#178 Sam Adams - Cranberry Lambic

Another Sam Adam's beer. This beer was originally distributed as a Christmas seasonal. I found it as a single bottle at a local store a while ago. I normally don't write glowing reviews of Sam Adams but I would like to point out their recent Hop Sharing Program. Boston Beer Company the brewery that brews Sam Adams is selling (sharing) 20,000 pounds of hops to other microbrewerys at cost. This is a very generous action during the current hop shortage.

This beer has a light fruit juice aroma, but it is not over powering. The color has a light red hue, but is mainly brown. The foam starts mild but quickly fizzes away to almost nothing.

The beer has a fruity taste, mixed with a little grain flavor. The taste is slightly sour, but not near as sour as a true lambic. The mouthfeel is thin. And the finish is lightly fruity.

This is an ok beer. Again Sam Adam's plays it safe and uses yeast with lambic characteristics instead of true open fermentation, and keeps the over all sourness very low. This is a drinkable beer with some fruity taste. Sam Adams does a good job making a craft beer for the non-craft beer drinker.

#177 Sam Adams - Longshot Grape Pale Ale

This Long shot winner was Brewed by Lili Hess from Hawaii a Sam Adam employee. Sam Adams is proud to have employees that are homebrewers and had a special employee section of the Long Shot competition. This beer is brewed with natural grape flavors and maple syrup added.

There is a slight grape juice mixed with hops aroma to this beer. The color is reddish amber, and very clear. The head is thick and while with only a little retention.

The taste sweet with a mix of flavors making the sweetness. There is a maple syrup taste along with some light malt bring the sweet taste to the beer. The grape aroma isn't present in the taste. The mouthfeel is thin and drinkable. The finish is really where the maple taste lingers until it is no longer enjoyable.

This is a strange mixture of beer ingredients. It is almost like Lili Hess walked around the store looking for fermentables to add to beer. This isn't bad, but it's not very good either.

#175 Alandale - Porter

I had this beer at Alandale a local brewpub. I'm behind on this blog post.

The beer had a malty roasty smell with a hint of bubblegum aroma. The color is an opaque black, with only a slight head.

The taste is very malty with some roasted coffee flavors. The hops taste and bitterness is slight but present though all the malt. The finish is dry with some bitterness.

I really liked this beer, it was a good porter.

#176 Sam Adams - Longshot Weizenbock

Sam Adams hold a yearly competition called "Long Shot". It is a large advertised national homebrew competition. The winners beer gets made by Sam Adam and sold in the seasonal Long Shot packaging.

This beer's aroma has a clove spice aroma with a light malt note. The appearance is dark brown and hazy. The head is very thick with the initial pour filling the glass almost to the top.

This beer has a slight bubble gum sweet taste. The taste also has a pronounced clove flavor that is blending with the sweetness. The mouthfeel is thin and smooth. The finish is clean with just a light clove taste remaining.

This is a nice straight, tasty beer. Nothing too complex going on, but still a nice taste. I am not very familiar with this style of beer, but I will keep an eye out for others if they taste this good.

#174 He'Brew - Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A.

This beer is named after the Jewish comedian Lenny Bruce renown for his being one of the first comics to be obscene. The name R.I.P.A means Rye Indian Pale Ale, an IPA made with some Rye malt.

There is a lot of hops in the aroma of this beer, with strong pineapple and orange smells. The color is a light red or crimson and clear. The head is very thick, threating to overflow when the beer is poured, and has good retention.

The taste starts sweet and hoppy. There is strong citrus notes to the hops. The sweet taste carries a caramel flavor that transitions into some alcohol warming. The mouthfeel is very smooth from the rye in the beer. The finish is malty with some slight bitterness, and a touch harshness from the alcohol.

This is a really good beer. I like the smooth mouthfeel from the rye along with the hops flavors. This harsh finish is surprising, but forgivable because the rest of the beer is so good.

#173 J.W. Lees- Harvest 2000

This is another J.W Lees, this time from the year 2000 and not aged in any cask.

The main aroma from this beer is raisins, maybe a little tart smell but mostly raisins. The color is a dark brown that can barely be seen through. There is a light foam to this beer, slightly covering the top.

The taste is sweet with malty characteristics. The most pronounced flavor is raisins as found in the aroma, and there is a subtle roasted flavor. The mouthfeel is medium light without any carbonation. The finish is sweet with a lingering raisin taste.

This is beer is a little to sweet for my taste. I would guess this is the same beer as the other J.W. Lees Harvest just without the cask again. The cask aging is missed in this beer. For a 8 year old beer this is perfectly drinkable.

#172 He'Brew - Genesis 10:10

Another seasonal beer form Shmaltz (He'Brew) brewery. This one is from 2006. Shmaltz has a great poster advertising the beer. This doesn't have 10 different malts and hops like the celebration 11, but it has plenty of ingredients.

This beer has a strong hoppy smell with a pronounced pine aroma. The aroma of this beer also has plenty of malt aroma. The color of this beer is orange and hazy. The head on this beer is very thick and sticky, large pieces of foam are stuck on the side of the glass as the beer goes down.

This is beer has a lot of taste. The taste starts sweet with caramel notes. There is also a strong hop flavor coming across with citrus and pine notes. The strong malt sweetness and strong hop flavors are balanced in strength. The mouthfeel is on the thick side and very smooth. The finish is hoppy, not bitter but hoppy.

This is a great beer. Lots of flavors both hops and malts.