Feedback for Samuel Adams (Fall Variety Pack)...

Most people don't recognize "seasonal" beer outside of stuff that is very obviously branded as such. This one has a beer called "Octoberfest" in it, so boom, it's a fall mix pack as far as the vast majority of people are concerned. Probably the only way for it to read as more fall themed to most folks would be to include a pumpkin beer as well, so be careful what you wish for.

I suspect that most people who buy these things are primarily looking at brand, packaging format, and price anyway.

 

The only thing I can think of is that this is driven more by the acquisition of Dogfish than anything else. They could be using the SA brand as more of a mainstream craft beer brand (even more than before) and then look to use the Dogfish brand as more of the BA craft beer brand. Let's face it no matter what SA put out how many BA drinkers are really going to try it? Dogfish on the other hand I think has more of a chance for a BA drinker to go towards. Increase production and decrease costs at Dogfish using SA's experience and leverage while lowering Dogfish head prices closer to traditional SA offerings?

Take 76 for instance, I don't think its as bad of a beer as people make it out to be on here. Would people think differently of it if it had been produced by Dogfish? That being said I don't think it belongs in a Fall mix pack, at least not when 3 out of the 4 beers are not even remotely fall. 76 might be good in a summer or spring pack but not fall or winter IMHO.

If SA goes 100% mainstream and Dogfish just continues what they are doing but at larger scale and lower cost you can certainly gear your marketing more appropriately as long as the market share you lose at SA goes to Dogfish and market share you gain at SA is from the macro beer market.

 

Boston Beer Company is pretty tone deaf as a company. Maybe with the DFH acquisition they'll consider listening their consumer base a little more but I'm not gonna hold my breath.

The "new" labels are absolutely hideous, too. What happened to smiling Samuel Adams proudly lifting a tankard? What did he do to deserve the sack?

 

The other explanation/guess as posted by @Beer_Stan of:

"That may sound harsh but they've been using these packs to bleed out dying inventory for a long time and too many times I've found beers within that were close to their best by date not in alignment with the rest of the dates of the other beers."

Maybe some BA who has purchased one of these packs (e.g., @Alefflicted) can provide some input here as to whether some of the brands in the pack (e.g., BL, 76) are older than the other brands (e.g., Octoberfest, the sour beer).

Cheers!

 

Younger beer drinkers do not want to buy beers that exalt an old white guy?¯\_(ツ)_/¯


Cheers!

 

Sam Adams was serving some of their more interesting beers at the National Homebrewers Conference in June and I complained to the guy about the lack of availability of Old Fezziwig as a standalone 6 pack and he replied that he had heard that they will be sold that way this winter. Of course, I loved this beer like 10 years ago and it probably won't be as good as I remember. But maybe it just takes them a while to respond to customer feedback.

 

I missed that post. That's really disappointing given that SA have had Best Buy dates since as far back as I can remember (early 90's). Before that I never thought of beer freshness being important, we treated it like we treated any alcohol before that. To me it says they don't really care at all anymore.

 

If I had a dollar for every time (over the past decade+) I had this conversation with a BBC employee...

I truly hope this is the case but I will believe it when I see it.

FWIW I think this beer is the 'perfect' Holiday/spiced beer. It is not a beer that I want to consume a lot of but a 6-pack (or two) in the December time-frame would be 'perfect'.

Cheers to you for obtaining this information!!

 

Well, I want to caution a few things:

• It is just a theory that they use variety packs to get rid of old(er) product. We should await input from BAs who purchase this pack.
• I suspect that the old(er) brands are still within the best by time-frame (e.g., good until the end of October say). Technically these beers are still 'good' but just not as fresh as the Octoberfest brand which will likely be notched 'good' until the end of December or January.

Cheers!

 

Ah yes. The archetypal 'evil old white man'. How could I forget about him? Case closed.

 

I wish that I could forget. I guess I am reading/watching too much contemporary news!?!

Cheers!

 

He's still on the bottle! Ease up on the outrage culture, bro.

 

LOL I really didn't mean for my reply to come across as outraged. I was poking fun at a tired caricature. Put the knife down, sir.

EDIT: Unless you're an evil old white man yourself...in that case, call off your bumbling henchmen, sir.

EDIT #2: Also, where the hell is he on the bottle? Last I checked he was nowhere to be found....maybe they cut off half his face or something and plastered him on the edge of the label, upside down in UV-sensitive ink?

 

His face is still there but 'minimized' (kinda in the background).

Maybe this was deemed to be a compromise solution? He is still there so the old white guys can't complain? 'Minimized' into the background so the younger beer drinkers are incapable of seeing him?

Marketing at it's 'finest'?

 

The decline of the Sam Adams variety packs is especially egregious for me since during my formative years they were so prevalent in terms of introducing me to styles I hadn't tried before and were simply much higher quality than the current ones. One especial pack that I remember with fondness was the '08 Winter Pack, which included Winter Lager, Cream Stout, Old Fezziwig, Holiday Porter, and the Cranberry Lambic. 6 fine quality beers perfect for Winter and with the better style of label artwork too. I find it very difficult to understand why they are so lackluster now...I'm assuming financially they sell better? But I don't see how. Most people would bust down the doors if they returned to the '08 lineup this winter (or even better, sold Old Fezziwig in 6-packs).

 

Yes, you did. Utterly ridiculous. It's quite possibly the least-interesting beer they've ever done. It tastes like a blend of Boston Lager and some generic kettle sour. I don't really get any appreciable funk, despite the allusion to their Kosmic Mother Funk yeast culture. (I never had KMF or its variants when it was available in bombers, but I assume it actually tasted like something interesting since they were marketing it as a premium beer...)

 

I mean, I guess I can (barley) see the statue of him, sure. I miss the classic artists rendition of him hoisting a tankard proudly. Can't please everybody, I guess.

This is exactly why I say they're tone deaf as a company. I've reached out to them several times over the years over things like:

• Noble Pils
• Alpine Spring
• Double Bock
  
• Latitude 48 De-Constructed 12 packs (that cool single hop series they did a while ago)
• A bunch of other shit I can't remember

All were met with the same canned answer along the lines of "Thanks for reaching out. Unfortunately Product X was discontinued, but you never know if they might make a comeback!". I mean, I'm not expecitng them to promise anything but so far I haven't seen a damn thing that shows me that they listen to their customers. Pretty sure those emails go straight into the recycle bin.

EDIT: Actually, they did re-formulate Summer Ale like I was hoping they'd do about 8 or 9 years ago. Unfortunately "re-formulating" it means they added even more lemon/citrus flavor, which was pretty much the opposite I was asking for. Most people hate it even more now (I haven't tried it, personally). I guess this kinda underscores my point. Tone deaf.

 

I heard the Feds made them downplay the image of ol' Sam - the fact that he kept getting younger as the years went by was interpreted by the TTB officials as BBC making illegal health claims "Not so ol' Sam", as it were.

 

Hahaha, I never noticed this. Thanks

As I posted back in 2016, they should've just stuck with those 25th anniversary labels. They were perfect.




EDIT: Yeah, I know...I'm wearing nostalgia glasses; but the Summer Ale labels were 1000x better than they are now IMO.