Sam Adams Harvest Collection

I ventured over to Tipsy's last night during the height of the rainstorm (that lasted 10 minutes). I was trying to fool myself into thinking it was fall so I could feel good about my beer selection. I'm done with summer and its beers. After perusing all the vast selection at Tipsy's I found my pick, the Sam Adams Harvest Collection. The Harvest Collection included 2 beers I was excited to drink, Octoberfest which is one of my favorite Sam Adams beers, and Harvest Pumpkin Ale which is new. Also included in the variety pack were a Dunkelweizen, Black Lager and the Irish Red and Boston Lager which Sam Adams pushes down everyone's throat.

I'm not much of a fan of Sam Adams brews. Boston Lager is a good beer, but I never buy it. As mentioned above, I really like the Octoberfest and I'm a fan of the Summer Ale as well. I've had other good Sam Adams beers but for the most part I can always find something I want more. Sam Adams also makes the worst beer ever, Cherry Wheat, which knocks them down a few pegs in my book.

The first beer I cracked open was the Harvest Pumpkin Ale to pair with watching Big Brother. I decided a couple of years ago I don't really like pumpkin beers because they're either too pumpkiny or have too much clove. The Harvest Pumpkin Ale had neither, it had a nice faint pumpkin taste that was a nice complementary flavor to the malt sweetness of the brew. I could drink a six pack of it easily, unfortunately it is only available in the variety pack, 2 at a time. Harvest Pumpkin Ale was definitely better than watching the 2 biggest idiots, Brendan and Rachel, whine about being on the block and losing the veto competition on Big Brother. Watching them is like watching 2 kinda stupid 7th graders in love.

After the Harvest Pumpkin Ale I cracked open an Octoberfest. It's a really solid marzen that hits me in a good spot. Bob's 47, which should be hitting shelves next week, is better, but Sam Adams Octoberfest fills the void of marzens nicely. It was definitely better to drink than it was to watch Adam Richman eat that monstrosity of a sandwich on Man V. Food. Really Bonner Springs, is there a market for smoked hamburgers? And then put them on top of real smoked meats? It's no wonder Adam couldn't eat it all, he didn't like it.

I wasn't looking forward to drinking the Dunkelweizen because, of course, I don't like most German styles. I was pleasantly surprised. It was definitely my favorite beer of the night. It was quite sweet with the malt and I could taste the slight banana taste of a hefeweizen but also had another fruity flavor and some maple. I really enjoyed every sip. It was nice and thick mouthfeel and really made you feel like you were drinking something substantial. I really liked it, so much so that I will seek out other dunkelweizens. If you know a good one let me know.

The rest of the Harvest Collection is just going to sit in my fridge until I get a hankering for a red or a lager. I'm sure I'll drink them as the 4th or 5th beer on a weekend. But the rest of the pack is surprisingly good. This may have been my favorite Sam Adams purchase in years. Plus it really helped me block out the summer heat and imagine raking leaves in the slightly chilly autumn air.

Other Popular Posts on KC Beer Blog