Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic

This beer has the color of grapefruit with a quickly disappearing head. The aroma is sour. The flavor is milky with light cranberry flavors.

Orange-reddish, small white head. Aroma banana and cloves and sour yeast. Tart flavor; different but interesting; not really much banana and clove here; yeast and cranberry; virtually no bitterness. Medium body, moderately sticky. Better than I expected.

Yes, it’s not a Lambic. Let’s move on and review it fairly... Poured from bottle into Tulip (let’s just pretend it is Belgian). Very hazy reddish-orange with a pink tint. Bubbly cream colored head that mostly dies down with slight lacing. Smell of sweet maple syrup, cranberries, and banana, with a slight sourness. The tartness and complexity fades after a few minutes, mostly just leaving sweetness behind. Taste is very sweet and syrupy upfront, borderline cloying. However, it turns slightly more complex and tart after that, with notes of cranberry, banana and spice. However, the cloying quality somewhat remains. It is too bad they put so much maple syrup in to counter the tartness and spiciness; it could have been pretty good. As is, it is okay, certainly not the disaster many make it out to be, but I’d rather not have more.

strong cranberry character.. obviously. Tastes alright before the cranberry kicks in. Wouldn’t drink more than one.

BOTTLE: reddish pink pour, somewhat creamy head. Nose is cranberry and honey. Taste is cranberry, no where near as tart as I expected it would be. Very easy drinking, without much character.

from notes.. Pour is pinkish with pinkish head as well. Aroma is sweet cranberry berry and honey. This beer is a disaster, one of my singlely least favorite offering from sam adams. No traditional lambic flavor or qualities, just honey and sweet fruit in an ale. Even if rated from a fruit beer point of view this lacks subtlety and drinkability. Two thumbs way down

A blush-like rose pink color. One finger of pinkish off-white head. Cloudy, but light glows through. Looks great, head sticks around for a minute. The wild spicy Belgian yeasts kick in first. But the cranberry that comes afterward is sweet, not bitter like cranberries can be. Spicy and tart in the nose. The taste is immensely sour at the first sip; big time pucker. That maple syrup to which the label refers adds sweetness. Tart cranberries come in, and then Belgian ale spices. This is more like a fruity Belgian than a traditional lambic. Grape skins with warmth. Unusual, but really pretty good. The feel is bubbly like champagne, but also thick and syrupy. A dry finish. This is a solid beer, tart and sweet. Not really a traditional lambic, despite its astringency. Not a bitter note to be found, just berries and Belgian spices.

ppearance=looks like a glass of apple cider with a decently thick head that disappears quickly into nothing with no lacing. S=Cranberrys factor in highly as expected but also includes honey and a slight hint of alcohol. Not bad. Taste and mouthfeel=This gives lambics a bad name. I see that it is not classified as such on this site (nor should it be) but since Samuel Adams uses this label prominently, I will review it against such. This is awful. Rather than the sourness of a great Cantillon or the sweetness of a good Lindemans, this is just Sam Adams Lager mixed with Cranberry Juice and maple syrup. No sweetness or sourness to speak of. Thin bodied with moderate to high carbonation. The juice comes across as more watering down the lager than enhancing it. Drinkability..while this goes down easy, I will probably only drink it again to finish off my supply from the holiday sampler.