Samuel Adams Fall Classics – Pumpkin Batch Saison & Hoppy Red – A First Sampling

You know that feeling when you find a stray $20 bill in the laundry, of that last slice of birthday cake hiding in he ‘fridge….well mix in a box of Samuel Adams fall beers and you’ll get a pretty good idea of what my afternoon and evening have been like.

It’s always fun finding a care package from Samuel Adams at mybeerbuzz headquarters, but when you get an opportunity to sample 5 different beers, 2 new beers and a Sam Can all in one sitting, the day can’t get much better.

We started the day off with the new 2015 beers coming from Samuel Adams.  Pumpkin Batch is a saison brewed with pumpkin that was inspired by traditional pumpkin ales brewed by early New England colonists who “added pumpkin to their beers in place of malt.”  This beer pours slightly hazy and a really gorgeous copper-blonde color.  The nose is is slightly herbal and spicy with the characteristic aroma of Belgian yeast.  The taste reinforces the Belgian yeast nose and it finishes with pumpkin and cinnamon.  As the beer warmed the finish held more nutmeg for me, but it finished really nice, slightly roasty and well balanced.

Pumpkin Batch hits 5.6%-AbV and 26 IBU (thanks in part to the East Kent Goldings and Fuggles hops) and it is available in six -packs and 12-packs.

Next up we hit Samuel Adams’s new Hoppy Red, and if you’re guessing this is a Hoppy Red Ale, you’d be correct.  This beer was inspired by “the brewer’s exploration of Australian and New Zealand hops” and it uses East Kent Goldings, Northern Brewer, Hallertau Mittelfrueh Noble Hops, Nelson Sauvin and Ella.  Mix in a Samuel Adams 2-row pale malt blend, Caramel 60 and Special B malts and you have the recipe for a really hoppy but well balanced beer.

This beer pours a dark amber color with a prominent fruity and floral hop aroma.  There was an underlying roasty malt for me but very much in the background.  Sweet malts, vinous and resinous flavors dominate the taste and the finish is bright and slightly dry.  This is a very drinkable beer and it seems that every sip changed my opinion of what flavors I was tasting.  This beer has some really fun complexity and it was really enjoyable trying to pull them all out.

Hoppy Red hits 5.7%-AbV and 44 IBU and it is available in 12oz bottles as part of the Samuel Adams Fall Variety 12-Pack (which includes Octoberfest, Harvest Pumpkin and Boston lager).

These are both really unique, interesting and drinkable beers so be sure to try them and let me know what YOU think.

As if that was not enough fun, Samuel Adams sent along samples of their 2015 Octoberfest (originally brewed in 1989), their Harvest Pumpkin Ale (originally brewed in 2010) and their Fat Jack Double Pumpkin (originally brewed in 2011).  It was really a lot of fun comparing the new and old fall releases side-by-side and I was amazed by how many attributes they had in common and how many more they did not.  These are all really unique beers and I’d recommend sampling them together.

As an additional bonus, we also revisited the Octoberfest bottles versus cans comparison and we continued to like both for different reasons.  If you haven’t held and consumed a beer out of a Sam Can, you’re missing out.

Fall is in he air at Samuel Adams, so be sure to get out there and try all of these beers and let me know what YOU think.