Review Date 3/30/2013
Try? Re-buy?
“Declare your independence from foreign beer.” “Samuel Adams-Always a Good Decision.” “For the Love of Beer”. Chances are, if you’re a beer enthusiast, you’ve probably heard one of these slogans used by the Boston Beer Company, makers of the Samuel Adams line of beers. Being old enough to have heard them all and seen them in various advertising campaigns, I can truly say that they each mark an important stage in the evolution of one of America’s most ubiquitous craft breweries.
The first slogan, “Declare your independence from foreign beer”, hails from the early to mid-eighties when a then-little-known beer baron with a golden throat for radio and a hearty thirst for good beer (one Jim Koch) launched his Samuel Adams Boston Lager to compete with the import market. The ad line appeared on placards, billboards, and radio ads across America.
In those days, craft brews were a relatively new phenomenon, but the success of Boston Lager prompted Boston Beer to begin brewing in a non-stop parade of styles that began with such beers as Double Bock and Winter Lager. I must confess I recall those early days with much nostalgia, and the excitement of trying these beers as they hit store shelves is not something many wizened old beer drinkers will ever see again.
Leap ahead 20 years or so into the 21st century, and Boston Beer has grown in leaps and bounds; television ads are now the way to go. The “always a good decision” campaign produced several commercials for TV (some with an actor portraying Samuel Adams hoisting a tankard) speak volumes to the now-ubiquitous nature of Samuel Adams beers.
We come full circle with for the love of beer. Jim Koch really does love good beer, it’s one of the reasons he started his business in a time when opening a brewing concern was no sure thing. I met the man at a release event for Samuel Adams Summer Ale back in the mid-nineties, and he was a pleasure to speak with. His love for beer most certainly came through.
Then too, Boston Beer deserves much credit for introducing budding beer drinkers to so many new styles, and making them widely available. Their annual Longshot homebrewers contest fosters the appreciation of an art from whence many professional brewers hail. Most recently, the partnership with beer pioneer Jack McAuliffe to revive New Albion Ale (from which Boston Beer makes no profit) is another case in point; that they donated two kegs to the premiere of a documentary celebrating the life of beer writing legend Michael Jackson was icing on the cake.
Hence my lack of understanding as to why so many beer geeks look at Boston Beer and the Samuel Adams line in askance. I have seen this all the way back to the nineties, when craft beer was in an adolescent stage, and many beer geeks held scorn for Koch and Samuel Adams. In some corners that continues today, and the most I can get from it is that the far-reach of the company offends local sensitivities, or perhaps the contract brewing of the early days was bothersome.
Whatever the reason, it is becoming increasingly pointless to hold a grudge against Boston Beer. Now the second largest American-owned brewer after Yuengling, they are however the largest American craft brewer. They have company at the top, however, as fellow large craft brewers like Sierra Nevada, Lagunitas, New Belgium, and Green Flash plan additional facilities in various parts of the nation to brew more of their beer.
Boston Beer makes beers as good as any of them, and should you disagree, then I would submit that you haven’t tried Samuel Adams Thirteenth Hour Ale Aged in Oak Barrels. Part of the Barrel Room Collection, this beer is described on the bottle as “A Dark Belgian-Style Stout with Notes of Spice, Coffee, Chocolate, & Oak.”
The company website and the bottle also say the following:
The 13th hour is the witching hour, and a time when strange brews can occur. With 13 ingredients, we combined the roasted chocolate and coffee flavors of a stout with the complex spicy character of a Belgian-style ale aged in oak for a deep, robust, and captivating brew.
The base beer here is fermented with house Kosmic Mother Funk yeast and bacteria strains. Two-row pale, Munich, Special B, Carafa III, and Caramel 60 malts are used along with brewing sugars and Hallertau Mittelfreuh hops. The beer has an alcohol content of 9% by volume. I paid $8.99 for a 750ml bottle in November of 2011 at Total Wine and aged it for a little over a year before drinking.
Samuel Adams Thirteenth Hour Ale Aged in Oak Barrels pours to a murky black color with a towering head of tan colored foam and a tart cherry and funky yeast nose. Taking a sip, my palate is immediately assaulted by wave after wave of flavors. Indeed, there is so much going on here it’s hard to keep up with it all: sour black cherry, chocolate, dark roasted malt, Belgian funk, rum, raisin, vanilla, woody oak, and a hint of pepper in the finish. Not getting the coffee they talk about so much, though the other dark malt flavors are redolent throughout the brew.
The beer seemed to evolve as it warmed and I sipped, with the various flavor elements waxing waning perhaps with the vagaries of my taste buds. The whole affair is punctuated nicely by a quenching sourness in the finish.
I found Samuel Adams Thirteenth Hour to be a truly amazing and incredibly complex beer or world-class caliber. And for a mere $8.99, it was a true steal as well. In truth, this is a testament to the quality beers made by Sam Adams, and pretty much sums up all those ad campaigns that have defined Boston Beer over the years.
If you’ve never tried it, be sure to pick some up on your next beer-shopping trip. Because as you well know, Samuel Adams is always a good decision.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft