Sam Adams Downtime Pilsner

Tettnang Keller Pils sounds awesome! Love to try it.

I actually work in West Hartford one day per week. I see there's a Total Wine about 10 miles away. I'll have to find the time to get there. Thank you.

 

SN Nooner is significantly better if the ones I bought so far are good representations of the offering.

 

I have not had this, but my local does carry it. Has Urban Chestnut's Zwickel hit RI? That may be favorite new beer of 2015.

Where on draft did you have this beer in Boston?

 

I had it at Stoddard's on Friday night. That was a good place to hit as my friend and I pre-gamed for a show at the Orpheum.

Urban Chestnut's Zwickel does not make it to RI. That beer, however, was what started my fascination with Zwickel. A fellow BA sent me one as an extra back when I traded. Absolutely loved that beer. I very much want to drink multiple litres of the stuff.

 

Quite likely. It is a brand we worked with the brewery in Germany to have imported so we can carry it.

 

Speaking of Samuel Adams Noble Pils, it appears the beer is going to be re-released based on a recent TTB COLA dated 11/19/2015. The B&W label seems to be one in a series which will include a Double Pilsner and a Dark Lager, which, I guess (unfortunately) could mean the beer will only be sold in a variety 12-pack?

 

A variety pack with a double pilsner and a dark lager? Hmm, I wonder if this will mean they're resurrecting their Hallertau Imperial Pilsner and Black Lager? If so, that's a damn fine variety pack if you toss in Noble Pils.

 

Based on the ABV alone, it doesn't look like it is the exact same recipe - Hallertau IP was 8.1% and this Double Pilsner is 8.6%.

 

Could we be so bold as to hope that the variety pack will be entirely lagers?? I'd definitely snap one of those up.

 

Well, I'll hang my hat on their abbreviated history of hoppy pilsners and the fact that the back of the label says "History in the Hallertau". Their Double Agent IPL (awful name) was good enough for an IPL, and their Hallertau Imperial Pilsner of old was a home run from what I remember.

Unlike their extensive history with wheat beers (no matter the style)...which in my opinion has been horrid.

 

JH - I've noticed this trend anecdotaly; glad you checked it out and confirmed my impression.

 

It's probably the same one as last year, which was also 8.6%


It was a fairly nice beer, iirc, but could have benefited from being drier.

 

The Adventures in Lager pack? It was impossible to get a hold of my area unfortunately (the places that got it sold out very quickly) and if they do that again, and it looks like they just may from what I am seeing above, they need to make the pack more widely available.

 

Yeah, I think they did screw the pooch on a number of levels with that one and the availability was strangely low and disproportionate for a SA product. Total Wine seemed to have gotten a huge amount in my area, but no other place had even a whiff of it. Not too many other reports on BA, either. Hopefully they make up for that mistake with the new one.

 

Michael, it would not surprise me that Sam Adams made a limited amount of this lager variety pack since for the majority of beer geeks lagers are not popular.

It will be interesting to see if they make a differing decision on this upcoming release.

Cheers!

 

Finally tried it today. I think it might be a good "gateway beer" for some folks into craft beer.

I have a strong preference for Noble Pils and I'm upset it isn't available at the moment.

This beer doesn't fit well into my fridge either. If I'm going for an American pils it's going to be Victory Prima Pils and Firestone Walker Pivo. If I'm going for something less hoppy then I'm going to go German and just pay up for Weihenstephaner, or maybe a Spaten. PU is always there too.

 

A "glass half full" way of looking at it is, if you can't find the latter fresh (often the case with imports) and you have a hankering for less hoppy pilsners, this might be another option.

 

They definitely won't sell as much as their regular variety packs, but I was referring to how truly 'limited' the last release was. See this post by someone who works at the brewery, from last year:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...lager-variety-pack.201185/page-3#post-2829429

Not that many cases made, and from reading the thread, they mostly went to big chains like Total Wine and Costco. It just seems to have been haphazardly planned- no way of generating any sort of buzz like that.

With this one I just hope that it is spread out more for everyone's sake.

 

I concur with that sentiment.

It will be interesting to see if Boston Beer Company treats this release in a more generous manner. Lagers just are not the most popular beer type among the beer geek market.

If somebody told me just 3-4 years ago that Boston Beer Company would produce multiple versions of hoppy beers (e.g., Rebel IPA, Rebel Cascade, Rebel Grapefruit, Raw Double, Rebel Rider, Rebel Rouser, ...) I would say to them: you are crazy.

I suppose we could view the amount of this next lager variety release as indication of how serious Boston Beer Company is committed to lagers in their product portfolio?

Cheers!

 

I saw a six pack today of Downtime Pilsner, bottled November 1st. It appears it's year round if it's being bottled at this time. I'm not sure if it's around to stay or not, seems odd there was no advertising at all for this beer. I get their e-mails and I don't recall them mentioning this beer going year round.