Sam Adams Boston Ale* / BREWMASTER’S COLLECTION (not to be confused with Sam Adams Boston Lager). Mmm. Very tasty. It’s a bit mellower than traditional Sam - I’m a fan of micro brews, but the Sam Boston Lager tends to be a bit too coppery for my taste. Don’t get me wrong - I still think it’s a great beer, just not terribly original.
I think October through December are great months for beer drinkers in the Boston area. All the breweries start to roll out their best seasonal brews, and
we’ve got a couple really great breweries. My favorite seasonal (hands down) is Harpoon Winter Warmer - it tastes like Christmas. Second runner up is Sam Summer, then Harpoon Octoberfest (I drank a six of these over the weekend - delicious with summer sausage and cheese). Of course, it’s not all about Boston beers and seasonal brews. I’ll give credit where credit is due - Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is one of the best beers ever bottled (IMHO) (especially for California), and a good can of Rolling Rock really can’t be beat (although the likelyhood of getting a lousy can of Rock is all too high).
Think I’ll do another Sam Ale. Mmm.
Dopers outside of the New England area be warned: YMMV; Sam doesn’t travel well. Sorry.
Hell yeah. I used to drink that stuff. It’s been a while, though. I don’t even know if they carry it up hearabouts. I drank it when I was living down in St. Pete. Mainly because it was the cheapest decent-tasting beer I could find.
Michelob is an all-round decent beer to start with, though. Mich Light is (I think) one of the best light beers on the market - with Amstel up there, too, (I like different beers for different reasons, so beer snobs notwithstanding, I see no problem having Mich Light & Amstel in the same sentence).
I’ve had Anchor (I think). Meh. Don’t remember well enough to be certain. If your West Coast beers are anything like our Boston beers, it doesn’t much matter. I’ve ordered Sam Adams in many Airports, Hotel Lounges, and Resteraunts outside of New England and came to the sad conclusion years ago that sam Adams doesn’t travel well. I don’t even bother trying anymore.
Anchor is good. Anchor Celebration is best. Every year we do a vertical tasting of the last 5 years of Celebration Ale. Wonderful stuff. Although it does tend to monopolize one of the fridges.
You won’t get an East coast vs. West coast fight outta this (ex) Jersey Girl.
Before I moved out here Sam Adams was one of my favorite brews. And I still pick up a 6 pack of Rolling Rock every now and then. Sadly, there is no Yuengling to be found out here. But there’s plenty of great beer to make up for it, that’s for sure.
Eye of the Hawk is one of my absolute favorites. My husband and I were just up at their brewpub (minus the pub part these days) on Sunday after a long bike ride. An icy cold brew was just the ticket.
There’s another local that’s decent, Lagunitas IPA, there’s Speakeasy’s Big Daddy IPA (which I’m now a fan of thanks to Troy McClure) and there is IMHO the new king of beers, Pliny the Elder, from Russian River Brewing right here in lovely Santa Rosa. It’s a fantastic double IPA. And then there’s the triple IPA, Pliny the Younger. Awesome stuff. If you plan on drinking more than one, bring cab fare.
I don’t think they bottle it, but they do bottle their Belgian- Damnation, which is a mighty fine beer as well.
Still, Sierra Nevada is our ‘everyday’ beer. I like their seasonals, Summerfest, Celebration, and Bigfoot, but their Pale Ale is still my favorite.
