Samuel Adams Winter Classics Variety (2015)

Boston Lager's a winter classic?

 

Right on Brother - Winter Lager is just plain B A D !

 

Exactly - its the "main stream" brew so really, why is it included in the specialty package??

 

Excellent. I skipped it last year, but this year I'll be back and these beers will be once again part of my Christmas Eve family party, not that anyone here cares. But just saying.

 

I will buy the hell out of this.

Wish they'd bring back Black and Brew though. SA needs a stout.

 

Old fezzewig is tit

 

Forgot about that one, was a damn solid beer.

 

Glad to see chocolate bock as I have only had the cherry chocolate, but damn I wish I could buy a 12 pack of just old fezziwig!

 

I looked it up on BA and someone already put the beer on here. It has no reviews or info, but the style is listed as biere de champagne/biere brut with an abv of 4.8%, which seems pretty low for the style. I've never had that style of beer. If it's good this could be the best Winter sampler they've put out in a quite a while.

 

I love that its six different beers at 2 each. that's perfect to me for what a variety pack is supposed to be. Would pick this up with SN Snowpack in a few weeks.

 

Glad to see mostly love on this thread, and the little hate that had been expressed here is mostly pure crap. Still trying to understand why Sam Adams receives so much hate. Guess you can only make one style of beer well to be considered "craft" these days lol.

 

White Christmas hit shelves in NE Ohio this week in 6 pks. That's a solid winter brew, will definitely grab a few.

 

It's a wonderful life after all!

 

I will miss White Christmas! I think that is an underrated beer! But I am looking forward to the Old Fezziwig as always.

 

I'm surprised to see white Christmas getting some praise here. Is it not as bad as most of Sam Adams wheat beers?

 

I've been a pretty big critic of Sam Adams this past year since they first decided in Fall 2014 to do this insane thing where there's only 4 beers in the 12 packs instead of 6, and it looks like people who bitched like me may have finally convinced their marketing that we wanted variety over quantity (especially when we are forced with 4 bottles of crap like Cold Snap or Rebel Rider). For a number of reasons, I am extremely happy, and I'll list some out:

1.) This is nearly the best variety pack I've seen in years, really with my only minor complaint that Black and Brew should be here over Sparkling Ale (but who knows, that one could turn out to be very good). Chocolate Bock making a pleasant return after 2 years of horrible cherry chocolate bock, the solid idea to bring back Holiday Porter and the annual Fezziwig Ale. With the fan service as of late (including the pleasant appearance of creamstout and dunkleweizen in the fall pack), it makes me hopeful we'll get scotch ale and maple pecan porter in the spring pack.

2.) The return to 6 varieties means our voices were heard. I'm sure I'm not the only person who was upset with SA suddenly made it so you only got 6 varieties in the 24pks, and our cries have been heard. Variety in smaller quantities is what we want. It means maybe this brewing giant is trying. I'm hopeful this will be the new norm.

I know it's silly for me to go on about these packs, but I really used to look forward to buckling down with a 12 pack and trying all sorts of beer without having to buy 6 different 6pks. The 4 variety format was sickening to me, and I ceased to buy them for the 5 seasons they did it, and am very happy they've switched back.

 

Interesting that there's been so many positive comments about White Christmas in this thread -- I remember last year it was mostly people talking about it as if it was awful and how the presence of four of them in the variety pack made them not want the pack at all. I never ended up trying it, but it didn't sound bad from the descriptions I heard, so... I dunno.

On a more on-topic note, I will definitely try to pick up one of these when it comes around. I already know I like Boston Lager (but have been wanting to go back and have it again sometime) and I've heard good things about Old Fezziwig, Chocolate Bock, and Holiday Porter. No idea what the Sparkling Ale is going to be (name isn't exactly the most descriptive, heh) but I suppose it'll be the "lighter and bubblier" member of the variety pack along with all the dark-and-sweet sorts of beers that are in there.

 

"Sparkling Ale" is a traditional US style that dates from the late 19th century pre-Prohibition era, when ale brewers designed a beer to mimic some of the characteristics of the lighter (lower abv), highly-carbonated lager beers that had grown in popularity. Sometimes called "brilliant ale" and similar to (some brewing historians claim essentially the same as) "cream ale".

Wahl & Henius in their American Handy Book of Brewing... called it "...a beer that combines the properties of lager beer and ale, i.e., a sparkling, brilliant beer with an ale taste and aroma,” noting that (at the time)it was typically 70-75% malt with corn or sugar as an adjunct and 1-1.5 pounds of hops per barrel. Several brewers offered Sparkling Ale as part of their portfolio in the post-Repeal era, as well, such as West End (circa late 1930s, below- now F. X. Matt) which was still brewing a draught-only version into the 1970s.


Not to be confused with the Australian Cooper's Sparkling Ale. And, obviously, US cream ales of the pre-Pro era were much hoppier than the current US adjunct cream ales (exemplified by Genesee's). The post-Repeal sparkling ales, like other US beers, probably had lower IBUs than previous versions.

That sounds like a mistake, based on the scant info on the label for the beer. Of course, Boston Beer Co. is not particularly noted for adherence to traditional style criteria or naming conventions (see their "Stock Ale" and "Cranberry Lambic").

 

old fezziwig is my holiday glug