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Pale Ale
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Smooth, Drinkable, Full-Flavored: Sam Adams Pale Ale is a Perfect Labor Day Thirst Quencher!
By Belly Buddy Mark Stevens
At a Glance:
Beer: Samuel Adams Pale Ale The Bottom Line: Shopping for the right brew for a long labor day weekend? Try a Samuel Adams Pale Ale -- it's a great beer for a hot relaxing summer day!
Samuel Adams is the brewer that every beer geek loves to hate. Nobody really likes hearing Jim Koch's whining voice on the radio telling us how great his beers are. But I think everyone in the beer community recognizes the (very) high standards that Koch and his Boston Beer Company set for the American brewing industry, and we all appreciate his marketing savvy in getting his beer sold in more outlets than just about any other craft brewer in America.
Beer geeks can argue all day about some of the Sam Adams beers. Is the Scotch Ale really "scottish"? Who knows (or cares)? Does the Double Bock really stand up to the best Germany can offer? What the heck were we supposed to think of Triple Bock, anyway?
No matter where you come down on the various academic debates, one thing is for sure. Samuel Adams has really good, well-brewed beers. Hold on a sec while I put the hard hat on -- okay -- Samuel Adams might even deserve to call itself "the best beer in America". (I think they've been more consistently good for much longer than anyone else in the U.S.)
Even beers like Samuel Adams Pale Ale show why Samuel Adams is a brand we should respect. It's a fairly ordinary style that everyone understands, yet it is brewed with more of an English influence than an American influence, and it comes across in the final product as a wonderfully drinkable everyday light ale. There's a heck of a lot of basic pale ales on the market today, and Samuel Adams is -- in my view -- one of the most dependably good brands for a lot of drinkers. The beer has enough flavor and oomph for discerning beer palates, yet it retains enough of a light body and enough "poundability" to make it a great everyday drinking brew. Let's pop a bottle and take it for a test taste...
A Cool Mug of Pale Ale... I think a nice clear glass mug will make a good presentation for this typical pale ale, and so without further ado, I'll just pop the lid...psssssttt!...and pour...
Appearance: Deep golden with some light orange hues. Brilliant clarity. Nicely aggressive carbonation that forms a very tight creamy head and leaves a wonderful trail of tawny Belgian lace down the side of the mug.
Aroma: Lightly aromatic hop aroma that reminds me of light lemon-grass. There's also an unmistakable light caramel smell that triggers thoughts of malt sweetness. A slight apple fruitiness rounds out the aroma to create a very pleasant initial impression.
Flavor: This is a lighter bodied ale than most of the American pale ales I get from American craft brewers. It has a nice soft malt body with some caramel, and it's a very well balanced brew. The hops are lighter on this beer than on strong American pale ales, like Sierra Nevada's classic rendition, and it has more of an earthy and grassy hop character to it with some light pepper spiciness in the aftertastes.
Interestingly enough, the label says that this beer is brewed using Fuggles and East Kent Goldings hops.
Verdict: This is a very nice, light, drinkable pale ale that tastes great on a hot sunny summer afternoon. As I sit by the pool with a glass of Sam Adams in hand and a banda CD on the stereo, all is right with the world. The Sam Adams is definitely a smooth, poundable brew, and since there's five more brothers to this bottle sitting in my beer fridge, I think I'll have another...join me, won't you?
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