A word on Sam Adams Cranberry "Lambic"

So Samuel Adams puts out a winter classics pack of beers that I've gotten the past few winters. The pack includes Winter Lager, Boston Lager, Coastal Wheat, Cranberry Lambic, Holiday Porter, and Old Fezziwig Ale. Old Fezziwig, an ale full of winter spices, is definitely my favorite, and I have always liked most of them, with the exception of the Cranberry Lambic.

Maybe it was because my taste was messed up from my oral surgery this winter, but the Cranberry Lambic just wasn't doing it for me. We have some remnants of the winter pack left that I've been finishing off, and I thought I should revisit this beer now that my sense of taste is restored and now that I have had true Belgian lambic and know what to expect from the style.

Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic
5.9% ABV, wheat ale with cranberries and maple syrup

Now that I understand that lambics are supposed to be an unusually tart or sour beer, I have a much better appreciation for what Sam Adams was going for in this beer. This beer has an unusual aroma that I am tempted to say I have smelled in wheat beers before; it might best be described as a sweet collard green smell. This flavor is also present though accompanied by some tartness that lingers after a small kick of carbonation. There is no hop presence, true to the style.

Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic is not really a lambic. As I have said, lambic is wild-fermented wheat ale (using wild yeast) made in the Senne Valley of Belgium. However, this is fermented in the usual way by adding yeast strain. Therefore, this beer is misnamed and would more properly be named Cranberry Wheat. The flavor is reflective of this, as it isn't really off-the-wall tart and funky like a true lambic.

As far as taste goes, this actually isn't half bad if you take it for what it is. I would not say this is anywhere close to being as sour as even the Lindeman's kriek or framboise I've had, much less the Cantillon gueuze. I've say the flavor is best described as a wheat ale with a tad more emphasis on tartness, which makes it an interesting change of pace from your typical hefeweizen or white ale. So I won't bash this beer as much in the future, though it can't really compare to the Fezziwig in my opinion, and I may even enjoy it once or twice on the holidays.

Cantillon Classic Gueuze

I finally popped open my bottle of Cantillon Classic Gueuze the other night!

Again, lambic is a wild fermented ale made with about 70% barley and 30% wheat in the Senne Valley of Belgium. Rather than adding yeast to the wort, lambic makers use a more traditional approach to brewing by exposing the wort to the open night air of the Senne Valley, which has natural yeast spores and bacteria that ferment the wort. Then the beer is put into wooden barrels to condition for varying periods of time, often up to several years. Gueuze is a beer made by blending both young (about 1 year old) and old (about 2-3 years old) lambics. Gueuze is often called the "champagne of beer."

This was a 1 pt. 9.4 fl. oz. bottle with a cork and bottle cap. I need to work on my de-corking technique; I can pop off bottle caps on nearly anything with a flat edge but I nearly tore up the cork on this bottle while trying to open it. The beer was very light, almost a straw color, and the featured a moderate, bubbly head that quickly dissipated. This beer had the distinct aroma of Brettanomyces funkiness, which really smells like nothing else and gets you geared up for the experience of a good Belgian beer.

This is my first gueuze, and I now understand why it is called the champagne of beers. This is quite tart and sour with a bit of funkiness and very subtle bitterness. This beer has very little carbonation, no taste of malt, and absolutely no hop presence (they use aged or stale hops in lambic so that they don't overwhelm the other flavors). It is dominated by tartness, which is very unusual for beer. Lambics are always a unique experience, and without fail whoever I am drinking with expresses some disbelief that they are actually drinking beer. For myself, this was absolutely delicious and I can't wait to have more. I would be happy if I never had champagne again if it meant that I could have gueuze instead (and I happen to enjoy champagne).

I enjoyed a helping of strawberry shortcake with my bottle of Cantillon. The sweetness of the dessert contrasted with the lambic, bringing out and intensifying the sourness and funkiness in this wild ale. Also, any sourness in the strawberry acted to complement the beer. The combination of complementary and contrasting flavors in the dessert and beer made this a complex, intriguing, and natural pairing. This pairing isn't a 'stretch'- I think anyone who enjoys tartness would agree that this is a successful pairing between beer and dessert.

Garlic Lemon Thyme Chicken and English Pale Ale

I had a pretty decent pairing at dinner the other night that I thought I would share with you.

Samuel Smith Old Brewery Pale Ale
1 Pt 2.7 Fl Oz

This English pale ale was quite different from my idea of what pale ales taste like, based mostly on American beer. Rather than being hoppy, this pale ale was dominated by caramel-like malt flavors. However, the flavors were not overpowering, as should be expected with any pale ale, and were thus well suited to go with less outspoken foods such as chicken. At the end of the flavor profile of this beer you experience a subtle hint of hops and carbonation bite. Incorporating the American, English, and Belgian pale ales that I've now had, I think I am starting to see that pale ale may have a wide range of flavor profiles (hoppy, malty, funky, grassy), but they all tend to be lighter in flavor than their full-bodied relatives such as IPA or Abbey Ales.

I made chicken seasoned with garlic, thyme, and lemon with crispy skin. The chicken had a good flavor, but would have been overshadowed by a bigger beer. The malty richness of the pale ale provided a nice counterpoint to the saltiness and acidity of the chicken. Other beers with moderate flavors (other pale ales, hefeweizen, brown ale) would also be a good match for a conservatively flavored chicken dish.

Birthday Beer

Birthday present for my roommate:



-Smuttynose IPA
-St. Peter's Organic English Ale
-New Holland Poet Oatmeal Stout






-Thomas Creek Orange Blossom Pilsner Squared
-New Holland Golden Cap Saison
-Heavy Seas Loose Cannon Hops Cubed Ale




All of these are new beers for me with the exception of the Heavy Seas Loose Cannon, which is amazing hoppy goodness. Cheers!