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Friday Beer Snob: Samuel Adams Holiday Pack 2009 — Coastal Wheat

By Tom - February 5, 2010 | Email the author

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Samuel Adams Coastal Wheat

Brewed By: Samuel Adams
Brewed In: Boston, MA/Cincinnati, OH
ABV: Not specified, I’m going to guess low
Type: Wheat Ale

What they say: Hazy and Golden in color, this brew is a fresh twist on the popular Hefeweizen style. Eureka and Lisbon lemons, from three growing regions in California, balance out the wheat malt character, resulting in a crisp and refreshing wheat ale with subtle lemon flavor. Cheers

Website: Complaints about the website aside, I couldn’t find this beer on it. It’s a new beer in Winter Classics 2009 and information for it is pretty scattered around the web.

Why I picked it: The second of six beers in the Sam Adams Winter Classics 2009 sampler pack. It’s also the only new beer included in the pack.

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Presentation (5): Nothing Earth-shattering here. It’s the generic Samuel Adams labeling for spring/summer offerings. This one is blue in the center and ringed with yellow. The coloring and style is nearly identical to the Summer Ale labeling. It’s the mirror image with the same basic color palette. 2

Originality (5): It’s not exactly a hefeweizen and not exactly a wheat. It’s something in between. If I had to guess, they took their Hefeweizen recipe, increased the lemons, and actually filtered it. I can appreciate mixing up the recipe a bit to see what happens. 4

Body (10): “Twist on a Hefeweizen” appears to mean “Hefeweizen flavor without chunks of floating stuff.” The cloudy, golden color to the body is similar to the hefeweizen but I, for one, am a fan of the lack of yeasty chunks. Blending the Hefeweizen with the generally more masses-friendly Wheat Ale gives the beer a nice, crisp finish and and strong carbonation that, when combined with the lightness with the body, makes for a really drinkable beer. By blending out some of the more severe notes of the hefeweizen, the texture here is much more appetizing. 6

Taste (10): Very distinct lemon flavor that doesn’t quite go over in to “tastes and smells like Lemon Pledge” territory. It shares the crisp, refreshing flavor of most lemony wheat beers without falling prey to the syrupy oversweetness trap that some beers of this type fall in to. This beer simply lets the lemon be the star and balances out the citrus-crispness with the wheat malt. It works better than I expected. 9

Efficiency (10): Tough to rate here without knowing the ABV. Both their Hefeweizen and Cherry Wheat offerings are 5.4% so I’m going to assume this is right around there. For the moment, this beer is only available in the Winter Classics sampler but it smells like a preview for a new permanent offering. If it truly is 5.4%, and I’m going to work under the assumption that it is, then it’s an extremely easy beer to drink combined with (probably) a reasonable Samuel Adams price and an OK ABV. We like those three factors when they fall in that configuration. 7

Versatility (10): This is a great summer offering. It’s light, refreshing, and delicious. It’s a much more group-friendly flavor than Hefeweizen and something that the Coors Light crowd could even grow to love. 8

The Snob Sez: Odd choice to include in a winter offering sampler. Everything about this beer, from the colors on the packaging, to the name “coastal”, to the flavor screams “Summer Beer.” I would think, if Sam wanted to preview this, they would have included it in this year’s Summer Styles or Brewmaster Collection samplers. Out of place in a winter offering, but I look forward to seeing it placed in future Brewmasters’ Collection six-packs.

Final Score: 34 (of 50) – Good beer