Tag: jim koch

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SPRING BREWS FROM DESCHUTES AND SAMUEL ADAMS … AND AN ODE TO BOSTON LAGER

SPRING BREWS FROM DESCHUTES AND SAMUEL ADAMS … AND AN ODE TO BOSTON LAGER

 

Although winter still has some punch left, this is the time of year when most breweries release their warm weather brews. These spring/summer beers typically sport a lighter, more approachable style. However, for me, their “drinkability” usually comes at the price of flavor interest. While, this style of beer generally isn’t my favorite, I have to admit the new releases from Deschutes and Samuel Adams are certainly “drinkable” and worth a taste.

 

 

Deschutes “River Ale” likely qualifies as a ”session ale,” with its low 4% ABV.

There is a good balance of malt and hop (a relatively modest 28 IBUs).

It opens with malty aromas, accented with a light lemony, hoppy bitterness followed by a similar flavor profile.

 

Samuel Adams “White Lantern” is a Belgian-style white ale, with added tangerine and orange peel, coriander and

Grains of Paradise (this is typical of traditional Belgian ales to have added spices and other flavorings). With a higher but still relatively moderate 5.5% ABV, this unfiltered potion offers citrus, bread, caramel, and lemongrass aromas. The flavor profile is similar but a bit toastier, with a touch of hoppy bitterness, despite the very low 10 IBUs.

 

Sam Adams “Double Agent IPL” is an altogether different creation. Note the “IPL,” as in India Pale Lager. Here we have a successful attempt to combine the hoppiness of an IPA and the subtle maltiness of a lager. Again we’re talking a modest 5.0% ABV but with a somewhat higher 43 IBU.

I liked the white pepper and grapefruit in the nose. I found the palate quite intriguing with a light hoppy bitterness and a hint of citrus built on an oat-like foundation.

 

 

I also want to take this opportunity to ruminate a bit on Samuel Adams Boston Lager. This iconic craft beer, now almost 30 years old, is easy for craft beer lovers to dismiss. Certainly, when it was introduced to American beer drinkers in 1984, it was a breath of fresh air, even a revelation, at least to this flavor starved beer drinking palate. At that time, I think the only other craft beer with which I was familiar was Anchor Steam Beer. Otherwise, my search for character meant trying different imports.

Boston Lager has always seemed to me to taste more like an ale than a lager. Maybe it’s because coming of age in the 1970’s, my experience with lagers was the typical American mass produced beer. Regardless of the proper style definition, Boston Lager’s hoppy character (from high quality Hallertau, Mittelfrueh and Tettnang Noble hops) seems fairly pronounced (even at 30 IBUs) but it is balanced nicely with creamy malts (a two-row pale barley malt blend and Caramel 60).

 

Jim Koch’s first commercial brew exhibits a bit of spicy citrus and pine qualities in the nose. The palate presents with good bite (even though it only provides a modest 4.9 % ABV) balanced with a pleasant creaminess. The beer finishes with citrus and caramel notes.

 

It seems obligatory for many craft beer advocates to downplay beers like Boston Lager that have been around a long time and are produced in relatively large quantities (at least by craft beer standards). Everyone is looking for the next “new thing” or “extreme beer.” And the Boston Beer Company has its fair share of those. But they deserve a lot of credit for maintaining the high quality of Samuel Adams Boston Lager, even as production has increased.

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Sam Adams Promotes Food and Beer Pairing and “Extreme Beer”

I know the subtitle to this website is “ Wine, Food, Travel” but even wine journalists don’t live by wine alone. I, for one, love beer, too. And I even like to write about it whenever I can. Hence, this month’s posting is all about beer.

Food and Beer Pairing
It’s become arguably the biggest trend in beer (at least craft beer) to promote serious beer and food matching – and I don’t mean wings and burgers. Food and beer matching ideas are cropping up all over the craft beer industry, with the most notable example being the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver this past October. There were pairing demos in the Beer & Food Pavilion and they even had available a beer and food matching chart that list 28 styles of beer along with suggested foods. For more info, check out www.beertown.org.

But the Boston Beer Company, maker of Sam Adams, and specifically Jim Koch, the company’s founder, has been in the forefront of this movement. This shouldn’t be a surprise, as Koch and Sam Adams have been beer innovators since the company’s founding in 1984.now Koch and his company are pushing for beer lovers and would be beer lovers to think about beer (at least some of the time) the way wine drinkers think about wine – as a natural accompaniment to food.

Koch even has promoted this idea in the heart of wine drinker territory – the Food & Wine Magazine Classic at Aspen. In recent years, Koch has hosted lunches at the Classic with food prepared by culinary luminaries, such as chefs Todd English and David Burke.

Sam Adams also has promoted beer and food pairing at the GABF this year. At a dinner at Rioja restaurant in Denver’s Larimer Square drove the point home. How about appetizers including apple beignet, foie gras Napoleon, cinnamon range gastrique and seared duck breast washed down with Sam Adams Winter Lager? Or an entrée of beef filet, seared scallops and caramelized onion with Sam Adams Boston Lager? Dessert, a hazelnut brown butter tart, was accompanied by Sam Adams Cram Stout.

Even for a wine journalist like me, the beer and food pairings seemed every bit as natural as they were revealing.

Extreme Beer?
That’s what Jim Koch calls it. I mentioned above that he and his company are beer innovators. Beginning with Triple Bock in 1994, Koch has really pushed the envelope of complexity and alcohol. The Triple Bock came in at 17.5% alcohol. In 2000, Sam Adams released Millennium Ale at 21%. Then came Utopias MMII in 2002 at 25%. In 2003, and again in 2005 Utopias was released at 25% alcohol. Now the just released 2007 edition of Utopias weighs in at 27% alcohol!

What is amazing about this brew, though, even more that the alcohol itself, is that the alcoholic heat virtually disappears behind the seamlessness of its rich texture and complex flavors of caramel, maple syrup and butter pecan. At $120 a bottle, Utopias certainly is the most expensive beer ever but this brew also can take its place among the finest after dinner drinks, whether Cognac, Sherry or Port.