Craft Beer Review: Samuel Adams, Boston Ale
Commemorating the opening of their Boston Brewery, Boston Beer Company launched their Boston Ale, a follow up to their celebrated Boston Lager.
According to legend, Founding Father, Massachusetts delegate, and co-founder of the revolutionary Sons of Liberty Samuel Adams had also once worked a less politicized post as maltster. About two hundred years later, another Bostonian helped to promote a different flavor of revolution, joining a wave of craft brewers that began to emerge in the 1980s to create a slightly different beer than the hoppier IPAs of the West Coast.
Coming from a family of brewers, Jim Koch founded the Boston Beer Company with Rhonda Kallman in 1874 on the back of a roughly 5% amber lager branded as Samuel Adams Lager, a beer that would evolve into Samuel Adams Boston Lager a year later. Boston Beer Company would go on to be selected "Best Beer in America" by Consumer Preference Poll at the Great American Beer Festival, an award that it would win four times.
From 1984 until the mid-1990s Boston Beer Company brewed under contract meaning that production of beer was supported by using third party facilities to brew their own beers. This was first done with the Pittsburgh Brewing Company followed by many others including Blitz Weinhard (now branded as Henry Weinhard) and Stroh's. In 1997, Hudepohl Schoenling Brewery, a Cincinnati-based brewery where Jim Koch's father had worked for a time was sold to the Boston Beer Company.
Following Prohibition in the United States, there were less than fifty breweries in operation in the late 1970s.
As of 2014, the total number of breweries reached 3,464, almost 99% of which are considered craft breweries (Brewer's Association statistics). Having been formed in the early years of the craft beer boom, Boston Beer Company's success followed the trend of the American beer industry. Currently, Boston Beer Company produces 2.5 million barrels of beer making it America's second largest American owned brewery after Yuengling. But despite their size, the brewery continues to support smaller craft operations, selling its private stock of hops during a shortage in 2008 at cost to small breweries and continues to do so.
Boston Ale pours a light brown with generous head and medium lacing left behind from lazy off white head. The aroma is reminiscent of English style ales, slightly toasty and bready. There's the character of dark fruit and biscuit sweetness, slightly yeasty, spicy, and warm. The mouthfeel is medium full with a little spiciness in flavor. The overall character is toasted malt and molasses followed by raisin and mild stewed apples, malty bread and caramel. The finish is clean for its depth, making this a very sessionable, flexible, and welcoming beer.
According to legend, Founding Father, Massachusetts delegate, and co-founder of the revolutionary Sons of Liberty Samuel Adams had also once worked a less politicized post as maltster. About two hundred years later, another Bostonian helped to promote a different flavor of revolution, joining a wave of craft brewers that began to emerge in the 1980s to create a slightly different beer than the hoppier IPAs of the West Coast.
Coming from a family of brewers, Jim Koch founded the Boston Beer Company with Rhonda Kallman in 1874 on the back of a roughly 5% amber lager branded as Samuel Adams Lager, a beer that would evolve into Samuel Adams Boston Lager a year later. Boston Beer Company would go on to be selected "Best Beer in America" by Consumer Preference Poll at the Great American Beer Festival, an award that it would win four times.
From 1984 until the mid-1990s Boston Beer Company brewed under contract meaning that production of beer was supported by using third party facilities to brew their own beers. This was first done with the Pittsburgh Brewing Company followed by many others including Blitz Weinhard (now branded as Henry Weinhard) and Stroh's. In 1997, Hudepohl Schoenling Brewery, a Cincinnati-based brewery where Jim Koch's father had worked for a time was sold to the Boston Beer Company.
Following Prohibition in the United States, there were less than fifty breweries in operation in the late 1970s.
As of 2014, the total number of breweries reached 3,464, almost 99% of which are considered craft breweries (Brewer's Association statistics). Having been formed in the early years of the craft beer boom, Boston Beer Company's success followed the trend of the American beer industry. Currently, Boston Beer Company produces 2.5 million barrels of beer making it America's second largest American owned brewery after Yuengling. But despite their size, the brewery continues to support smaller craft operations, selling its private stock of hops during a shortage in 2008 at cost to small breweries and continues to do so.
Boston Ale
| Style: | English pale ale |
| ABV: | 5.4% |
| IBUs: | 34 |
| Serving Temp: | 45-50°F |
Boston Ale pours a light brown with generous head and medium lacing left behind from lazy off white head. The aroma is reminiscent of English style ales, slightly toasty and bready. There's the character of dark fruit and biscuit sweetness, slightly yeasty, spicy, and warm. The mouthfeel is medium full with a little spiciness in flavor. The overall character is toasted malt and molasses followed by raisin and mild stewed apples, malty bread and caramel. The finish is clean for its depth, making this a very sessionable, flexible, and welcoming beer.
