Sam Adams Rebel Raw Double IPA

Thanks for your input here. I am typically not a fan of the DIPA style since more often than not I find them to be too cloying for my palate. I was thinking about buying a 4-pack of RRD but I won't now.

You just saved me money.

Cheers to you!!

 

Interesting they went with the Hopslam, PtY, Hoptimum, 10% threshold. My personal money zone is right around 8%. I've had HS and Hoptimum and found then too sweet. Sounds like they could have lowered abv by 2%, dried it out a bit more fermentation/yeast wise, and that malt sweetness (which is in basically every SA product sadly) wouldn't be such a lingering bastard. But then they'd be like the other DIPAs I guess.. Being different just to be different won't get you very far if your end product is merely just "alright". I guess the next question will be the price point for the limited market place/test zones.

 

8% is definitely the DIPA sweet spot. In general at 9-10% the sweetness defiantly creeps in. Most recent example is Bootleg Fireworks by Baxter. Good beer but a bit too much malt sweetness. Sounds like Raw is heading this direction as well.

 

Bought a 4 pack yesterday. I really wanted to like it, kind of hard to. Pours a pale cloudy orange, nice nose. Too sweet for my palate. Hops are more on the finish. A double IPA should be bitter, this was not. I want a more slap in the face from hops, not a rising crescendo. Good , but not on par with say Be Hoppy, Santilli or such.

 

I have yet to have Rebel Raw but the decision that San Adams made to brew a 10% beer will foster a resulting beer that is on the sweet side.

I think that @Oktoberfiesta was spot on with his comment of: “Interesting they went with the Hopslam, PtY, Hoptimum, 10% threshold. My personal money zone is right around 8%. I've had HS and Hoptimum and found then too sweet. Sounds like they could have lowered abv by 2%, dried it out a bit more fermentation/yeast wise, and that malt sweetness (which is in basically every SA product sadly) wouldn't be such a lingering bastard.”

Cheers!

 

Everybody complaining about it being sweet, but that's what's getting me more excited to try it!

 

Canning date 11/27 or so. Just saw it in NYC for the first time tonight so I grabbed it.

It is sweet and bitter on the finish but without any of the big fruity explosions. Maybe I'm just spoiled on DIPAs right now with OH, SingleCut, and Grimm, but it isn't clear that I will be finishing the 4 pack. While recognizing the cost difference, I think I'm left respecting All Green Everything and 200 Watt that much more!

 

Tried this one, has nothing on even the 6-7.5 average ipa's out there. Should have know this was going to be a failure but wanted to see for myself...

 

Just had a 16 oz. can of Rebel Raw. Stone's 12.31.15 Enjoy By blew this beer away. Got a ton of malty, bready malt flavor vs. the Ton of Raw Hop flavors I was expecting, meh, and I'm not a SAM hater, I own the stock!

 

Sam is way bigger than Stone, and if this test goes well, I imagine this beer to get near 10x the distro of Enjoy By.

I would care if someone took a picture of this beer in a glass.

I'm sure they were out to make a Heady clone, nothing remotely different, and Im certain it's as malt-forward as you say.

 

Brewbound's got a short interview with Koch about the beer - Rebel Raw Hits Retail, Jim Koch Drops Details - in which he side-steps the question about his previous comments on such IPA's:

and is vague about its future

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Sam is spending millions to do local breweries' advertising for them..."fresh matters, check your dates." I love it.

 

4-pack of 16oz cans dated 11/29/15 in Chicago for $13.99.

I'll drink later after work.

 

I picked up a 4 and its good, honestly quite better than I was expecting. The ABV is a little higher than I'd like and it doesn't quite have the full bite I want but its a good first step, and I give it around a 4/5. I like that they're making it and I like some of the messaging.

That said though, I absolutely hate the price. $14/4=$3.50 a can? If this were $2 a can I would probably buy it regularly, but at $3.50 a can its in waaaay over its head (more expensive than HT ffs) IMO with many better and much cheaper options available. I cannot imagine SA's cost to make it actually justifies this shelf price, and if they're using it as a cash grab because many of us are used to spending $$ on a beer like that then I won't be buying it again.

 

If you're curious

http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...-drinking-now-1145.363439/page-3#post-4318007

 

definitely bummed this won't make it to AZ. Maybe it will get a good enough response and do a larger second-release.

 

This is where I'm at. Very malt forward, which isn't a bad thing, but I prefer a little more hop punch in a DIPA. I'm having a hard time envisioning, or entasting(???), the hop fall off after 35 days with this. Likely would bypass this again, even for a $9 bomber of Enjoy By...

 

Just had Rebel Raw, and I'd drink It over Hopslam any day.

 

Just the writing on the can (in all caps mind you, cuz this shit's extreme!):

"If you don't like big hop bitterness, this beer isn't for you."

"The recipe is "RAW" because it's evolving." (whatever that means)

"Drink it now! We recklessly shoved hops in here..."

The faux marketing, the actual taste...tells me I'm not the target demographic with this.

 

Lots of craft breweries have been doing the "freshness" push for a while now. Code dates you can actually read...drink fresh all over bottles and cans...again...SA IS NOT breaking any new ground...and I'd venture to say they're late to the party. Imitation is the highest form of flattery...although I'm glad they're talking about freshness as well.