Mike McDole's Longshot Winner Pliny Clone will NOT be brewed by Sam Adams

[SPLASTiK]

I don't see why there's all of a sudden all this hate toward Sam Adams.

Yeah, especially since everyone doesn't have all the details... the exact reasons why are all assumptions it sounds so it's pretty silly to flat out say you're boycotting them over this until concrete details are out.

Perhaps it's not an issue of money at all, maybe their hops suppliers flat out won't supply them with the amount of hops they needed for the beer on the scale Sam Adams is planning to produce it. Many breweries have contracts for various hops and with the shortage suppliers aren't as flexible. The reasons given on the show were of hops shortage were in the midst of... many breweries are having trouble securing their hops for the next year as it is...

They did say they'd be able to brew it next year afterall... Pliny is a tasty beer so it'll be cool when Sam finally brews it. On another note, they did just take a big 25% stock hit recently...

 

[howlinowl]

Or maybe....just maybe if Sammy Adams doesn't produce this beer this year, there may be actually a few hops left laying around that I might....just might be able to brew a few batches this year. Otherwise, if they just went ahead and charged on, you and I might not have anything left to brew with.

I'd like to see a public announcement type ad aired explaining the situation, explaining that it will be probably brewed next year, and then when they do brew it, advertise the livin' hell out of it to make it up to McDole for the delay.

I'm willin' to cut Sammy Adams some slack,Jim Koch and SA have done alot for the promotion of craft beer and homebrewing, but I'll damn well be lookin for McDole's beer next year....and if Sammy doesn't produce it and is quiet about it, hoping everybody just forgets about it, then I'll be pissed.

Allan

 

[the_bird]

If this truly is an issue of the hop shortage, brew another one of McDole's non-hoppy recipes. He's got almost as many competition wins as Jamil, right? In effect, continue to reward the winner, even if his winning recipe is unbrewable.

That's not a perfect solution, of course; whatever the other recipe was, it didn't win Longshot. So, kick out the Grape Ale from the sixer (is ANYONE stoked about that one?) and include the alternative McDole brew and the Longshot runner up. Or, keep the Grape Ale, but only include one bottle, then include one bottle of either the runner-up Longshot brew or the McDole alternate (so that there would be four different beers in the sixer).

Finally, if it IS an issue related to it being a quasi-clone, then the rules could have and should have specifically disallowed commercial brew clones from entry. That would have been perfectly reasonable, IMHO, given the ultimate purpose of the competition.

 

[EdWort]

They could rename the contest to "It will be a Long Shot if we ever brew the winning recipe"

 

[brewt00l]

Might want to wait for the details to come out before taking up pitchforks and torches.....


Anywho, the original beer is going to be bottled by Russian River & Vinny himself when they get the new brewery online so I am a bit more excited about that one than the clone brewed by Boston Beer Co.

 

[PseudoChef]

Because they welched on a bet citing cost as the reason. (We're speculating that there's more to the story...but that's really beside the point)

That'd be like me hosting an HBT contest offering a free stirplate to the first guy who sends me a six-pack of homebrew, then refusing to hold up my end of the deal if the price of electronics doubled. I would likely be banned from this site for something like that.

Likewise, I am banning SA from my fridge.

As I've said before, they didn't cite cost as the reason. They cited availability. Two different things.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Maybe I was a little harsh yesterday. I was tired and easily irritated. I'll wait for a public announcement before spewing forth any more wrath. The whole situation just plain stinks.

 

[Beerrific]

I think I will hold any judgment too. Couple questions before I decided what to think:
-Are they putting out a 6 pack from the contest at all?
-Will one of Mike's beers be in it?
-Will they mention the problem publicly (on the 6 pack, commercial, not just a press release)?
-Will the contest rules prohibit clones of commercially available beers next year?

 

[rdwj]

As I've said before, they didn't cite cost as the reason. They cited availability. Two different things.

Exactly. So what if they don't brew it this year? All the hops that SA would need to do a commercial offering of a clone are hops that would be out of the market and unavailable to the rest of us. They're gonna brew it, just not THIS year. And besides, don't you think it's a TAD irresponsible to start marketing a SUPER hopped beer during a HUGE hop shortage?

A bunch of whining about nothing IMHO.

 

[TheJadedDog]

All the money in the world is not going to buy you hops if there aren't any hops left to buy. Knowing this company (regardless of what you think of their product) it seems unlikely to me that they are withholding production due to cost.

Side note: I do love how we all love to pile on at the slightest provocation.

 

[the_bird]

Bah. Too bad there wasn't a feckin' grape shortage!

 

[PseudoChef]

Bah. Too bad there wasn't a feckin' grape shortage!

Amen. If that beer were brewed by someone w/o a v@g, we wouldn't be drinkin' it in Feb. (no offense to any female forumers....but Grape Ale? c'mon!)

 

[the_bird]

Well, it sounds like most of us WON'T be drinking it!

 

[rdwj]

Amen. If that beer were brewed by someone w/o a v@g, we wouldn't be drinkin' it in Feb. (no offense to any female forumers....but Grape Ale? c'mon!)

I won't knock it 'till I try it, but I suspect you may be right.

 

[Rhoobarb]

...A bunch of whining about nothing IMHO.

Agreed 110%!

This thread reads like a bunch of pre-teen girls who've got their panties in a bundle and are throwing a tantrum because daddy can't get them Hannah Montana tickets. Jeez!

"Welch on a bet"? This isn't a G*ddammed bet, it a contest! Learn which is which. As long as they don't break any laws, the contest runner sets the rules. If you dont like it - don't participate. SA said they would produce this when hops were more plentiful and it is a fact that certain varieties of hops are hard-to-impossible to find. So, before everybody pisses and moans like this is the sinking of the Lusitania, why don't we take them at their word and wait to see if they make good on this beer.

As for a boycott (besides the fact they rarely work), I do like some SA beers and think Jim Koch has done too much for homebrewing to support one.

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Might want to wait for the details to come out before taking up pitchforks and torches.....

I agree. After reading this thread, it sure seems like it doesn't take much to get you guys all riled up. You'd think that you all were talking about Budweiser, for crying out loud. Innocent before proven guilty, that sort of thing.

Wait for more info, THEN burn SA in effigy.

 

[david_42]

Pretty slimy. I can't boycott something I never buy, otherwise I would.

 

[Cheesefood]

I couldn't find a single news release to support this claim. Can someone direct me to an official source of information?

 

[BierMuncher]

I’m not familiar with the whole story so I can’t weigh in on these specifics.

I will say this though, were it not for Sam Adams:
Michelob (probably) would not have been converted to an all-malt beer.
Budweiser (probably) wouldn’t be being touted as the “Great American Lager” in its new upscale advertisements.
The evolution of Craft Beer (probably) would be 5-10 years behind where it is today.
It would (probably) be more difficult for me to get folks to dip into my HB cooler at parties etc…

I’m just saying, SA has done a lot for the non BMC industry and that includes the home (craft) brewing world.

 

[JnJ]

Agreed 110%!

This thread reads like a bunch of pre-teen girls who've got their panties in a bundle and are throwing a tantrum because daddy can't get them Hannah Montana tickets. Jeez!

"Welch on a bet"? This isn't a G*ddammed bet, it a contest! Learn which is which. As long as they don't break any laws, the contest runner sets the rules. If you dont like it - don't participate. SA said they would produce this when hops were more plentiful and it is a fact that certain varieties of hops are hard-to-impossible to find. So, before everybody pisses and moans like this is the sinking of the Lusitania, why don't we take them at their word and wait to see if they make good on this beer.

As for a boycott (besides the fact they rarely work), I do like some SA beers and think Jim Koch has done too much for homebrewing to support one.

DITTO. All this talk is making me thirsty. I think I'll try a Sam Adams........

 

[the_bird]

Well, BM, that's why it seems so out of character for SA.

My initial response is/was very visceral; I've heard McDole on Jamil's show, I know that he's boys with JZ, and you can't help but feel some kind of connection to those guys when you listen to them as much as I do. Feels like a slap in the face to a homebrewing brother! You know how we have to REPRESENT!

I sincerely hope this is a "we are willing to pay top dollar for the Chinook we'll need, but we literally cannot buy them for any price" situation, versus a "we can buy the Chinook, but they're so costly that our margins on this sixer will drop to 5% from 15%" situation.

Was McDole on the Sunday show? I'll wait to hear what he and Jamil have to say before passing final judgement.

 

[PseudoChef]

I couldn't find a single news release to support this claim. Can someone direct me to an official source of information?

Check out the Sunday Session 11/18 link. They discuss it within the first hour, I believe. ***EDIT: They start talking about it at 17:25 or so into the show.****

Was McDole on the Sunday show? I'll wait to hear what he and Jamil have to say before passing final judgement.

Yes, McDole delivered the news himself on the air. I just relistened to it and he's completely fine with it. It's availability as I've said before, it will come out in 2009.

You guys get way too up-tight sometimes. Glad it wasn't half of you all who won and would have been railing on SA. At least McDole accepts it and can be fine with it without crying about it.

Sorry I broke this news without official releases.

 

[Warped04]

You guys get way too up-tight sometimes. Glad it wasn't half of you all who won and would have been railing on SA. At least McDole accepts it and can be fine with it without crying about it.

Maybe he's crying on the inside

 

[ShortSnoutBrewing]

Not sure Sam Adams really needs any more bad press:
http://www.1190kex.com/pages/pages/md_sam_adams.php

 

[Danny013]

Now we can rinse the sand out of our ******s...

Time to go hit up that SA in the fridge!

/Loves me SA.
//Wasn't ever mad to begin with.

 

[brewt00l]

Not sure Sam Adams really needs any more bad press:
http://www.1190kex.com/pages/pages/md_sam_adams.php

and you might as well read both sides of the story:
http://www.samueladams.com/news.aspx?release=31

 

[rdwj]

Not sure Sam Adams really needs any more bad press:
http://www.1190kex.com/pages/pages/md_sam_adams.php

If that's all the bad press you can dig up, they must be running a pretty clean ship

 

[ShortSnoutBrewing]

I used to produce the Mark Mason and his former co-host (Michael Thompson) show so I just had to share it. It's a silly one, but entertaining.

 

[clayof2day]

I think you should all listen to what Mike says about it on the BN. It sounds kind of legit to me. He admits SA would need 2500 POUNDS EACH of Warrior, Centennial, Cascade, and Simcoe. Thats a LOT of hops that as mentioned before, SA probably doesn't have contracted for this year. SA has committed to producing the beer in next years LongShot. Also, about it beinga a clone, I don't think that matters at all. People enter and win competitions all the time with beer kits from HBShops. Its not about the recipe, its about the brewing process and the details that make it spectacular. If all of us brewed the same Pliny clone, each of us would have a different beer and none would score the same in competition. They would probably all be distinct from the original Pliny produced by RR as well. People seem to put a lot of stake in what Jamil Z. tends to say, and I know that he feels recipe is not very importatnt to beer quality and is not really important in winning comps. I think its totally legit to win a comp. with a clone recipe or a beer kit and if you think otherwise I think you're putting WAY too much stock in recipe formulation.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Well said, Clay. Your post is the sort of conversation that we should probably be having here rather than lambasting Sam Adams.

I was being a real Negative Nancy yesterday when there really aren't many facts out there regarding this development. I'd certainly like to hear more from both Sam Adams and Mike McDole on the matter. I made a snap judgment based on hearsay and speculation. That was wrong. Let's let this whole thing pan out a bit more.