since 1995 and they pick two or three winners every year.  Those winners get their homebrew brewed, their face on the bottle label, and I would assume some sort of compensation and notoriety.  Not too shabby.  Tonight beer was from one of the latest winners in 2010, Rodney Kibzey.

This brew was a dark brown or more like black with a nice sized tan head that left some awesome lacing on the side of the glass.  It looked really good and smelled really nice just from opening the bottle.  The nose was very pleasant…citrus, hoppy, grapefruit…smelled delicious.  The taste surprised me, the hops take a back seat to the malts here, but not by much.  There were lots of roasted malts flavors, like coffee, with some nice pine and grapefruit flavors, all finishing with a nice bitter bite.  The mouthfeel was smooth, a bit creamy, had a bunch of carbonation, and a medium body bordering on heavy, almost coating the mouth.  Excellent drinkability, that 7% was hidden well, I wanted another after this was gone.

This surprised me…it is by far the best thing I have had with the Sam Adams name on it.  I wasn’t expecting a whole lot but Rodney Kibzey from Illinois, this was delicious and satisfying.  This is right up my alley, IPA like but with a nice roasted malt quality.  It is a shame that this is a limited run as I could see myself getting this frequently. One last word on this…yum!

Rating: A

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Beer #13 – Winter Lager by Samuel Adams

Winter Lager by Samuel Adams

After a long day of putting up Christmas decorations and shoveling 2 cubic yards of soil to our backyard, I decided it would be nice for me and my wife to go out for dinner.  We needed a few things at Lowe’s and there was an Applebee’s close by, so off to the place where you can eat good in the neighborhood.

A quick query of the quirky waitress of the beers on draft left me with a few choices.  Winter Lager by Samuel Adams was my choice for beer #13.  Winter Lager is a beer in the style of a Bock, a strong German lager.  Since I got this on draft, I didn’t have a bottle to check the ABV so a quick check up on the Sam Adams website let me know it clocks in at 5.6%.

To the table was delivered a Brewtus glass, actually a Weizen style glass, filled with 23 oz. of the Winter Lager.  The color was beautiful, an iced tea looking color with some tinges of red.  A clear beer it was with some nice carbonation bubbles making their way to the top.  The white head was about a finger width thick.  There was some nice lacing going on as I was drinking the beer.  Initial smells were a whole lot of nothing.  The beer was so cold when it came out I had to let it warm up a bit before I got a sweet malty aroma with just a slight citrus scent.  The taste for me was nothing but that malty sweetness, after it warmed up.  The more it warmed up, the more that malty taste came out.  Every once in a while I would get slight citrus (orange) taste.  According to their website, this is brewed with ginger and cinnamon.  I did not smell or taste any of that.  The brew had a decent medium mouthfeel with just a bit of carbonation going on.  It had an aftertaste that I couldn’t quite pin down, it wasn’t a bad aftertaste, it was just there.  It was a pretty smooth drink overall.

Overall it was a pretty average beer compared to some of the others I have had over the first 13 days.  Not terrible but not exceptional either.

Rating: C

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