REVIEW 154: SAMUEL ADAMS HOPSCAPE

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  USA (Massachusetts)

BREWERY:  The Boston Beer Company

STYLE:  Pale Wheat Ale

ABV:  5.5%

PURCHASE:  Draft (60-oz. pitcher), $10.00

SERVING:  Said pitcher, poured into chilled pint glass. (Glass allowed to warm over time.) Initially heady from tap to pitcher. From pitcher to glass, however, not even half an inch of head from a normal pour. A faster pour got a little more than an inch. Solid retention.

APPEARANCE:  See-through but hazy. Golden-orange, "sunrise"-colored body. Off-white head. Not much visible bubbling. Outstanding lacing.

BOUQUET:  Prominent citrus presence, mainly grapefruit. Lightly hoppy. Seeming traces of wheat. Hard to pick up anything else.

PALATE:  Juicy--if I had to describe this in one word, that's it. Tastes almost like a shandy. Fairly smooth. Carbonation is shy at first but becomes a force if held just a few seconds. Starts on an unassertive note. At mid-palate, it decides it wants to he hoppy. Finishes with some zest, mainly from grapefruit bitterness. Hop bitterness lingers at that point as well. Aftertaste is a tad yeasty and carries a hint of coriander. Not much in the way of malt or grain . . . particularly wheat.

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  This is classified, officially, as a pale wheat ale. The problem is, it doesn't really taste that way. Where's the wheat?

On the whole, this came off as a beer that is simply not fully fleshed out. It supposedly is brewed with four different kinds of hops--but they don't make much of a presence. Grapefruit comes as advertised, but is held too much in check, almost to the point where you could mistake it for orange or lemon. That all said, it's very, very, very easy to drink. The taste is no less agreeable--a hallmark of most beers in the Sam lineup. 

But that's kind of what irks me here. It seems to me that Sam has been settling lately. Too many of their recent offerings have been just okay, or "good but not great." They seem to be playing it too safe. Reminds me of a great Johnny Rotten quote:  "I would much rather be loved or hated than just 'alright' or 'nice.'" Sam fits Mr. Rotten's latter description, lately.




GRADE:   B-