2019 Samuel Adams Summer Pack

Yeah, me too.

I will not be buying any Sierra Nevada variety packs this year if they stay consistent with their decision to not produce seasonal packs.

Cheers!

 

Quality beer for the money, I view a lot of SA beers as such.

 

That's sad about the warning. Probably means somebody reported the post.

And to keep this on topic I would imagine it is more important then ever to push core lineup beers hence the variety or lack thereof in the summer pack. Or they might just know people like to drink easy drinking beers in the summer.

 

You are probaby right but my sorry ass is stil here. Actually, I think they lightened up. So you are stuck with me at least for awhile.

Gotga say though, I follow your posts. Impressive.

 

Long as it has German hops we're good to go

 

OP, were these cans or bottles? And what's interesting is the website is showing both Summer Ale and Porch Rocker will be stand alone seasonals again this year.

I was a huge fan of SN and SA variety packs (although SA's just kept getting worse over the years IMO) and was a regular buyer but do have to admit that neither seemed to sell very well and there were always a ton laying around until the next one showed up.

 

Not sure "force it down our throats" is accurate - at least for me, if I see a beer in a "variety pack" I don't want to drink (or feel affluent enough to dump into the compost pile), I just don't buy it.

Could be because BBC's "beer" market share is shrinking at the same time the overall US beer market is, and the "macro" styles (AAL, light beer) domestic and imported, though also losing share, still account for 80-85% or so of the market?

Last year, most likely?

Full Year 2018 Summary of Results
Depletions increased approximately 13% from the comparable 52-week period in 2017, reflecting increases in the Company's Truly Hard Seltzer, Twisted Tea and Angry Orchard brands, partially offset by decreases in its Samuel Adams brand.


Shipment volume was approximately 4.3 million barrels, a 13.7% increase from the comparable 52-week period in 2017.

In 2017, the breakdown (according to the B.A.'s estimates) was 3.7M bbl of product of which only 2 million barrels was "beer" - then the above continued growth of the cider/FMB/Seltzers and decreases in SA beers, sure implies it's now over 50-50. It'll come out soon with the publication of the B.A.'s NEW BREWER annual list and the 2018 BBC Annual Report.

Had it once, decades ago when a music venue said they had "Sam Adams" and I was handed one of them (but when I was quite familiar with the lager styles then available) and thought its lemon zest and Grains of Paradise* just made it it taste like the aroma of deodorant urinal cakes.

And "Grains of Paradise" - goddam, I thought those were illegal beer additives in Massachusetts!

 

(Sorry, still new at this).
Thanks to Google, I could check out Grains of Paradise (Aframomum melegueta) and it's apparently considered a kind of drug in West Africa. Perhaps the state was responding to its misuse in patent medicines?

 

Rumors, urban legends and, (maybe even?) factual reports of brewers using all sorts of ingredient dodged the industry in the US from the beginning all the way until, well, today (see "Babe, Food" ). The same situation existed in Great Britain.

In 1835, for instance, the New York State Assembly sent a questionnaire to all Albany-area (the major US brewing center at the time) brewers which included this question.

Lots of mentions of brewers using "aloes", and/or other bittering materials in place of hops, due to crop shortages and/or price increases over the decades. Hop farmers were particularly interested in this rumor, since as the 19th century progressed brewers bought less and less of their hops. The brewing industry admitted they weren't using substitutes, they just lowered the hopping rate of their beers.

And a certain percentage of beer drinkers (and some brewers) even back then also considered using corn or any adjunct "adulterated" beer. There was even an 1890 bill proposed in Congress to create what would essentially been an American Reinheitsgebot, with all adjunct beers having to be labeled "Adulterated".

Or, as Adolphus Busch, put it:

Continued on to the turn of the century, resulting a number of Congressional hearings on "Pure Beer" in 1900-up to Prohibition (one of which resulted in the Busch quote above).

Additionally, lots of stories in the past about breweries using bad water or finding drown rats in the bottom of fermentation or lagering tanks after emptying.

__________

One of my favorite government health departments' examinations of beers in that period found that many bottled beers, especially in the warmer months, used "Salicylic Acid" as a preservative.

*"Salicylic Acid" ? Yeah, whatever that is..." I thought when I came across it.

A few days later, I pull out a container of foot powder and saw "Salicylic Acid" as one of the ingredients.

"Must be OK to use on your feet - they used to put it in beer!"

 

I have yet to brew with Grain of Paradise but I do have some since I once apparently accidentally selected it when ordering homebrewing supplies online.

Below is a description:

“Paradise Seeds add a peppery zing, and a hint of citrus and pine aromas to your beer. Use sparingly…”

https://www.love2brew.com/Paradise-Seeds-p/fa014.htm

Maybe the aspect of “artificial lemon” that you are perceiving is from this spice addition?

Cheers!

 

I would not buy this mixer. I do not like 76, despite it having no real flaws. I love Boston Lager. I loathe their Summer Ale and I don't do Radlers.

 

Lately they have also been putting out can packs with three beers and sometimes a few of those can be unique so maybe we will still get lucky? I am totally lost on this pack, though, and outside of BBQs it would have been a no brainer to put these in cans for beach use...that would have made a lot of sense to me for this lineup, as I don't think it's a bad one if you are looking for something that has a beer for just about anyone.

 

Well never mind the can pack is '76, Summer Ale and Porch Rocker, I am totally lost on this year's selections.

https://www.samueladams.com/our-beers/limited-release/variety-pack/summer-can-mix-pack