Boston Lager Remastered

Thank you for your replies. Checking my review and your responses, sweetness was reflected a few times in my review (Smelled of sugar.... Sweet tasting beer led off the taste comments). I try to rate to style, I prefer a more balanced offering, and this one was too sweet for my taste, or for the style, IMO. NEIPAs and Pastry Stouts seem to be the two most popular beers these days.

For the other beer's I tried, their session IPA had bolder tastes for my palate, within the style and overall compared to their standard lager or winter ale, their wheat ale had minimal aroma or taste.

I too would be interested in recent SA Octobefest sales, though it is clear both in this US Centric site and RateBeer, a more European centric website, Sam Adam's version is the clear cumulative leader (2.79 X the ratings count of Ayinger's here, a near 2 to 1 lead there).

Beer Advocate Top Three Octoberfest beers by rating count
Samuel Adams Octoberfest 8,003 (3.68)
Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen 2,863 (4.03)
Spaten Oktoberfestbier Ur-Marzen 2,774 (3.64)

Rate Beer
Samuel Adams Octoberfest 3,411 (3.30)
Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen 1,742 (3.66)
Spaten Oktoberfestbier Ur-Marzen 1,668 (3.35)

 

Nah, I was in the US. It may be two years ago (vintages get fuzzy in my head), but there was a year (2018 or 2019, not earlier) in which the beers were pretty similar. Most people I know that had both and is into beers (a sample of ~20) thought they were pretty similar too. I remember some people in this site sharing the same impression, although I don't care enough to go back and check.

 

If it helps with the sales part, Sam's Octoberfest is the most popular beer on Untappd (with pretty good distance) during the stretch (Aug-Oct) is available. A lot of people like it, although probably rates lower with the people in this site.

 

I went to Dalwhinnie on my honeymoon a couple years ago (to lift the Dalwhinnie Stone, not necessarily for the whisky). But actually did a tasting (before lifting the stone....I think it gave me strength). I generally found them to be fairly light (though I'm no expert). We picked up a bottle of Lizzie's Dram, which my wife liked best.

 

I was in Germany as a brat from 83-88 and also remember the ration cards for coffee and cigarettes. I had a couple friends get sent back to the states for getting caught selling levis and chuck taylors on the black market.

 

This is what sucks bad about the craft beer industry. The constant attempt to boost sales. Simply altering it will get people to buy it just to see how it's changed. And it's sad. But at least they're not going the Stone route and getting rid of it altogether like Stone did with almost every beer that made them great. Still, I love Boston Lager and the variety packs are always a regular buy for me. If it's noticeably different I won't buy them anymore. Don't mess with perfection.

 

This thread motivated me to check the dates on some Boston Lager when I was grocery shopping today. Enjoy before Jan 2021. Pretty fresh, so I grabbed a six. I haven’t had this beer in years, and am glad I picked it up! It was indeed hoppier than I expected as some others have noted. This was one of my favorite early craft beers, and for whatever reason I just stopped buying it. Happy to give it one last go before the update.

 

Interesting news on Sam Adams Lager. I had my first Sam Adams in 1985 while on a job interview in Boston. It was at the Black Rose, same bar that I met my wife in! It was delicious then and had tons of noble hop flavors. The entire time I lived in New England, Sam Adams was a delicious lager beer and I always had some in my beer cellar. I stopped drinking Sam Adams largely because of the tremendous selection of beers we now have today, however, I did notice it lost its delicious noble hop flavor over time. Not sure if it was just me or they could not make the same beer as they ramped up production in their larger breweries. What ever Jim Koch decides to do with this beer, I hope he brings back that delicious hop flavor profile I enjoyed so many many times!

 

In 1985, all Samuel Adams Boston Lager was coming out of Pittsburgh Brewing Co. (Iron City), a 1.25 million barrel capacity brewery, brewed in 200-300 bbl. batches. The company did not start brewing in Boston until 1988.

 

It's here.

(at least in NYS)

The new version is the bottle on the right. Note the "remastered" indication on the neck. Had these two in a blind side-by-side. The remastered one had a March 2021 best by date. Feb 2021 for the non-remastered. Since there's no day of the month, these beers could be anywhere from a few days apart in age or nearly two months. Regardless, this is as close as I'll get in terms of bottle age without driving to another state. Any differences I got with these beers could have been intensified by age differences. Nonetheless, I feel like the differences were large enough that age wasn't the only factor here.

For people wondering if the new version would be a hoppier beer, well, it certainly came across that way. The hops jumped out of the newer one. To me, that beer had a stronger herbal, vegetal, cabage, orange, lemon character. The older beer felt like it had a fuller body, but this could very well be a case of my perceptions playing a trick on me due to the more hop-forward newer beer. What I felt like was a fuller bodied beer could really have just been a difference in the internal balance.

That sums up my first impression. Between the two, I enjoyed the balance of the older bottle more. The particular mix of flavors from the hops in the newer beer was unappealing to me. I could see somebody else having the exact opposite preference. Don't let my take sway anybody before they have it for themselves. The "remastered' beer was a bolder beer. It will be interesting to see if some people feel like the newer beer takes them back to the SABL of years ago or points to the present beer landscape instead.

@TongoRad
@JackHorzempa

 

Cabbage?

 

I thought @nc41 would comment about that, but you beat him to it.
I should add that I get "cabbage" a lot with beers. Particularly IPAs and Pilsners. Just consider it an idiosyncrasy on my end rather than a universal condemnation. I considered not even mentioning it.

 

Maybe your perception of DMS?

But if you taste it, you should mention it.

 

Well, in fairness you listed "cabage" so maybe something altogether different!?!

Cheers!

 

I really doubt it. It's not as removed from normal hop contributions as it first sounds. I get various "leafy green" flavors from hops. This is just one of them. I guess it's a flavor that others don't ordinarily use in that context. They're probably more focused on the differences between mango and papaya.

That's right. I meant cribbage.

 

Hmm. Is that note on the bottle neck all there is?
It is interesting that BBC decided to minimize any indication that the beer has been, er, re-mastered. Any consumer is most likely not going to notice the subtle tag on the bottle neck and probably wouldn't care anyway. But it does seem like a very small announcement considering their intent.

Then again, I just notified a client that the beer they had been selling as Modelo Especial, for a week, was in fact Dos Equis Lager. I am pretty much 100% certain not a single patron noticed. I certainly wouldn't
Cheers

 

Not sure how it was released overall, but there's a big statement signed by Jim Koch in the first post of this thread.

 

I should have taken a picture of the six pack cardboard carrier, but I didn't unfortunately. I think there was an obvious indication across the top of it. My memory could be wrong. It's been a long 24 hours.

 

BBC also stamps their cases and 12-packs with a 3-digit Day of the Year bottling date. after their "Enjoy Before" date. So, below the beers were bottled on the 354th (Dec. 19) and 54th (Feb. 23) day of the year.

I think that code, minus the Enjoy Before Month/Year, is also stamped directly on the bottles (on the glass near the shoulder IIRC).

I get what I call a "sauerkraut" note sometimes - the one I recall the most was a glass of draught Carton Boat Beer. When the bartender asked me if I wanted another, I mentioned it to her. She replied, "It ALWAYS tastes like sauerkraut to me..." (I also got it once in another Carton beer - can't remember which one - I think it some sort of collaboration and might have even been brewed at the other brewer's facility?)

 

Mostly imported beers, St Pauli Girl, Heineken, can sometimes be heavily skunked, and it’s cabbage. It stinks. I’ve got some lighter whiffs with Pils Urquell, some Mexican beers, funny enough never with an American beer, never with an ipa. I’ve had bad beers made here like drain pour bad, but cabbage wasn’t the nose of it. I’ve had it so bad in some beers you’d swear I was boiling cabbage on the stove. It’s as bad as Soy in stouts, that smell make me ill as well.