Yes I am still here!

If anyone is still reading this blog except myself I just need to inform that our New England Beer Trip 2008 will just start in a couple of hours.

Hopefully I will have access to some kind of network and hope to make at least some comments about the trip.

It will start tomorrow (actually in a couple or hours) with going over to Boston, MA and end on July 30th.

We will probably not finish everything as planned but here is at least the main plan and where you can check were we probably are on this little beer trail.

New Spring beer from Sam Adams at OT

Not that I like american style weiss\wit beer much but at least I need to give Oliver Twist some credit when they serve new beer from the US on draught, and even on the standard list of beers.

This beer showed up a couple of weeks ago at my favorite pub i Stockholm. It is called a "White Ale" and is a seasonal spring beer from Samuel Adams. So to categories it in style I would say simply a "Sam Adams"-style beer inspired by belgian witbier, meaning more Sam Adams instead of a normal witbier.

So if you like the taste of Sam Adams beers (as I do) and want to try something different this is your beer.

I like Sam Adams in the sense that it is a great starting point for people that usually drink international lagers. It is a beer that you can give a ago and often people like it and through that can learn and understand that a beer can actually taste something without being too much.

Often you hear that I want a beer, but it should not be dark, as to say that all dark beer would taste to much and different compared what they normally drink. Is that not strange?, why would just a dark beer taste more, at least you can not generalize like that. It is like say that a red wine would always taste more than a white wine, just because red is more color than white!.

According to Sam Adams this beer "has clear malt & wheat notes, and dominated by 9 spices and dried fruits". Personally I would say a beer with light orange color with a white head for a short while. For a wit-bier it has the lemon and orange you like in a beer like hoegaarden, quite refreshing as a summer beer and at the end very drinkable.

Not great and nothing I will drink much of but at least I will recommend it to people who wants something different and like to sample a US-beer.

In average I would give it a 4/10.

QUICK TAKE: Samuel Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner

Sampled at Stockholm Beer 2007 last night.

A new beer for me from Samuel Adams that will also be sold at Systembolaget starting from December. I read about the beer due to soon being sold in Sweden and something that I was planning to buy in December, but now it was available at the festival.

This is a so called Imperial Pilsner in the tradition of American brewers playing with old beer style and not follow any rules regarding creating balanced beers. So "Imperial" simply means, when we talk about American beers; more of everything, often double or tripple of everything.

The beer has a very golden color and a white steady head. When it comes to aroma it is very similar to a strong IPA, meaning extra malt and massive amounts of hops. The flavor is hoppy and bitter and actually very balanced with the malt sweetness.

It has a great after-taste and it made its place together with the rest of IPAs that was sampled during the evening.

It is a lager beer but in the same moment due to the similarities to a American IPA the beer is a bit difficult to classify. At least it was interesting to taste my first Imperial Pilsner and it is always fun to see new kind of experiments, especially when it actually was at least a bit balanced if you recon that the beer has 110 in the IBU scale.

So based on my very limited experience in American Imperial Lagers, this is my favorite and something that I can recommend.

New beers from Samuel Adams

Both in November and December a couple of new beers will be sold through Systembolaget from the Samuel Adams Brewery in Boston. The beers will be provided by the reseller of Galatea. One of the beers has been available before but in very limited editions, the other two is at least new for me.

1. Samuel Adams Utopias 2007

For the bargain price of 1217 SEK, :). This beer is not brewed so often and it is seen as the most expensive and exclusive beer in the world. I have tasted the beer once at the Stockholm Beer a couple of years ago, and I would not say that it is worth its price, but it is a exiting brew, but nothing that is a favorite or on any of my top lists, frankly a bit to much. But my geek genes say that I will probably try to get a bottle anyway just because it is rare.

2. Samuel Adams Imperial Pilsner

A new american experience for me in the tradition of doing double and imperial beers of traditional European styled beers. So here we have a Imperial Pilsner, meaning double of everything compared to a normal pilsner. Loaded with tons of Hallertau Mittelfrüh-hops that raises it to amazing 110 IBUs. Comes with the moderate price of 34 SEK.

3. Samuel Adams Holiday Porter

A american porter dedicated to the christmas tables and hopefully will be found by the Swedish christmast beer community (a big thing in Sweden to buy the Christmas beers when they are all realesed on Nov 16). 16 SEK for a 355 ml bottle.

All 3 will be available at Systembolaget, but to remember the Utopia is limited to only 36 bottles (of total 12000 produced).