Samuel Adams LongShot Grape Pale Ale

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

12 oz bottle from Hollingshead Deli; Nose of a light hoppinesss with faint grape notes; light copper with a small off-white head; flavor had light hop bitterness and some caramel maltiness.finish is slightly sweet.

The aroma is malty with hops and a tiny amount of grapes. The appearance is amber with an average to slightly larger head. The flavor is nice with lightly toasted malt, and hops but no grapes. It’s kind of dry and it has a hint of fruit but hardly noticeable. The palate is smooth. A good beer but if the label didn’t say grapes I don’t know if I would have even known they were in it.

Clear amber body with a large creamy off-white head. Sweet caramel and lots of grape tannins. More sweet grape flavors, with a touch of caramel. Very little hop flavor, with a dry slight bitter finish. Medium body with moderate carbonation.

Bottle: The aroma is a combination of raisins, grapes, grain, and grass...a pretty unpleasant combo in my opinion. It pours a bright transparent amber with a moderate soapy off-white head. Weird combination of caramel and raisin up front. Finishes moderately grainy and lightly grassy. The flavors just don’t mesh and the graininess is very unpleasant. Light bodied with with mild carbonation. Pretty rough.

Now, I DO like Pales, and I DO like grapes... but! Appearance: Pours a clear copper body with a small, fizzy white head. Smell: Bready malt aroma with a touch of caramel and a handful of white grapes. Taste: Gah! Caramel malt with a slice of toasted bread. Medium maple syrup sweetness. Grape flavor more in the sense of chewing up a grapeskin. Light bitterness fails to balance the sweetness present. Finishes pretty sweet. Mouthfeel: A hair under medium for the body, a hair over medium for the carbonation. Drinkability: A plain pale ale hampered with grape flavor and a bit more sweetness than needed.

I think I may have had this a bit too warm. I’m not getting much grape really, either in aroma or flavor. Definitely light, it doesn’t have much hops at all, if this is based on the pale ale style. Not really that great.

12oz bottle. Grape fruity arma along with some grains. Amber body with off white head. Flavor has a dryness to it that isn’t very refreshing. Also a chalky spicey palate aftertaste that is that good eitther.

A vigorous pour produces an almost three-finger thick, pale, tan colored crown of froth. The beer is a brilliantly clear, deep copper / amber color that shows bright copper color when held up to the light. As I visually inspect this beer the aroma smells like a mix of water-downed grape juice and macro-lager. A deeper smell of the aroma intensifies these notes, but doesn’t seem to make them all that more appealing. Sharp, yet sweet, fermented grape notes make me think of cheap box-wine, but there is a finish of dry, cracker-like malt aromas that is just noticeable. Other than the cheap beer-like quality I get not real hop character here.

Fairly dry up front, but it picks up a cheap box-wine sweetness towards the finish. Bits of caramelized malt, a touch of biscuit-like grain character and perhaps a hint of herbal hop character in the finish lets one know, fairly unconvincingly I might add, that this is beer. The combination of beer & grape flavors are both washed out here and in combination they just seem to clash.

The best analogy for me really is of cheap, really bad box-wine, which this actually tastes of, but the beer characteristics are on the same level. The grape character makes this seem cheaply fermented, a bit metallic and sweet. Really just a poor tasting beer.