Samuel Adams James Madison Dark Wheat Ale

Formerly brewed at Boston Beer Company
Style: Dunkelweizen
Boston, Massachusetts USA

Serve in Stein, Weizen

Pours a medium dark murky brown and orange color. Nose has some of that characteristically unpleasent Sam Adams malt scent, the plasticy malt syrup scent that I really don’t like. Up front it’s frothy but thin, tastes weak, resembling some cigarette ash, paper flavors, and some celery in among what tries to be a maple/vanilla/honey flavored beer. Smoked malts? Not really. Not very good.

Dark wheat ale. Smoked barley and malt taste. Has a little edginess to it. Some earthy tones. Rated 8/1/08

A cloudy brown pour with tan head and lace. A light brown sugar aroma with a hint of bitter. Light roasted malt and a hint of smoke. A tad thin and watery but very drinkable.

Sampled at Beerhawk’s Beer Gods in the Boro, aka 1000 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, By God Beer God Gathering, BG1K Tasting. Muddy water pour with some white head. Sweet and vinous with a caramel wheat backbone. A little watery, but not awful despite the old age.

Bottle shared by lithy. Poured a hazy brown with a thin off-white head. Sweet caramel aroma. The flavor found caramel, toffee, and light grain. Medium body and sweet throughout.

UPDATED: APR 5, 2009 Bottle thanks to daknole. Best by October 2006. Most of this leaked out during shipping so it poured a dirty brown water color with a thin whitish carbonation but mostly expectedly flat. Sweet cocoa aroma, toffee sweetness. Taste is smooth dark wheats, lots of cocoa, lightly oxidized. Flat mouthfeel, again expected. Re-rate BeerHawk’s Beer Gods in the Boro, aka 1000 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, By God Beer God Gathering, BG1K Tasting. Sample from a bottle shared by me thanks to daknole. This was a full bottle this time around so was more carbonated. Pours ugly brown orange again with a soft white foam. Aroma is sweet caramels, toffee a bit of yeast esters. Taste is cocoa, wheaty body. Original rating 7:2:7:2:13

To be fair this bottle is going on 3 years old and it wasnt good. Sour and just too old.

I think you could walk on this head its so dense. An intriguing blend of flavors...especially with the rye. Hints of bitter chocolate and toffee balance the rye, while the smoky finish completes the ensemble.

This beer pours the typical dunkel hazy yellow-brown color. The aroma is slightly sour with some banana? notes. A bit difficult to describe. Light(er) and refreshing with a sweet/ bitterness in the finish. It is good, but slightly smokey. Unique.