Samuel Adams LongShot Grape Pale Ale

12oz bottle. Ale brewed with grape flavors and maple syrup. Aroma of a second pressed riesling. Slight medicinal hop aroma. Flavor has a fruit sweetness along with some pale malt and a equally light hop bitterness. Not as impressed as with the other ’Long Shot’ beers.

Pours a beautiful orange/red color with a below average head, and slightly below average lacing and slightly under carbonated. Smells of bitter hops. Tastes like a pale ale with a tad of infused grape juice. Not too bad just not very good.

12 ounce bottle from a 6 pack that was purchased at BevMo in Natomas, CA. Aroma has a nice herbal, piney hop aroma with just a kiss of grape in the nose. Lightly metallic with a bit of huskiness. Transparent copper body with a nice, strong light tan head that leaves attractive lacing. Initial flavor reveals some metallic, spicy hop flavors before this becomes quite creamy and malty in the middle. Plenty of toasty flavors with a light caramel sweetness is present. Very light grape flavors are present later with a delicate earthy hoppiness to finish. I don’t know why this is so poorly rated. I think a lot of people automatically pan fruit beers. Unfortunately, this one is well-done and not over the top...the fact that so many fruit beers are overdone ruins the reputation of fruit beers and good ones like this suffer from the negative bias.

Bottle. Sweet malt in the nose, but not specifically grape and no hint of hops as you’d expect from a pale. Hazy dark amber body with a hint of violet? Some visible carbonation. Thin white head. No lace to speak of. Nice color though. There’s very little grape in the flavor. You have to strain to detect it. Maybe a hint of white grape although the commercial description speaks of green seedless grape. Softly carbonated and a little creamy. Moderate sweetness. A bit more sweetness would have been nice. From the less than stellar rumblings I’d heard on this beer, I expected a really sweet, almost grape juice-like brew. Not at all. Very drinkable, grape essence detectable only because you know it’s there. A very nice brew, and again, underrated.

12 oz bottle, best by Jul08. Clear amber with an off white head. Somewhat sweet nose, bready and lightly spicy, a bit of corn and berry. Some green grassyness pops to the fore of the flavor, with more bready grain and something like a fruity yeast ester. Grape? Where? Eh - no grape that I can detect, which leaves me with a fair ale, but nothing to get excited about.

Absolutely clear light brown body with a golden medium sized head. Light carbonation. Fruity and musty earth flavor with malt and rye. Green apple and pepper flavors as well. Green grapes are not as pronounced as expected and neither are hops. Has a dry bitter aftertaste. A cider beer?

We really didn’t really expect much from this beer, bit we were pleasantly surprised. As fans of Sam Adams this, even though a Long Shot beer, really tastes like a Sam Adams beer. Not something we’d make a 4 mile beer run for but if it was in regular store we would buy it again. Basically if your a fan of Sam Adams or home brew we recommend you try the Long Shot pack.

This was interesting and I’m glad I tried it. The grape sweetness was definitely more prominent than any hoppiness one would imagine with the "pale ale" in the title. This is deifnitely a fruit beer first. The maple was a nice addition as well. I rarely meet a fruit beer that I do enjoy and this is one of them. Well done Lili!