Samuel Adams LongShot Grape Pale Ale

Brewed by Boston Beer Company
Style: Fruit Beer
Boston, Massachusetts USA

While I applaud all experimentation in the brewing of the world’s best beverage, this one did little for me. It seems like a mild golden ale with a hint of green grapes. Nice pour, a deep golden body with a full head. The aroma? A malt & corn sweetness with a suggestion of the vined fruit. The flavor is almost as exciting, cleaner malt tastes with a splash of honey and mayhaps some fruit or other. I wanted to like this more, but there’s not much to enjoy. Maybe it’d be better on a warm day, if we ever get such a thing in the Chicago area again.

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Bronze color with a taller ecru head. Fruity scent, with mango and rose petals. Generic sweet brew. Bit of white grape juice and touch of melon. Little bit of malt come out in the finish. As good as the weizenbock was, this is a let down. A light fruit golden ale.

Bottle: Pours a copper color with a light white head and nice lacing. Nose of light toasty wheat, crisp noble hops and a touch of fruit which comes off as yeast esters. The flavor is chewy with a basic NW cookie-cutter brewpub pale ale mouthfeel but has a really odd out of place fruit extract twang. I can see the grape, but I think it’s subconscious. I would have seen this as extract twang otherwise. Decent finish. Longshot indeed.

Bottle from Belmont Party. Poured clear copper with an average frothy off-white head that was mostly lasting and produced fair lacing. Medium fruity hoppy aroma. Medium body with a sticky texture. Medium tart citrus flavor with a medium sweet finish of average duration. Interesting drinkable beer.

Pours chill hazy copper with 1-finger off-white head. Aroma is malt, honey, some green grapey and chadonnay notes. The taste is pale malty, with mild hops, and an off-tasting chardonnay flavor that just doesn’t meld with the rest of the beer. I found this one hard to finish, as it seemed to get worse as it warmed. The first few sips were unique, but it fell apart after that. A bit more sweetness and green grape flavor would have improved this one greatly.

Bottle. Head is initially average sized, frothy, off-white, mostly diminishing. Body is medium amber. Aroma is lightly to moderately malty (toasted grain, husks, wort), lightly hoppy (apricot), with notes of diacetyl, metal, and cotton candy, hint of shrimp. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly to moderately bitter, unclean. Medium body, watery texture, lively carbonation. Very unpleasant in both nose and mouth. I have the feeling BBC is more to blame than Ms. Hess, though.

Thanks for the bottle, iowaherkeye. The body is deep gold with a light khaki head. The aroma is definite grape juice with some dandelions. There is also some lightly sour cranberry type smells in here. The taste is rich grape juice with some strong notes of nasty grass and hay in the finish. There is also some strange woody notes that distract. The body is fairly light. Again, like these other contest winners, I am sure that something was lost in translation. Overall, it is like watered down sugar free grape juice mixed with some children’s cough syrup.

Interesting fruit aroma with some caramel malt backing. Beautiful copper/amber color with a white ring for head. Medium body with fizzy/creamy carbonation. Flavor is a bit papery, and arguably a bit vinous. There could be fruit of a grapey sort. There is certainly enough hop to balance the sweet. It’s an interestingly different "pale ale". I wouldn’t drink it constantly, but it is something that would be good every so often.