Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic

Cold 12oz bottle: Pours a hazy medium orange color with some yellow hues and a thin layer of alabaster bubbles. Light grains, funky yeast, orange, cranberry and lemon with sour notes. Light to medium bodied, crisp and well carbonated. Ending is malty with some sweet and sour notes.

Well, I liked this much more than I thought I would since I was expecting nothing short of a trainwrech. Pours copper with a light tan head. The aroma is soapy with light tartness, musty butter and some sweetness. Medium body with soft carbonation at the beginning and sharp at the end. Flavor starts out medicinal with some sweetness and tart cranberries that come off a bit fake. There is a maple syrup sort of sweetness as well. The finish is also a bit medicinal and sharp. This is not that good, but better than I thought it would be. But I have to wonder how they are able to put the word "lambic" on the bottle. I can not see anything that this beer has in common with a lambic.

(Bottle) Pours an orange color. Interesting aroma of cranberry and Belgian yeast. I picked up quite a bit of Cranberry in the taste. Rather sweet, but nicely balanced by some tartness. Not really a typical lambic, like the name suggests. Pretty decent. Not nearly as bad (in my opinion) as some people have rated it.

Poured from bottle. Smells nice, like cran muffin at first, but gets gassy after poured. Cran dominates in flavor, but it is sweet, which I guess lambics are supposed to be. Sticky mouthfeel. One of my least favorite styles, but this stuff really not too bad - quite drinkable, in fact. I would like to try other cran beers in different styles.

I’ve not had enough experience with Lambrics to compare, but I will say I didn’t dislike this beer. I did find that I would only want one per night before moving on to a darker beer gladly. I love variety packs, for the exposure to beers I might not otherwise buy outright, and have yet to find a beer I just hate, especially in the SA packs. For a national brew, they make good drinkable beers. I wouldn’t buy a sixer of this, but then I don’t pour it down the drain either. A good sweet beer to get you going.

Never tried a Lambic before so I can’t complain about that. Medium head, slightly fruity sour. Light cranberry flavor. Sort of tastes like beer mixed with wine. Good carbonation, I agree that this beer is underrated.

I personally feel this beer is underrated compared to many beers out there but as a lambic, it doesn’t have the fruitiness or sourness I’ve enjoyed from many of those brews. But, it has an ice-cream-like sweet wheat-like flavor which seems more like cherries than cranberries. I am not a fan of this as a lambic but I can’t say its not drinkable either. I like how the carbonation isn’t too high which means it avoids that wine cooler quality I associate with some brands of Lindemans.

Two bottles of this came in the SA winter mix pack. Had a few sips of one bottle before pouring down the drain. My wife and I are currently debating which hated relative to serve it to over the holidays. Utterly atrocious with no redeeming value. Doesn’t even taste like cranberries.