Don Kavanagh joins the beer revolution.
I haven’t been very complimentary about American beers in this column, but part of the blame for that lies squarely at the feet of their brewers.
Most of their beers I come across are either insipid flavourless lagers or ales so hoppy that drinking them is like washing your mouth out with pine disinfectant.
So you can imagine my joy when I discovered that the great Samuel Adams beers are being distributed here through the Boundary Road Brewery and can be found on the shelves of good supermarkets and liquor shops.
Samuel Adams beers were at the forefront of the craft beer revolution, appropriately enough for a beer from the cradle of the American Revolution and named for a revolutionary and brewer of that era. Within a year of opening, their Boston Lager was voted the best beer in America and the Adams crew has remained at the top, putting out some genuinely revolutionary beers.
The Utopias ale weighed in at 25 per cent alcohol in its early incarnations and got stronger as it went along.
Down here we are limited to three variants for the moment, although that may well increase.
The Boston lager is anything but a bog-standard lager. Amber in colour, it’s darker than some pale ales I’ve tried and it has a fantastic hoppy nose from the Hallertau and Tettnang hops used in the mix. The hop element recedes slightly on the palate, but you can still taste it and it’s balanced by a lovely fresh malt sweetness.
The Noble Pils is a cracker as well, produced using all the noble hops. The nose is packed with floral citrus notes and the palate has an almost toasty character that is fantastic. It’s crisp, clean and very refreshing so, basically, it’s everything a beer should be.
My personal favourite is the Boston Ale, now in its 26th year of production. It’s more of an English-style ale than American, with a lovely ruby-amber hue and a warm, inviting nose full of caramel, chocolate, nut and hop aromas. Very full on the palate, it’s reminiscent of the old nut-brown ales of northern England, with lovely lingering dark malt flavours and a long, clean finish.
The arrival of these visitors should cause excitement among beer lovers so get in early for these beers. Not just to stock up for yourself but because if the market warrants it there soon could be more of these American gems on the shelf. I’ll drink to that.
