Sam Adams Light

Review Date 3/7/2004  Last Updated 7/25/2010

  Style: Light Beer   Brewery: Boston Beer   Country: USA   State: Massachusetts   $ Per OZ: $.14   ABV: 4.3%

Hey light beer drinker. The Boston Beer Company, makers of the Samuel Adams line of beers, is after your business. About three years ago, I began to see billboards popping up all over Rhode Island touting Sam Adams Light. At the time, none of the liquor stores seemed to have it (I asked). It was only being test-marketed then, as many products are in Rhode Island (remember Pepsi Clear? Rhode Islanders had the dubious distinction of trying it first!). The state's small size and demographics make it ideal to be the guinea pig of corporate America, if you will.
 

In any case, the beer was sold at bars only at first, and it seems it was quite popular since all of the liquor storeowners whom I spoke with said that they had a lot of customers asking for it. The billboards probably helped too. Ah, the power of beer. Today, we all know that Sam Adams Light enjoyed a successful rollout, and is now easy to come by.

And just as then, Sam Adams light is once again appearing on billboards, this time, however, all across the country. The new ads proclaim it as The Best Tasting Light Beer in the World. The beer itself has become ubiquitous, now very widely available and very popular indeed. Boston Beer backs up its rather grandiose claim with the results of the 2003 World Beer Championships, where it was judged best among all light beers entered.

Here’s what the bottle label says:

Sam Adams Light has a taste unlike any other light beer. It is the only light beer made from two-row malt and 100% noble hops.

And here’s how it tastes:

Sam Adams Light pours to a bright amber color with a thick head formation and a light hoppy nose. The palate is slightly sweet and caramelly but also a tad watery, at least when compared to most craft brews. There’s a light, aromatic tea-like hoppiness present in the brew too that lingers into the at first sweet-leaning finish. The hops add a good amount of flavor to the beer, as well as a gentle bit of bitterness in the finish. They balance nicely and make the beer eminently drinkable.

In many ways, Sam Adams Light is kind of like a watered down Boston Lager, and it’s probably not what most light beer drinkers have in mind when they think of light beer. At 124 calories, it’s not as light as some (Miller Lite’s 95, Coors Light’s 100) but on a par with other premium lights (Michelob Light at 135). I think it tastes better than any of these beers, however.

Clearly, Boston Beer is going after the mainstream light beer market with their flashy silver-and-blue striped label that emphasizes the word “light” and seems to imitate a Bud or Coors Light label. The familiar image of the Sam Adams/Paul Revere amalgam is only present in a very light silver scheme at the bottom of the bottle, barely noticeable.

This is not Boston Beer’s first attempt at a light beer, either. Years ago they produced the very excellent Boston Lightship brand, which I recall as being slightly more full-bodied than this one. One of its chief weaknesses may have been the fact that many people didn’t realize it was a light beer, perhaps thinking that the lightship (sort of a floating lighthouse) on the label just signified another one of those weird new-fangled beers the homebrewers were drinking.

Would I recommend this beer? I probably won’t drink a lot of it, but I’m not a light beer drinker. If I were, this would definitely be the light for me. But realistically, a 12-ounce bottle of Samuel Adams Boston Lager only has 36 more calories, and to my taste much more flavor. Be that as it may, it’s nice to know that a light beer can have some flavor. Hops don’t add calories, after all. As light beers go, Sam Adams Light just may be the best tasting one in the world.

Update July 25, 2010: Got a few bottles of Sam Adams Light in the Sam Summer sampler this year. It's pretty much as described above, although it seems less sweet and more full bodied than I recall it from the past. There are definitely hops here, too, and in many ways this doesn't seem like a light beer at all. Maybe craft beer light, but not "lite" beer light. It definitely tastes great, though at 119 calories it really isn't less filling. Seems the beer has been reformulated as it tastes a bit different and has fewer calories than before. But it's delightful on a really hot summer day like today. If you're going to drink a light beer, my money is on Sam Adams Lite.