Sam Adams LongShot?

I was looking around on ratebeer.com and came across the Sam Adams LongShot beers. Are these the new ones that were made with the German brewery or is it just a new label on the same beer?

They're the winners of a homebrew competition that Sam Adams puts on every year.

One from a Sam Adams employee, and two from other homebrewers.

That's pretty cool, do they distribute the beers nationally?

Yep.

There's some information about it on their website, I believe.

I tried the Longshot beers this year, and thought the bock was excellent, the cranberry wit was okay but not particularly great, and the IPA was undrinkable (I'm suspicious there was something wrong with my two bottles...other people have given it rave reviews, and it was brewed by a guy who really knows what he's doing).

Personally, I thought the IPA in the Longshot last year was awful as well.

The first time I had the Longshot DIPA (shortly after the initial release), I thought it was one of the best big IPAs I'd ever had. I recently had it again, and thought it was terrible. I also read somewhere that it was a Pliny clone. Can't remember where, but since I have no access to the real mccoy, I can't really comment on that.

Yeah, it was a Pliny clone.

I've had Pliny once, and liked it. Didn't think the Longshot beer was anything like it.

It wasn't a clone exactly, it was McDole's version of Pliny. The thing about DIPAs is that they don't last, so age and storage account for a lot of the variation you hear about.

Rick500 said:

I tried the Longshot beers this year, and thought the bock was excellent, the cranberry wit was okay but not particularly great, and the IPA was undrinkable

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That is the way to describe every single Sam Adams mix pack. One great beer, a couple decent beers, and a real clunker that SA uses their mix packs to get rid of. I have stopped buying their mix packs due to some of the crap they lump in them.

Rick500 said:

I tried the Longshot beers this year, and thought the bock was excellent, the cranberry wit was okay but not particularly great, and the IPA was undrinkable (I'm suspicious there was something wrong with my two bottles...other people have given it rave reviews, and it was brewed by a guy who really knows what he's doing).

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Man, I felt the same way. I was was not impressed with any of them though.