Get some Samuel Adams Cold Snap for the Super Bowl

Samuel Adams Cold Snap

Cold Snap is the latest beer creation from Samuel Adams we tried, and the name pretty much says it all. It’s an unfiltered White Ale with a smooth wheat taste brightened up with some spring spices. There’s a subtle hint of sweet orange peel and plum along with a hint of pepper. It’s a very smooth and very refreshing drink that should go well with any Super Bowl spread this weekend.

Read the rest of this entry »

  

You can follow us on Twitter and Facebook for content updates. Also, sign up for our email list for weekly updates and check us out on Google+ as well.

Sapporo and Baseball

Sapporo_Product_All_2013-477

If you’re fortunate to make it to the ballpark as the baseball playoffs get started, I have a beer suggestion for you if you’re looking to try something other than the bland offerings usually offered while you’re in your seats.

I’ve been a fan of Sapporo for years as I was introduced to this beer when I started enjoying sushi. Sapporo is the top selling Asian beer in the States so it’s one of the offerings you’ll usually find at sushi restaurant. Now baseball fans can experience Sapporo at the ballpark as it’s on the beer menus at Washington’s Nationals Park, San Francisco’s AT&T Park, Seattle’s Safeco Field and Angels Stadium of Anaheim as well as Dempsey’s Restaurant, across from Baltimore’s Camden Yards.

Read the rest of this entry »

  

Summertime beers from Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams Rebel IPA

There’s something about a cold beer on a nice summer day. it’s one of the simple pleasures in life, and with summer in full swing hopefully you’ve had plenty of opportunities to enjoy a cold one. There’s plenty of summer left as well, so you have more time to enjoy those cookouts and other outdoor events.

We’ve been sampling a number of beers from Samuel Adams, including the Samuel Adams Summer Ale and the IPAs like the Rebel IPA pictured above. Samuel Adams has tons of beers to choose from including quite a few IPAs. I’m still partial to the Boston Lager, as they’re flagship beer is pretty flawless. As a seasonal the Summer Ale isn’t bad but it’s not my first choice, while the IPAs are excellent. The Rebel IPA features citrus and grapefruit highlights which makes it perfect as a summer beer.

Try them out and see which one you like best.

  

Getting ready for St. Patrick’s Day

Amanda Neal Irish Model St. Patrick's Day

What better to get you in the mood for a day of drinking on St. Patrick’s Day than a photo of a beautiful Irish model with green eyes and strawberry blonde hair – our very own Amanda Neal. She got into the spirit in her photo shoot with plenty of green St. Patrick’s Day gear, and we expect you’ll run into plenty of Irish hotties like Amanda who will get friendlier by the hour as they drink up more beer on this excellent holiday.

Speaking of beer, many of you will be drinking up plenty of Guinness, but our beer expert Mike Barkacs has another Irish beer suggestion for your drinking pleasure – Murphy’s Stout.

St. Patrick’s Day seems to be a problem for many people. Well, it’s become a problem for me anyway. On that day, I can’t seem to stand at a bar more than five minutes without some stumbling amateur falling into me, sloshing my drink and soaking me with theirs. Otherwise fairly normal people, albeit dressed in garish and silly clothing, take to whooping and hollering for no apparent reason, morning, noon and night. Almost all bar conversations devolve into slurred professions of either undying love or spluttering demands to step outside. It’s Saturday night with all the good bits removed. What is the perfect beverage for this happy and festive occasion? Murphy’s Stout works on just about every level.

On this, of all days, something mistakenly Irish is actually most appropriate. Sure, there’s always the ubiquitous black stuff that everyone else will be having, but that may be a tad too genuine. Guinness is fine, but save that for all the other days of the year. Murphy’s looks the part of a popular Irish beer, even though it’s not made in Cork anymore. It’s black with a tan head — what else do you want? It might be a tad creamier than its more famous cousin, but you’d be hard pressed to spot a difference between the two by sight alone. So, like the rest of the revelers, it will easily pass for Irish just this once. Even if it is now made in, well, England. Birthplace of St. Patrick himself.

Of course, you don’t have to drink Irish beer on this Irish holiday, so feel free to check out Mike’s other beer reviews for other options.

  

A holiday beer doesn’t make the cut

Our beer reviewer, Mike Barkacs, wasn’t too impressed with Delirium Noel.

I tried to love this beer. I just can’t. I try it every year, hoping the otherwise fabulous Brouwerij Huyghe can get it right. I love Delirium Tremens, and anybody that can come up with that obviously knows everything about brewing beer. How can they possibly get their Christmas beer wrong? It’s meant to be a gift to all their loyal beer loving customers. Not that it’s awfu — I doubt they could make an awful beer even if they tried — but this Christmas Ale falls so far below expectations that you may just want to re-gift it to the crazy uncle.

It looks, and smells, like it might even surpass expectations. And the 10% alcohol could make for a very merry Christmas season. It’s a deep reddish amber, but not as dark as many big Belgian dark ales. The head fades quickly to lacing, but that’s not unusual in most Christmas beers. While not being clear, it would be hard to call it cloudy. Maybe a thin, sedimentless fog. The aroma is both complex and entirely unusual for a Christmas ale. You expect to find a load of spices, tons of alcohol and plenty of malt. Those are there, but they are way back behind an almost saison-style earthiness. Then a load of strange fruits for a Christmas beer, the most prominent being banana, of all things. None of this is the least unpleasant. Unusual for the style, maybe, but very promising.

But that’s the point where the Noel loses me.

You can go read the rest of the review here.

Here’s one site’s recommendations on the 10 best holiday beers.