In Praise of the Sam Adams Line

[tofuburrito]

I was at a Bevmo beer tasting last week for the Sam Adams Imperial series and the rep told me that Boston Brewing is just under the amount of barrels brewed to be considered a craft brewer and they will likely bypass that amount in the near future. Thus they will no longer officially be considered a craft brewery.
I don't know who makes these distinctions but in my mind the Sam Adams line will always be thought of fondly as they are probably the brewery most responsible for the cross-over from macro swill to craft beers.
Do they nail every new style they try? No, they have their hits and misses but the point is they are always trying something new and they may be big but it seems to me they put a lot of care and effort into their beers.
The fact that there is almost always a Boston Lager option (along with SNPA) at most restaurants and bars does not cause me to jump for joy but I appreciate there are at least a couple drinkable beers on the list.
I hope they keep up the good work and I will continue to try their seasonal varieties. Just because they're big doesn't mean they don't have vision.

[Jim Dorsch]

The Sam Adams rep was referring to the definition of a craft brewery according to the Brewers Association: http://www.beertown.org/education/cra...

If you read the beer industry trade publications, they typically think of 'craft' as including beers such as Blue Moon, Leinie's, Shiner, i.e., they look at as more of a style- rather than an ideological-based definition.

Many believe that the BA will find a way to keep Boston Beer in the craft arena, perhaps by bending the definition. We will see. BBCo has done a lot for the category, and for the BA, and it would be a shame to see them excluded.

Regarding BBCo's dedication to the craft of making beer, the company showed a variety of interesting beers at a reception at their Boston brewery during the Craft Brewers Conference in April. These included a gueuze that they'd made by leaving the wort in an orchard to be inoculated by the wild yeasties in the air. (They laid out a nice lobster dinner for everyone, too.

)

I don't drink SABL often, but each time I do, I marvel at what a well-made beer it is.

[JessKidden]

"Many believe that the BA will find a way to keep Boston Beer in the craft arena, perhaps by bending the definition."

They'd be nuts not to- I say just create the "National Craft Brewer" catagory for over 2m bbl. brewers- or, better yet, drop the anachronistic "National" and "Regional" terms for craft brewers all together- the "Regionals" like Sierra Nevada, New Belgian and many much smaller breweries hardly have a traditionally "regional" market, but are shipped to much of the US.

Somehow I doubt next spring that the Brewers Association is going to put out one of their standard press releases announcing:

"Craft Beer Sales Drop 23% to under 3% of the total US Beer Market"

which is what the result would be (using '08's numbers) if they "kicked out" BBC. They've made an apparent "exception" for Spoetzl (re- the rule of a brewer's flagship beer should be all-malt)- seems BBC is a much more important member of their organization (not that all member "fit" their own definition of "craft brewery").

.

[Jim Dorsch]

The BA needs to differentiate its members' products from stuff like Blue Moon, hence its ideologically-based definition. I believe if you spoke to some of its members, you'd find that this issue is not yet resolved. You stand on a slippery slope when you lobby essentially on an economic basis for a group that you define in other than economic terms.

[JessKidden]

Yeah, it's a strange evolution in which what began as a homebrewers organization created a "craft brewers" group (which, while sharing some joint history, are in some ways opposites) and then merges with the old "small brewers" organization (BAA). Seems that whole "Beer Town conglomerate" (or whatever the "parent" group is called these days) just has too many fingers in too many pies (well, fermenters?) and tries to represent too many, often conflicting groups- beer consumers, homebrewers, craft brewers, small brewers- and all the time collecting what looks like big bucks from the "macro" brewers, who pay for each of their individual breweries to have membership in the BA -including the recently re-named "Blue Moon (née Sandlot) Brewing Co." <g>

[tofuburrito]

This conversation on the Brewer's Association reminds me that I've read about this debate before (maybe at Beer Advocate). I may well be wrong about this but I seem to remember that Jim Koch is one of the founders of the Brewer's Association. If that's true it's likely that Boston Brewing will continue to be classified in the best possible light regardless of increased sales.
As a side note; at the beer tasting they were selling the Sam Adams glass and being a glass collector (and one who likes to use the appropriate glass for the style) I picked one up. I can't vouch for everything they say about it but it feels good in the hand and displays the beer well.

[JessKidden]

"I seem to remember that Jim Koch is one of the founders of the Brewer's Association"

The American Homebrewers Assoc.'s small brewers organization that eventually went by the name "Association of Brewers" predates Koch and BBC by a few years. AHA's website claims 1978 for the founding of the BA, but I think that's too early- early 80's would be more like it. Koch's early history with the AHA (especially the GABF) and his rocky relationship with many of the true craft brewers at the time would make it unlikely he was a "founder".

If you're talking about only the merged Brewers Association of America and the Association of Brewers that resulted in the current "Brewers Association" (mid-2000's), then BBC is probably a "founding member".

[The Professor]

You're right...SABL is an extraordinarily well made beer, as was Matt Reich's New Amsterdam Lager. Koch apparently had superior marketing skills (even if he bruised a few sensibilities along the way...but it's a jungle out there).
In any case,the growth of the SA brand will surely go down in brewing history as a groundbreaking success story.
Regardless of any so called "official" designation, SA is very much a craft brewery as evidenced by the quality of their products overall.

[Jim Dorsch]

Yes, New Amsterdam was another good one. They called it Amber Beer IIRC. Was it in fact a lager beer, or an ale? Whatever it was, it was the first craft beer I ever had, and an eye-opening experience.

[JessKidden]

IIRC, I once read that it was a "hybrid", which I took to mean was something of an imitation of Anchor's Steam Beer, fermented warmer than normal w/lager yeast. Will have to do some research on where I read that, tho'. I've always thought that a number of the early contract and craft brews (like SABL and NAAB, right up to Yuengling Lager) were taking their cues from Anchor Steam- "different" than "US adjunct light lager" but not so different (the dreaded old fashioned "ale" term, too hoppy, too bitter, too dark or too alcoholic) to scare off "cross-over drinkers".

I think the common wisdom is that Reich's failure was taking on the debt of opening that huge brewpub on Manhattan's westside- if you think about it, tho' a number of contract brewers would open their own breweries over the years- BBC and Brooklyn most notably (tho' I think they were a minority), few have ever gone the contract brew > brewpub route. As the Professor notes, Reich certainly doesn't have the reputation of having been the glad-handing huckster (and I mean that in a mostly good sense) that Jim Koch is.

[The Professor]

I think you're right about it being a "hybrid". I managed to make it to the brewery/restaurant on 10th Avenue during the incredibly short window it was open (I think it folded within 8 months). As good as the New Amsterdam was when he had it contract brewed, it was phenomenally good at the brewery/restaurant. That location was just the wrong place at the wrong time...that part of 10th Avenue 25 years ago was not a very pleasant place to be (hell...back then, even Times Square was a rathole). Really too bad...the beer was really, really good.

[The Professor]

It was groundbreaking. At the time, Newman's was selling draft only in Albany, and Vernon Valley was making amazing beer on an antique German system in northern NJ, but New Amsterdam was probably the first NY craft beer to get wide distribution.
I attended a tasting/seminar hosted by Matt Reich in the early 80's. At that point he was already selling the Amber Beer, brewed for him by FX Matt. The tasting consisted of a variety of commercial beers, including some variations of his own New Amsterdam which he brought along, along with some intersting stories on how he and Joe Owades arrived at the target beer (by tasting various commercial beers, and mixing them to achieve various flavors; once they mixed up what they liked, Owades reverse engineered it.
Iit was a great time; Reich was perhaps a year or a year and a half away from opening the restaurant/brewery at that point, and was determined to be the first new brewery in NYC. Richard Wrigley beat him to the punch with the Manhatten Brewery, which managed to open (to lots of publicity) a few months before New Amsterdam. Wrigley's place was certainly in a better location (and also made pretty good beer, at least while Mark Witty was brewmaster).
New Amsterdam should have been more of a success than it was. I guess after crying in his beer, Reich eventually sold the brand off to FX Matt and exited the beer biz for good.

[Jim Dorsch]

I recall Vernon Valley; had it at the Brickskeller once, at a tasting. That's where Jay Mission (RIP) worked IIRC.

Owades was amazing, involved in everything from light beer to craft.

I believe a young Garrett Oliver got his start at Manhattan.

[JessKidden]

Pretty sure the F X Matt-contract-brewed New Amsterdam predated Vernon Valley by several years (it was out in 1982), but both breweries opened in 1985 according to most sources (as you note, Manhattan, opened in '84, beat Reich to the punch in NYC).

A decade into the "craft beer era", Reich's "Old New York Brewing Company" was listed as the largest "microbrewery" (then defined as under 10k bbl) of 1986, so it was pretty successful in it's time. http://jesskidden.googlepages.com/craftbreweriestimeline

I can't recall now- did they ever have a bottling line at the Manhattan brewery, or were the bottles (both the Amber Beer and the Ale by then) still coming from Utica?

The subject of New Amsterdam came up the other day on another beer site and I recalled that F X Matt actually didn't own the NA labels too long before they sold them to Peerless (a NY area importer) -
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-7861277.html
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-1...
I think the brands survived into the mid-90's after that (they had a "Dark IPA", IIRC, that was pretty nice and predated by at least a decade the current "black" or "dark" oxymoronic India *Pale* Ales).

__
It was a "rough" area- I was driving a truck in Manhattan at the time, and we leased from Ryder who had a fuel station and repair shop a few blocks north back then, also between 11th and 12th. I left my truck to be filled up one day and walked along the side street to the repair shop and I noticed all these "circles" in the dirt along the side of the street. Looked a bit closer (but not THAT close, as luck would have it) and they were the remains of discarded condoms... really made me think about it- the area then was mostly "open" and dusty when the wind blew in off the river "Gee, what's exactly *in* this dust".

[Jim Dorsch]

I think I got confused about one thing. I was talking about New Amsterdam, but my mind was focusing on Dock Street, which I believe was called an Amber Beer.

[JessKidden]

"I think I got confused about one thing."

Perhaps (I think it comes with the territory of remembering beers from a 1/4 century ago<g> ) but New Amsterdam was also (and earlier) labeled "Amber Beer" as well. (See the label in my link above or http://www.benhillman.com/packages/naamber500.jpg - in fact, it was called "New Amsterdam *New York* Amber Beer" - another "hmm..." situation re. Koch's "Boston Lager").

Oh, and it was Michael Jackson (of course) who, in his second edition World Guide to Beer (1988) who wrote of NAAB- "...this very enjoyable beer is something of a hybrid between a Vienna Lager and an ale." (And repeated the "hybrid" term in a couple of "Pocket Guides" as well, tho' never specifies if it was fermented warmer or with ale yeast, etc).

Dock Street Amber Beer he described as "ale-ish", by the way. Which of those early contract brews did Koch accuse of simply being SABL and claiming that the owner simply went to Pittsburgh and asked for the same beer?

And speaking of Pittsburgh and Koch, few comments about the part that the now shuttered brewery (Iron City and other brands are to be contract brewed at the City-owned Latrobe brewery) played in the history of craft beer in the US. http://jesskidden.googlepages.com/pit...
(see quote at bottom on page).