Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic

I mentioned in a recent thread about how I had purchased the Sam Adams Holiday pack and how I was enjoying the beers so far. (pretty good IMO). While I had been warned about it, I had to try the Lambic. This beer is just as horrid as everyone said it would be.

Aroma- Couldn't place it at first, but I figured it out. It smells just like Skoal or Copenhagen dip.

Taste- Like diluted dip.

Does anyone seriously like this beer, or is everyone so nice to Sam Adams that they just don't want to tell them how bad this beer is? Regardless of the bashing they take, I like most SA beers, but would rather lick the sweat off a goat's scrotum then pay money for or taste the Cranberry Lambic again.

This beer wasn't worthy of being included in the review section. If you like diluted liquid chewing tobacco this might be the beer for you.

As a devoted fan of Copenhagen, I take umbrage.
That swill smells and tastes like way too sweet maple syrup. It's simply awful and has turned me away for trying lambics for some time.

My fiancée tried the SA Cranberry Lambic and said it wasn't as bad as some other flavoured lambics we've tried. Honestly though most of these flavoured lambics are bad. The only one I've ever not totally disliked I got from a speciality beer shop in Brussels. I also got a young lambic (no fruit flavor added) from the same place, which was incredibly good (and quite sour). I don't know why they don't sell more of that, the guy that runs the store said that he had to reserve a barrel from the brewery and then drive out there on the appointed day to pick it up, it's not actually distributed.

I see nothing has changed since I tried it about 6 years ago.... once. That's all the try you need for that one.

but would rather lick the sweat off a goat's scrotum then pay money for or taste the Cranberry Lambic again.

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that's what lambic is supposed to taste like....

i'd rather drink the overly sweet lindmen's 'lambics' than SA though...

Yeah, its not good at all. A few sips was enough for me...

OT - but I think the Old Fessiwig that comes in the holiday pack is terrible as well. Anyone with me?

Bopper359 said:

Yeah, its not good at all. A few sips was enought for me...

OT - but I think the Old Fessiwig that comes in the holiday pack is terrible as well. Anyone with me?

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I've only tried one of the Old Fezz's. It was OK, but nothing spectacular.

Bopper359 said:

Yeah, its not good at all. A few sips was enought for me...

OT - but I think the Old Fessiwig that comes in the holiday pack is terrible as well. Anyone with me?

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I love the Old Fezziwig, as well as the Black Lager.

Had this last year with the Holiday pack and couldn't get the bottle down. Smelled pretty good, but just reminded me of cranberry flavored cough syrup. From the website it looks like it's fermented with the Safbrew W-68, but without bugs and aging what exactly makes this a lambic or plambic? I wonder if the addition of some Acetobacter and aging could turn this into a good vinegar.

Professor Frink said:

I love the Old Fezziwig, as well as the Black Lager.

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Black lager I like. Old Fezzy, not so much. It's been a while since I tried it. I'll have to give it another try. Maybe I was just completely put off my the lambic - I had them both on the same day

Wait until you try the new Blackberry Wit... it makes a Cranberry Lambic taste awesome.

Professor Frink said:

I love the Old Fezziwig, as well as the Black Lager.

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Another vote for both of those.

This beer is horse****. It is nothing even resembling a good lambic.

For the guy who inquired about lambics without added fruit, there are plenty. You just have to look in the right places. And many of them are very tasty.

carnevoodoo said:

For the guy who inquired about lambics without added fruit, there are plenty. You just have to look in the right places. And many of them are very tasty.

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I know you can find Gueuzes, but I'm interested in a young lambic. Nowhere around here sells one.

Oh man, I HATE the Lambic. Everything else in the Winter Mix Pack is excellent but the lambic is God Awful! I won't even buy the mix pack anymore because I'd have to suck down 4 of those bottles of ****. I'm really sorry to hear about the Blackberry Wit, I was looking forward to that. I really wish they would put something like a weizenbock or dopplebock or a barley wine in the winter mix pack.

Last spring I had the chance to talk with one of the brewers at SA and I asked him why they kept putting the Cranberry into the holiday pack. He said that they found that people really enjoyed it so I gave him a "Huh?" look and then continued on.

I don't like it, in fact I don't really see how it's even drnkable.

Now the new Blackberry Wit they're putting out tastes pretty good.

i work with a guy that buys the sampler pack every winter (i picked one up last night as well) and he's been stock-piling the Sam Adams Cranberry Lambic for years now...

ahh....cranberry "lambic" threads are always good for a laugh.
I hear that in beer-hell the rivers flow endlessly with SA triple bock and cranberry lambic and Jim Koch makes you shotgun 'em till you puke purple.

I am having the Blackberry Wit right now. It's a pretty refreshing beer, but I do have a couple of problems with it.

- The aroma is quite "fake", as if they used an extract. It overpowers the rest of the beer, so that all you smell is sweet berry. It's more reminiscent of that blueberry muffin aroma than blackberry.

- The taste is actually quite pleasant, but the berry flavor is just a bit too strong for me, overpowering the wit character almost completely. It's sweet rather than tart, and the clove and citrus characteristics are completely lacking. Again, it tastes somewhat "fake". Had the berry character stayed in the background more, blending rather than overpowering the base beer, this would have been a very decent brew.

This beer is MUCH, MUCH better than the Cherry Wheat (which tastes like cough syrup to me), but I don't think it's much better than what the BMC have to offer in the fruit beer category, either.

I wouldn't go out of my way to pick this up in a sixpack, but may pick it up again in the Brewmaster Collection pack, depending on how I like the Irish Red that comes packed with it along with the Black Lager, which I like.

I found it to be drinkable. Not a favored brew by any means but drinkable.

I'd rather have the Cl than any typical Classic American Light lager and I can tolerate those too.

I'd definitely have several of these before I'd choke down another
Lindemans Gueuze Cuvée René.