BREWERY: The Boston Beer Company
STYLE: American Pale Wheat Ale
ABV: 5.3%
PURCHASE: Case of 24 12-oz. bottles, $36.56.
SERVING: 12-oz. bottle, poured into pint glass. Standard pour was heady: Over three inches, initially. A slower pour (30 seconds), however, slashed it to about 3/4 of an inch. Retention decent but unremarkable.
APPEARANCE: Golden-straw color. Mostly transparent, but with a touch of haziness. Bright white head.
BOUQUET: Malty and doughy, mostly. Hint of lemon zest. Agreeable, but borders on generic.
PALATE: Body seems relatively light at first, but is really medium. Front palate is mildly but noticeably zesty, both from lemon and from pepper. Sam claims this is brewed with "grains of paradise," an African pepper. The combined citrus-spice note serves as this brew's through-line. Carbonation peaks mid-palate but remains tempered. Finish seems bland and uninspired. If not for the still present spice, the aftertaste would almost mirror that of a standard light beer.
MUSINGS AND METAPHORS: Meh. Not one of Sam's stronger offerings. In fact, this is likely my least favorite from our friends in Boston.
"Summer" beers, it seems, are supposed to be crisp and refreshing, and to possess citrus qualities. No problem here. "Summer" beers, it seems, should be easy to drink, with an amiable taste. No problem there, either. But "summer" beers, in this reviewer's mind at least, should still pack enough beer-like punch. This is supposed to be a wheat beer, and I couldn't really taste any wheat!
My question, thus, is . . . WHERE'S THE BEER? Seriously! This is like having a steak dinner, where the steak is seasoned perfectly. Only, the seasoning is all you can taste. Thankfully, the seasoning in this case was downright delicious.
GRADE: C
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