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

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PseudoChef

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I just heard this news on TBN's Sunday Session. Jim Koch called Mike McDole sometime over the weekend and said that due to the hop shortage, they could not produce his beer as part of the upcoming Longshot six pack to be released in February.

They said that if things get back on track, it will be released next year instead.

Bumming news for anyone wanting to try "Pliny."
 
That's a BS lame cop out.

Time to boycott Sam Adams till they live up to their commitments. They could have made one batch of the stuff at the very least.

Sorry, but I can't stand welchers, and this one stinks to high heaven.
 
EdWort said:
That's a BS lame cop out.

Time to boycott Sam Adams till they live up to their commitments. They could have made one batch of the stuff at the very least.

Sorry, but I can't stand welchers, and this one stinks to high heaven.
I am with ya Ed!!! What a copout!!
JJ
 
Jekster said:
That's not too cool coming from a company that you know has enough money to produce the product.

That's the reason I'm PO'd. It's the principle of it.

Screw the little guy after they got loads of publicity and support from the home craft brewer (notice not homebrewer).

Take advantage of problem to back out of a commitment is so lame a$$ed when they can afford to at least do one production run.

Since I'm a man of principle and due to Koch's shortage of principle, there won't be any Sam Adam's products purchased for my household, while dining out, while entertaining clients who drink mass quantities of beer, for corporate parties, picnics, or just plain thirsty.

I'll drink water before I touch another Sam Adam's product till they live up to their commitment to produce Mike's winning beer!
 
I don't like SA beer much in the first place. I've tried nearly everything they brew. In fact, after reading about the Longshot Contest, I made it a point to try and find a SA beer that I like. I convinced myself that the Summer Ale was pretty tasty. I think I've just been convinced otherwise.

What a copout.
 
They did make some at least once. They had at GABF to give out when they announced the winners.
 
EdWort said:
Sorry, but I can't stand welchers, and this one stinks to high heaven.

Don't make bets with any Brewer's fans on this board.

As for not making the beer, I thought it was BS that they'd pick a clone to be the winner. Ohh...maybe next year the winner will be a boston lager clone.
 
Cheesefood said:
Don't make bets with any Brewer's fans on this board.

As for not making the beer, I thought it was BS that they'd pick a clone to be the winner. Ohh...maybe next year the winner will be a boston lager clone.

I hope next year every brewer tells them to flip off or send in clones of SA competitors.

No wonder they are exploiting the hop situation. It must make them throw up in their mouths a little to have a competitor clone win. :D
 
Yeah, as someone said before, they did make one batch which was shared at the GABF.

To play devil's advocate, and since I listened to what was said, I don't think affording the hops was an issue. I think it was the availability of the hops.

To put matters into perspective, this beer has 16 ounces of hops per 5 gallons. Who knows what goes into a million BBL operation. Yes, BBrewing can afford it, but perhaps the hops are just not there to meet need.
 
PseudoChef said:
To play devil's advocate, and since I listened to what was said, I don't think affording the hops was an issue. I think it was the availability of the hops.

Especially since I think a lot of the hops are one that SA doesn't use. Probably couldn't get a in a bid in time to reserve the massive amount they would need.
 
You don't think it had anything to do with finally realizing(or finding out late) that they were about to produce a beer strikingly(apparently) similar to another commercially produced beer?
 
Absolute BS. Complete and utter BS.

Landhoney, that's an interesting hypothesis, but I've got to work under the assumption that they would have simply said "it's too close to an existing commercial recipe" than to say, in effect, "we don't want to support the winning homebrewer."

Sam Adams - F*ck em!
 
landhoney said:
You don't think it had anything to do with finally realizing(or finding out late) that they were about to produce a beer strikingly(apparently) similar to another commercially produced beer?

I think that's the crux of the matter. Maybe Vinnie called Jim and asked him not to do that to him.
 
Cheesefood said:
I think that's the crux of the matter. Maybe Vinnie called Jim and asked him not to do that to him.
Then why don't they just say it rather than coming up with some garbage excuse?

Better yet...why'd they pick a clone brew as a winner if they weren't gonna brew it?
 
They also said it will be coming out next year, just not this year.

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

If you have a great IPA that won a competition that needs 1000 pounds of Chinook, and there aren't that many Chinook hops left, you just can't brew it. It's a competition winner, so substituting something would then lead to it no longer being the beer that won the comp, and therefore unfair to the other finalists.
 
Yuri_Rage said:
Then why don't they just say it rather than coming up with some garbage excuse?

Better yet...why'd they pick a clone brew as a winner if they weren't gonna brew it?

Well hopefully 'they' (SA) didn't pick it as the winner. If their Longshot competition has any merit whatsoever, all entries are judged by National BJCP judges who have nothing at all to do with The Boston Brewing Company.
 
ohiobrewtus said:
Well hopefully 'they' (SA) didn't pick it as the winner. If their Longshot competition has any merit whatsoever, all entries are judged by National BJCP judges who have nothing at all to do with The Boston Brewing Company.

It is BJCP judged.
 
PseudoChef said:
I don't see why there's all of a sudden all this hate toward Sam Adams.
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.
 
On the other hand, I wasn't cheated out of anything. You weren't cheated out of anything. The winner was cheated a little, but he seems cool with it. So who gives a rip? It really has nothing to do with me and so long as there isn't a great group of people being royally screwed, I really don't care.

I still, however, find it hilarious that the excuse is coming from the company that uses a reckless amount of hops. LOL
 
Sir Humpsalot said:
On the other hand, I wasn't cheated out of anything. You weren't cheated out of anything. The winner was cheated a little, but he seems cool with it. So who gives a rip? It really has nothing to do with me and so long as there isn't a great group of people being royally screwed, I really don't care.

I still, however, find it hilarious that the excuse is coming from the company that uses a reckless amount of hops. LOL
You and I were cheated out of the opportunity to try a great beer. The winner was cheated out of the opportunity to share his great beer on a national scale.

The company that uses a "reckless amount of hops" is a bunch of hypocrites.
 
This doesn't completely discount everything Sam Adams has done for homebrewers, so no, I don't think a www.boycottsamadams.com is called for. This is still a really really disappointing development though. I feel bad for McDole, he seemed super stoked about having his beer available nationwide.
 
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