Sam Adams tour

I wasn't sure where to post this , so please feel free to move it to the proper
forum if it doesn't belong here.
Went to the Sam Adams brewery in Boston on Saturday. Didn't have my camera ,so no photos of the brewery.
Had a good time and our tour guide was very friendly and informative.
The Boston facility is used mostly for research and development as well as brewing small runs and most of the extreme beers.
Saw about 100 barrels of Utopias and other brews aging away in oak casks.
Also found out the 09 Utopias will be released around Christmas time.

After our introduction to beer making and short tour we went to the tasting room and were treated to some Boston lager , followed by a tasting of the summer ale and we finished up with a Dunkelweizen that was a test brew and hasn't been released to the public yet.
It had a very distinct nutmeg taste followed by lots of esters from the particular yeast the used. The nutmeg followed by the banana esters made for an interesting combination.
Was unique knowing we were all sipping a beer that only existed in their tasting room.
Also came home with another sampling glass , and managed to fill it with hops before leaving the brewery.
They use pellet hops in the brewing process ,but had a full barrel of hops cones in the introduction area.They pass around a few cups of it so you can crumble and smell the aromas of the hops.
I had a chance to talk a bit with the guide before everyone gathered , so after the tour I walked back to the intro area. My guide wasn't there but a couple other employees were in the area .so I rasied my glass and pointed to the hops barrels. They both smiled and nodded yas ,so I filled my glass with hops.
Not sure if they were grown on site as there were about 25 plants out by the entrance.They were between 15 -20 feet high.but I didn't see any cones.
I'm sure the hops I got are stale and not worth brewing ,but just the fact that they came from an actual brewery was still cool.

All in all it was well worth the time to take the tour and enjoyed it very much.
Would recommend it to anyone who happens to be in the area.
Here's my new sampling glass complete with hops from the brewery.

Hell, I'd put that glass in a shadow box ( kinda like a picture frame) with the hops in it and hang it in the bar area!!

I went on the tour but didn't get any hops! Heh. They always use the format (from what I've been told) of Boston Lager -> Seasonal -> Experimental. That sucks when you have the hoppy BL before the Oktoberfest, like I did, but I guess they can't be switching their flight order all the time. Or they could, I suppose. Either way it's a great free tour, and I picked up a 'perfect pint' while I was there.

Myself, my fiancee, my best friend, and his girlfriend went back in '07 when I went to Fenway for the first time. It was a great little side trip.