Samuel Adams LongShot Grape Pale Ale

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

thanks to BMan1113VR for the bottle. I am guessing that the original recipe was different. Pours a pale amber color with a small to medium sized head that maintains as a haze over the beer. Nose is salty, wheat, like, and something else I am not sure. Mouth feel is acidic and the finish has a small note of fruity grape like finish with some pronounced bitternes. Not something that I would like to drink regularily.

A 2007 Samuel Adams homebrew contest winner, this pale ale is light and refreshing, with a wheaty and grassy nose and just a hint of green grape. A little watered-down for my tastes, but the slight hint of green grape adds an interesting element.

Fruit malt aroma with a light amount of maple syrup. Clear orange color with a medium white head. Sweet start with a malty finish and little hops. Moderate body.

12 oz. bottle. The aroma is reminiscent of that of a German pilsner: Lightly fruity and dry. Green apple scent. I finally get the green grape smell after multiple sniffs and sips. The aroma is pleasant but not strong nor complex nor memorable. Pours a clear gold with some effervescence. Moderate amount of frothy, off-white head. Good lacing. I really don’t taste the grape, but it is generally fruity (light-colored fruit tastes). Not very flavorful. Dry finish and lightly dry aftertaste. Light to medium body. Soft in the palate. Easy to drink and refreshing. It’s a good thirst quencher. Sam Adams LongShot Grape Pale Ale is like the accessible golden ales or bitters that are pushed to the less adventurous customers at mediocre brewpubs. It is neither offensive nor interesting; it is boring but not bad. It would make a good beer for sipping cool outside by the lake on a warm summer day (unfortunately, that’s not the environment in which I sampled it). It’s really not good for much more than that, but it’s certainly far from a drain pour.

12 oz bottle in Longshot mixpack. Pours a clear golden amber with minimal white crown (<1 finger) and spotty lacing. Aroma is rife with malt sweetness, maybe some honey, no hops, and a slight hint of the grape. It’s very pleasant. The flavour is initially weak in malt character with almost no discernible hop quality, and a lingering sweetness from start to finish. It’s like you’re drinking a sugar-sweetened soda until the end, where you get a bit of barley malt aroma lingering in the back of your palate. The grape taste doesn’t immediately jump out at you - it’s very subtle and takes a few tastes for it to build up on your palate. Once it does, this beer becomes very enjoyable and unique, but it’s not as fruity as one would think. I can really see this beer as binary, where you either like it a lot or you don’t. Very much a session-like beer and if I’m in the mood for it, would love to have a full 6-pack of it instead of having to buy the mixpack just to get it. Light bodied on the palate with spritely carbonation, crisp finish and although it is not even close to any style of beer I’ve had before, it’s enjoyable nevertheless.

Pale in appearance and flavor. Minimal hop flavor. Grapes made it dry nothing else. This beer just didn’t do it for me

Bottle. Copper beer with a nice cream colored head. Malt and light grape aroma. Musty malt flavor with light fruitiness and light earth. Medium bodied. Malty, grape, musty, earth all lingering.

Transparent bronze with a stringy-lacing white head. Aroma of slightly sweet pale malts with a hint of grapes. Starts with about average thickness and some semi-sweet, grainy notes with a mild bitterness and some faint grapey flavor. Pretty bland and uninteresting overall. Would be better with a bigger grape flavor.