Does anyone else think Sam Adam's beer sucks

[LoneWolfPR]

I'm a big fan. They brew a large number of different styles on a large scale, and they do a pretty good job of it. I've never had a single beer of theirs that I thought wasn't well made. Some may not have the flavor I'm looking for, but all their beers are pretty well done. I would drink a Sam Adams over a number of smaller craft breweries any day, and I work at a small craft brewery.

 

[Calder]

+1 to this. I don't like most Sam Adams but I like their cream stout, blackberry witibier, and the cherry wheat as a dessert beer. A pint of cherry wheat with some cherry pie or cobbler.... Fantastic

I'm not sure, but I suspect the beers you like are the ones that most here don't like.

I find most of their beers reasonable, but their cherry wheat, fruit, and Lambic beers are not their best.

 

[MaddBaggins]

I used to drink a lot of SA, loved it. The last couple years, I find it mediocre, with one exception. The SA Boston Lager on tap is still a great brew.

 

[SavoryChef]

I'm not a huge fan. I think their Boston lager is bland and boring. Griffin's Bow is not bad, and their seasonal are mediocre at best.

 

[dbennett78]

I don't like the beer, but I like the theory behind their beer and that they give a mass market alternative to bmc

 

[gandalfiii]

Boston lager is pretty good to me as well as their Oktoberfest. My wife loves their summer ale, but I'm not a big fan of that one. They make so many different varieties that there's bound to be some good and some not so good. But of course at the end of the day, all that matters is what tastes good to you.

 

[Airborneguy]

Best nationwide brand in my opinion, by far. The chocolate dopplebock is one of my favorite all time beers.

 

[bigbeergeek]

I don't like the beer, but I like the theory behind their beer and that they give a mass market alternative to bmc

This.

 

[bigbeergeek]

Best nationwide brand in my opinion, by far. The chocolate dopplebock is one of my favorite all time beers.

I'd go Stone, then Sierra Nevada for my top two nationally distributed brands.

 

[kaconga]

I had no objections to their alpine spring. Didn't think it was great, but really curious as to how you found it so objectionable. Almost makes me wonder if that bottle was seriously mishandled. Oh well.

I'm a fan of their noble pils, cream stout, latitude. And boston lager is a godsend when you're in a bar that has nothing but that and BMC.

It was pretty musty bitter if that makes sense. Honestly it reminded me of the time I ate a grasshopper on a bet. Might have been mishandled but I still won't try it again. I was really impressed by the Belgian session. Easily the smoothest offering in the summer sampler. I have yet to try any spring seasonal I like from any brewery though.

 

[Boy]

East of the Mississippi and parts near it's probably pretty good by comparison. I only say this because of so many Left Coasters I deal with in my job who find BMC to be the end all and have never heard of IPA. For the West Coast I find it pretty boring and nothing to write home about. Met a few of their reps though and they were great people who were very knowledgeable about their beer and processes(rare), and like others I like their brand as an alternative to BMC. The work they've done to try and turn people on to craft beer I wont fault for an instant. I've also got a handful of their bell glasses from an event last year which are great.

 

[makomachine]

Never had a bad one myself. Can't say the same for Stone, Sierra Nevada, Rogue, Russian River, and many other "premium" craft beers. They make easy drinking brews that appeal to a broader audience - and do it damn well. They also introduced the "craft" in beer for many people and they get big props for that. Their Latitude 48 deconstructed was a hop lesson in a case - which is just one of many other examples of why they should be more respected. Beer snobbery sucks.

 

[estricklin]

I love Sam Adam's as a company. The Octoberfest is my favorite beer, ever...ever!!! I try to buy several hundred bucks worth when it hits the shelf.

On the flip side I tried the Latitude 48 IPA once, I drank one and poured the other 5 out. Horrible, undrinkable! That was the only Sam Adams I ever had that was bad though.

 

[BeerLoverHere]

Yeah, I know some of their beers are okay, but on some they really miss the mark. I feel that the local breweries here in central Indy do a far better job hitting the marks than Sam Adams and some have only been in the business for a year or two. If I were SA I'd feel ashamed of this. I know mass producing to a national audience has its challenges, but with the money they got they aren't getting it done in my opinion.

 

[djt17]

I have never had a Sam I didn't like; but I have never had any of their fruit beers. Are there better craft brewers? Of course, but a Sam is better than anything that comes out of a BMC brewery.

 

[Braufessor]

There are many SA beers I have had that I have not liked - but I think some of that is because they brew so many different styles, and some of the styles I just don't like. I also hate that cherry beer. Remember a black ale of some sort that was terrible as well.

Several I do like - Sam Adams ALE - I love. Actually one of my favorite beers.
Sam adams lager, Pils, Oktoberfest, brown ale are also ones I would not hesitate to buy. Like other beers too, transportation and storage take their toll. I am always "surprised" when I happen to be in boston area and have the lager on tap, blows me away how much better it is than from the bottle in the midwest.

 

[Yooper]

There a few I don't care for (cherry wheat, which I call the "cough syrup beer"), but overall I think SA is a solid brewery with good offerings. When I'm in a place that doesn't have much of a selection besides BMC, I have no problem having a Sam Adams. I like the Boston Ale, the Boston Lager, and the Latitude IPA.

 

[bradpoff]

SA was my go to beer for a long time. Like the lager but I think the Boston ale is better...and rarely on tap.

Octoberfest was always a favorite plus seeing it I stores meant grouse season wasn't far away!

 

[Woodyswoodchuck]

Never had a Sam's I didn't like. Not as big of a fan of their flagship lager as I am some of their others, but over all they make quality beer. Like some other people on here have said, they don't make the best beer in the world, but for being a big brewing company they make good stuff.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

I love that they try things. For example, they just released a Gose. I have a feeling a lot of people might try it and think "WTF is this crap?!", merely because they have no clue what Gose is. The same way a lot of the "BMC crossover" market they have will think of a cranberry lambic or a saison.

SA isn't one of my favorite breweries overall, but they have a lot of beers that would be hard to find other examples of that I like to pick up when I see them -- i.e. the black lager. Schwarzbier isn't exactly something that is easy to find... Oh, and I went to a Sam Adams beer pairing dinner one year, and that black lager is AWESOME paired with a chocolate dessert!

 

[hoserbrau]

There's a lot of hate for the Cherry Wheat in here. I'm not a huge fan of it myself but I wouldn't pour it down the sink.

For some reason I seem to recall that they had a home brewing contest among their employees, and the prize was a national distribution of that beer. It was won by some chick in accounting or something with her Cherry Wheat.

 

[ktblunden]

The term I would use for Sam Adams is "homogenized." They craft their beers to appeal to a wide audience, and most of their beers I've tried seem somehow bland, like they didn't want to go all the way and risk alienating some of their customers. I do realize that they have branched out and are releasing some more "extreme" styles for lack of a better word, but again most of those I try end up being decent examples, but nothing spectacular. I would never use language suggesting their beers "suck" but they rank toward the bottom on a list of my favorite craft breweries. I picked up their IPA Hop-ology box and found the Grumpy Monk and White Water to be excellent beers (in fact, the best examples I've ever had of blending Belgian styles with IPA), but everything else in the box was lackluster at best. Those two beers I would gladly buy, but neither are offered standalone outside the box. Nothing else by Boston Beer Co. has ever made me want to go out and buy more.

EDIT: I take it back, Whitewater IPA is offered standalone and my Bevmo carries it in 6-packs. I will be picking one of those up today.

 

[Klickmania]

My only issues with Sam Adams is having to buy the twelve pack sampler to get two of the beers that I actually want, and their fruit beers. Why they don't offer more plain old six packs of their stuff I'll never know. I can't stand the Cherry Wheat, the Blackberry Wit, and I thought that Mighty Oak was pretty god awful as well. With that being said I absolutely LOVE Noble Pils and their Octoberfest, as well as the Black Lager. I don't understand the hate for the Latitude 48 on here. The deconstructed 12 pack was a pretty cool idea that they executed pretty well IMO.

I've also run into a problem with stock sitting too long on the shelves at some of the local grocery stores. Where I'm located is basically in the dark ages when it comes to beer, so that's not their fault by any means. People around here just don't buy it. And I gotta tell ya, the one's I've had after the freshness date didn't taste so hot. So I'd check that next time any of you have one that doesn't taste good.

 

[amandabab]

There's a lot of hate for the Cherry Wheat in here. I'm not a huge fan of it myself but I wouldn't pour it down the sink.

I would, and I have.

 

[BrewDocND]

I love when people declare that they hate everything a particular brewery makes, especially when that brewery makes a crap load of different styles.

Good for a brewery their size continuing to branch out. Are there misses? Hell yes. Cranberry lambic is IMHO undrinkable. Cherry wheat is bad. Summer ale and alpine spring are blah. But lager, boston ale, Oktoberfest, winter lager, latitude 48 are all good beers.

And the long shot contest is really cool. 2 homebrewers and one Sam
Employee get their brews done on a large scale and sold in a mix pack.

 

[meat803]

Their flagship beers taste like poops mcgee. Americans will buy and like anything if you market it correctly. This is especially true due to the fact that 99% of american beer drinkers dont know what a decent beer is. 4 out of the 5 top beers sold in america are light american pils (the S is silent) lagers.

Top 10 for 2012
Bud Light: 19.2% market share
Budweiser: 12%
Miller Light: 8.6%
Coors Light: 7.8%
Natural Light: 4.2%
Corona: 4%
Busch: 2.8%
Busch Light: 2.8%
Heineken: 2.4%<--------------Brewed in Canada, not Holland. A lot of imports are pulling this trick.
Miller High Life: 2.3%

 

[Josh_K]

Most of their beers are great.

 

[estricklin]

Has anyone tried the porch rocker? I seen it in the store today but didn't get it because I'm not a huge fan of lemon.

 

[jonmohno]

Some i kinda like,some i dont. I think alot of their beer has a general appeal to a gateway craft drinker. I mean,man i just had a budweiser the other day and i really enjoyed it,ive always liked it on the righ ocassion when i was a regular miller lite(drink to get drunk drinker) but its a pretty good premium lager. I still want to do a BMC blind taste test,because miller use to be my go to light beer.Being its easy cleanist drinkability.
I kinda like the small batch series and some seasonals. Ive had a hankering for picking up a sixer of the noble pils,which when i remebered it the first time i ever tried it i thougt it was so bitter. I can barely even remember what a Sam adams lager or light even tastes like.Guess thats on my goto list now. Im shure their beers will only get better.I think.

 

[swackattack]

Bought there summer seasonal case. Enjoyed everyone. East west kolsch was my favorite.