Boston Lager

Supposedly, Negra Modelo is a Vienna Lager.

 

Sing It.

It's something about the body that seems lighter than the usual Märzen -- even lighter than the GB Oktoberfest.

 

Boston Lager in the UK is brewed locally, but since the stuff is contract brewed in America anyway I'm guessing what we get is basically the same.

Anyway, this is a beer I like. Certainly tasty and easy to drink. I actually find it quite reminiscent of a British bitter. Maybe it's the dry hopping?

 

According to George Fix it is of a Mexican substyle based on the brewing of Santiago Graf, a little darker than a traditional Vienna.

Disclaimer- I haven't had one in a while, and it wouldn't surprise me if it has lost a bit of its character since Mr. Fix wrote that Vienna/Marzen book.

FWIW- I believe the beer has changed quite a bit since MJ made that observation; it used to have much more of a noble hop presence in the aroma. Plus I think he was using the term in a broader sense: noble hops+lager+some caramel malt character= leaning more Czech Pils than German Pils. I don't think he said it was a Czech Pils.

 

Negra Modelo is a weird one. They're now actually branding it as a dunkel. I've seen officially branded signs declaring it to be a Munich style beer at a Mexican restaurant. Their website was calling it a dunkel not too long ago, too.
I have no idea what the beer's real roots are, but I think of it as an "American Bock," which is pretty much like a dunkel anyway.

 

I never agreed with the vienna thing. It's probably too dark, and doesn't have the hop or malt character. It's an American dark lager/bock, which is really just an american ale lager with something for color, either caramel coloring of a small amount of dark malt. Dunkel might actually be a better description but that's still far from reality.

 

Boston Beer Company now has multiple breweries in the US and doesn't contract anymore for the domestic market as far as I know.

 

They bought the Schoenling-Hudepohl brewery in Cinncinnati, a regional brewery, in 1997.

They bought the Schaeffer Brewery outside Allentown PA in 2008. The brewery was built in the 70's, and was claimed to have a capacity of 4 million bbls when built.

There is also the small brewery in Boston used for R&D.

 

Depends on the bitter, of course. I don't think the hop character you get in Boston Lager is a million miles from what you might get from a load of fuggles or something.

It is made from pale malt, I believe, so that may contribute to the similarity somewhat.

 

After Schaefer's "final phase" on what they called their Lehigh Valley brewery (the brewery opened in 1972, but construction continued for 2 more phases through 1975) their stated capacity was 5m bbl., and after Stroh bought Schaefer they rated it as having a 3.5-4m bbl. capacity in the 1980s. Schaefer's peak production out of the brewery (which was completed just as Schaefer's barrelage started to slide down) was about 3.5m bbl. in 1978 when they were still the 10th largest in the US.

BBC has at various times noted a capacity of 1.6 - 2m bbl. for what they call their "Samuel Adams Pennsylvania Brewery" in Breinigsville, PA (the first figure upon buying the brewery from Diageo, the latter figure after some recent renovations after which they also state as a capacity of "5000 bbl/day"). The differences are probably related to aging time of the different breweries' beers, and, for BBC, the fact that they don't brew "full" 1000 bbl. batches, having resized the kettles for 600-700 bbl. brews. With the amazing growth of the Angry Orchard line (some of which is contracted out to a NY state winery), and the new "Just Beer" beers (out of Cincinnati), they are probably approaching the combined capacity of both OH and PA facilities.

From their 2012 Annual Report:

They have ended the contracts with Miller and Genesee, but it reads as if they still have a current contract to use City facilities (La Crosse and Latrobe, anyway - they don't mention Memphis) if needed.

 

English bitter has had hops from every corner of the globe in it. The Scots have used ship loads of Saaz hops as well.

 

Everyone knows it was the Scots who used the Continental hops in their IPA's.