Samuel Adams Spring 2020 Variety Pack

JFC, I bet at some stores you can still find a few left over fall variety packs

 

What's amazing to me is not only how early things show up now but how quickly they suddenly disappear, was shocked to see how many Christmas beers are gone already (and I know not all of it was sold because just a few days before there was a ton left). Poof, gone.

 

LOL sounds well not so good.

 

Sam Adams doesn’t need to care about their beer brand anymore because they’re raking in all the money from malternatives now like seltzer and their Twisted Tea line. I’d be really curious actually to know just how much their malternative drinks account for their revenue.

 

From a Bloomberg article on Truly hard seltzer
www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2019-07-22/boston-beer-s-spiked-seltzer-not-sam-adams-drives-sales-boom

 

Anecdotally, I've been hearing from a few different guys who work in our local Sam Adams brewery here in PA that their priority is the malternatives. That could become a positive if they decide to take some of the profit from the malternatives and sink it into making interesting, but possibly not profitable, craft offerings. My hope is that the addition of DFH serves to push SA back into producing interesting beers even if they don't sell the best.

If they were available like they once were, I would buy at least a case of Fezziwig and Noble Pils every year. I am tired of boring offerings like 76 and the lackluster variety packs and the half-hearted IPAs. They don't do those kind of beers well but they do other things very well. They should stay focused on making solid craft styles that are not often produced in these times of super charged hopped-up everything.

 

I agree, they’re in an ideal position to do just that, and it would be a great way to retain relevance. I bet Jim Koch’s dream was to run with eventually with the BMC big boys by making a better product, but I don’t think that’s possible.

 

Why is Sam Adams as a whole not a pass for everyone here in general?

 

I suspect that a fair number of the BA crowd would agree with this sentiment but it is wise to remember that the BA crowd (the Beer Geek segment of the overall craft beer market) is a small segment of the overall craft beer consumer market.

I was camping in Arkansas a couple of years ago and in the nearby city of Hot Springs was a burgeoning craft beer scene (I visited two brewpubs and they produced good beer) but outside of the city when we went to the local supermarket Sam Adams Boston Lager was the best choice. I enjoyed drinking those beers as we toasted marshmallows around the campfire.

A time and place for everything?

Cheers!

 

Not arguing with that. Sam Adams was one of my first beer loves, and their selection of styles in the early 2000s was fantastic. But now, with so many options, they are substandard for almost all of their beers. Possible exceptions for beers that still stand up are the original Boston Lager, Black Lager, Old Fezziwig and not sure about what else.

I simply don't understand how BA'ers still get surprised when they release their fairly crappy seasonal variety packs every season. Between there being so many better choices now, for almost every style they make, and the fact that they don't make the same seasonal packs they used to, let's just collectively leave them to the mainstream.

 

Gives folks something to chat about?

Cheers!

 

Sam Adams is not even close to the company you're imagining them to be in this post.

 

I might have fixed that for you Jack.

 

Because Boston Lager is an outstanding beer.

 

You’ve gone corporate, Sam Adams! You used to be cool, man!

I think it depends on your tastes. I think BL is a strange lager that is somehow both too hoppy and not hoppy enough. I think if we’re talking large-scale major breweries not quite at the macro level, I think Devil’s Backbone makes a far better Vienna Lager.

 

When I first got into craft beer of course being from where I am Yuengling Lager was one of my entry beers. The first time I had a BL I was a little taken aback by how hoppy it was, almost to the point that I didn't like it (but only almost, I did still enjoy it in the end and it opened the door to a few more things). Another beer like this for me was Brooklyn Lager, which has since rebranded itself as a hoppy Amber Lager. But yeah I feel ya here and if you are looking for more traditional/true to style beers, I would not recommend either of these two.

I miss Boston Ale, used to be able to get that easily around me and I did drink it often.

 

They make solid beers when they want to, I just think a lot of folks want them to do more and get some inspiration going so to say. They have sort of hit this coast phase and a lot of people lost interest.

 

That's about the best way to describe it - "a coast phase"

 

You're not giving SA enough credit. Certainly, they've not ever made anything that I would qualify as world--class (maybe Utopias, but I have never had the pleasure of trying it). But, they have made solid examples of several underappreciated styles and they were masters of subtlety by placing creative twists on beers that never got rediculously out of hand (Fezzy is my primary example of this later point).

Basically, they made interesting and flavorful beers that were affordable and could be sessioned.

Not everything consumed by us Beer Advocates needs to be 15% abv and quintuple hopped with multiple varieties of hops that were just harvested 5 minutes before being added to the brew kettle.