An Ale that Puts me in the Holiday Spirit
Written: Nov 16 '04 (Updated Oct 17 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Chocolate taste; Balancing flavor of the hops
Cons: Only sold a short time each year; Not sold by itself
The Bottom Line: Complex yet smooth, this is a great- tasting beer for the Christmas season or any other time of year.
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| Bryan_Carey's Full Review: Samuel Adams Holiday Porter |
Ah, the holidays! We associate them with all sorts of things, like presents, good food, and good cheer. We think about time off of work or school. We prepare our houses for visiting family members and for parties. We change our frame of mind from one of selfishness and pride to one of giving and humility.
For myself, the end of each year also means something else very important: the opportunity to drink lots of great- tasting holiday beer. And this year, our good friends at the Boston Beer Company have concocted a delicious beer for this special season. It’s Samuel Adams Holiday Porter, a beer made for celebrating good times.
Basic Characteristics of This Beer:
Holiday Porter is dark brown to black in color and a good pour produces a nice head of foam- not an excessive or massive one, but a good one that holds its own and leaves lace as it subsides. The aroma of this product is enticing and it reminds me of a bowl of chocolate- flavored cereal covered in milk.
The taste of this beer is mostly chocolaty, with some roasted malt notes, caramel, and a small amount of plum flavor. There is a little bit of nuttiness, a little bit of burntness, and lots of cocoa flavor to please the senses. This is all balanced by the bittering sensation of the hops that about halfway through each swallow, tantalizing your palate with a bittersweet finish.
Boston Beer Company makes this product using caramel, chocolate, and Munich malts, along with East Kent Goldings and Fuggles hops. The alcohol level in this beer is 5.9 percent by volume.
Food Compatibility:
A beer like this is made and designed to be drank with sweet, chocolaty foods. Thus, it would make a good choice of drink for a piece of dark chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies, or chocolate pie. It might even go with coffee cake, as a complement to the slight roastiness of this beer. But more then anything, this beer is meant as a way to celebrate the holiday seasons and for that reason I think it tastes best consumed all by itself, next to a warm, glowing flame in your family room fireplace.
Final Thoughts:
Sam Adams makes an exhaustive lineup of malt beverage products that includes at least one beer from each of the major styles. In the porter category, Sam Adams once produced a product called Sam Adams Honey Porter but this was discontinued some time ago. Now, the company has decided to venture into the porter category once more, this time with a great tasting beer for the holiday season, Sam Adams Holiday Porter.
I first learned about Holiday Porter on a recent trip to the grocery store a few days ago. I didn’t go looking for beer, but inevitably I found myself in the beer isle scanning the isles for new products and familiar favorites. I quickly noticed that Sam Adams had a holiday sampler, which included two bottles each of six different styles. I had already sampled all of them but one: Holiday Porter. I had never seen nor heard of this beer until I saw it in the sampler. Curious, I grabbed the sampler and placed it in my cart.
What I quickly discovered is that this beer is every bit as good as I expected it to be. It’s a chocolaty and mostly sweet ale, making it a nice addition to the holiday season. Among the many reasons to like it (smoothness, chocolate emphasis, the fact that it’s porter, etc.), one thing that was appealing was that this beer, while labeled and promoted as a holiday beer, was different from the usual holiday beer product. Many companies make a Christmas beer of some sort and as most beer lovers know, the products promoted during this time of year are usually spicy ales. You don’t normally see a chocolate porter in a holiday beer lineup. This was a nice change of pace from the usual holiday seasonal.
Aside from all the positive aspects of this beer’s personality, here’s one bad point: Sam Adams sells this only as part of its Holiday sampler 12- pack, which includes two bottles each of Boston Lager, Sam Adams Light, Cranberry Lambic, Winter ale, Old Fezziwig, and this beer, Holiday Porter. What this means for the world’s beer lovers is they cannot purchase it separately in its own six- pack or twelve- pack. You can only get two bottles at a time and only if you’re willing to buy an entire twelve pack that includes products most every beer drinker has already tried. Granted, the other five beer styles are all pretty good (I don’t care too much for Sam Adams Winter beer, but I can tolerate it), but you still must give in and buy a full twelve pack and sift through these other products to get your hands on just two bottles of Holiday Porter.
For the holiday season or any time of year, Sam Adams Holiday Porter makes a delicious treat for beer connoisseurs and others who like a hearty dark brew to warm them up during the cooler days of the winter season. This beer isn’t the best porter I’ve ever tried, but it is very good to drink and I recommend quaffing a few bottles this season if the opportunity arises. Its great taste will quickly put you in the holiday spirit.
Be Sure to Click the Links Below to Read Reviews on Other Samuel Adams Products:
Samuel Adams Boston Lager
Samuel Adams Boston Ale
Samuel Adams Golden Pilsner
Samuel Adams Octoberfest
Samuel Adams Spring Ale
Samuel Adams Summer Ale
Samuel Adams Scotch Ale
Samuel Adams Vienna Style Lager
Samuel Adams Black Lager
Samuel Adams Old Fezziwig
Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat
Samuel Adams Winter Lager
Samuel Adams Light
Samuel Adams Hefeweizen
Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic
Samuel Adams White Ale
Samuel Adams Brown Ale
Samuel Adams Cream Stout
Recommended:
Yes
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