What is up w/ Sam Adams?

Reads 1963 • Replies 27 • Started Thursday, August 14, 2014 7:35:48 AM CT

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Message Frank beers 4561 º places 92 º 07:35 Thu 8/14/2014 This has always bothered me. Sam Adams is clearly capable of brewing great beer. Their flagship lager is damned good and Noble Pils, for example, is excellent. The majority of their other offerings tend to be average at best. And they are not even just bland or boring are something; they are not well brewed, w/ metallic and other off flavors all over the place. How can this be? Do they just realize consumers don’t know or care if Sam Adams Auntumnal Scotch Irish Amber Stout tastes like chewing on a Tums and cut corners? I had long thought that it was because most of these were kind of one off type things where they just brewed them once and didn’t get a chance to dial them in but Sierra Nevada’s Band Camp series has me convinced that a large brewery w/ Sam Adam’s resources should be able to at least do a decent job of any beer the brew even if they do it once. So what do you all think?
Message RABinCO P beers 1511 º places 103 º 07:44 Thu 8/14/2014 I’ve had tons of QC issues with Sam Adams, including instances of the lager being a butter bomb.
Message Gary beers 2114 º places 4 º 08:38 Thu 8/14/2014 Maybe they don’t care about this thread
Message RABinCO P beers 1511 º places 103 º 08:45 Thu 8/14/2014 Originally posted by Gary Maybe they don’t care about this thread Impossible. Only kind, generous dudes, and this is key to my counterargument, with tons of passion can produce beer. Or so I’ve been told.

Message Frank beers 4561 º places 92 º 09:06 Thu 8/14/2014 Originally posted by RABinCO I’ve had tons of QC issues with Sam Adams, including instances of the lager being a butter bomb. Do they still contract brew some of their beers? This could be another cause of inconsistency.
Message TheHOFF43 P beers 2045 º places 169 º 09:11 Thu 8/14/2014 I don’t drink much Sam Adams because I don’t care for the majority of it and there is almost always something better available.
Message joet P admin beers 2900 º places 125 º 09:20 Thu 8/14/2014 I honestly don’t have time for anyone doing a "decent job" with any beer. There are even moderately high rated beers that I need to pass up in order to get potentially great beers into the pipeline. If I’m buying Sam Adams, I’m not looking to be blown away. Few to none actually are, I would think. I’m still glad they’re around and pushing more flavor into macro territory.
Message Ernest P beers 9435 º places 229 º 09:46 Thu 8/14/2014 Originally posted by RABinCO I’ve had tons of QC issues with Sam Adams, including instances of the lager being a butter bomb. Indeed, even Noble Pils is not particularly clean; it is more so than a lot of their beers, perhaps, but still overall average (high 2 to low 3) IMHO. So I personally haven’t found too much quality variation across their line, including the small batch stuff...they all tend to fall in the 2.0 to 3.0 range for me.

Message tennisjoel P beers 2232 º places 53 º 09:57 Thu 8/14/2014 I used to love their hoppy imperial pilsner. Not sure why they ditched it?
Message Frank beers 4561 º places 92 º 10:25 Thu 8/14/2014 I wouldn’t expect many folks here to be in love w/ Sam Adams general output. They do not seem to be swinging for the fences for beer geeks anyway. It just seems to me like they could do a more reliable job of putting out something that if not great could at least be devoid of flaws. I dunno... maybe people like a little bit of coppery bite to their IPAs.
Message GT P beers 10001 º places 672 º 10:39 Thu 8/14/2014 I respect them and glad they are are around, but I have not bought any beer from them in a long time.