The old summer sampler contained the blackberry witbier and the coastal wheat. These beers were decent, but really the weak points of the sampler, and I am glad to see they decided to replace them. The new sampler that I tried over the weekend contains 2 brand new beers: East-West kolsch and the Rustic Saison, a sure improvement.
East-West Kolsch- Sam Adams did a fine job at making a kolsch style beer which is a great summer beer to begin with. Malty-sweet with notes of grains, slight fruity, floral hop slight bitter finish. Very drinkable, crisp, light, great refreshing summer beer.
Rustic Saison- I am a huge fan of the saison style and was a little disapointed with this version of a saison. However, when you look at the beer as a summer beer, it gets the job done. Bread flavor, fruity, tart, honey notes, floral and herbal notes. Flavorful and goes down easy.
Summer ale- This beer used to be one of my favorites, but the recipe seemed to change. A problem with a lot of summer ales is they don't have enough flavor. The flavor is here in this beer, but the flavors dont flow as well as they could, and there is always this funny taste with this particular beer. Lemon zest, spices, light, mellow wheat, and a slight strange sour aftertaste that I dont care for. Still a decent summer beer though.
Boston Lager- always a great choice to count on. Caramel sweet, floral citrus hops, toasty balanced malts, slight hop finish. One of those beers that are always good all year round and just simply delicious in all aspects.
Light lager- this has to be the best light beer out there. It is light but slightly sweet, malty, slight bitter. A lot of flavor for a light beer and perfectly refreshing for a hot day.
Lattitude 48 IPA- when I first tried this beer, I felt that it barely even tasted like an IPA. The formula has changed here. The beer is a lot more hoppy than I remember. The bitterness of the beer is well balanced by biscuit and caramel malts. IPAs are great for summer, but only if they are well balanced as we see here.
I recommend picking up this sampler as soon as you can!
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