BJCP Category 23.
Specialty Beer.
A catch-all category for beers that just don’t fit in. There’s something unusual about these beers that do not adhere to your standard style guidelines. This year’s winners of the annual Samuel Adams Longshot Homebrew Contest fall into this ever growing category.
Variety packs were released last month featuring all three winners, Richard Roper’s Friar Hop Ale, Rodney Kibzey’s Blackened Hops, and Caitlin DeClercq’s Honey B’s Lavender Wheat. I picked up a bottle of each hoping to find something interesting. I love the idea of this contest, normal folks and Samuel Adams employees getting the chance to create something that the brewery will stand behind and brew on a large scale. Pretty sweet…in theory. I hate to be a Debbie Downer but I was plain old unimpressed with these three beers. It is not as if I had high expectations but I would’ve thought the beers would have been a little more appealing or at least interesting. Let’s get on with it.
I first cracked open the bottle of Friar Hop Ale, a beer designed to be a sort of combination of an IPA and a Belgian golden ale I suppose. It’s a fine looking beer, clean and clear with a burnt golden hue and eggshell white head. Very strong and present carbonation. Lot’s of spice on the nose with some of that good old banana ester. Unfortunately that spice comes on far too aggressively on the tongue, they were trying too hard. I would have rather had them leave out any excess spice and let the yeast do it’s own thing. The hops give it a pretty bitter and unappealing finish that left me with a strange aftertaste. I will say that I was really impressed with the head, maintained itself and left a total coating on the glass. The beer however left an unpleasant coating on my tongue, a strange sweetness that just didn’t mesh with the other flavors.
A few days later I gave Honey B’s Lavender Ale a shot, arguably the most unique and intriguing beer of the bunch. This one pours a crystal clear and very very light golden straw color with very little visible carbonation…even with the damn laser-etched turbulator Jim Koch loves to talk about! The first thing I got on the nose was Yuengling, I kid you not. The lavender comes through as well but not as prominently as I was expecting, pretty weak. Given the appearance and aroma I was surprised by the first sip, it wasn’t nearly as thin as I figured it would be. Turns out this beer is pretty thick and sticky and I started to smell some buttery popcorn. There’s a bit of peppery lemon on the tongue but then the earthy lavender comes through and totally overshadows anything else. I got a sweetness from the honey that ultimately made me dislike this beer even more, some more carbonation may have helped but unlikely. The only thing I got from this one is that lavender shouldn’t be used while brewing, make a note.
Finally there was Blackened Hops, a dark IPA that could maybe…just maybe bring balance to the force. This one had the most promise so I saved it for last and as expected this is the most enjoyable of the three. Pours a deep, rather dark, auburn color with a little bit of tan head. Smells a little sweet with a pleasant pine hop aroma to back it up. The taste pretty much follows suit, a finely carbonated sweetness coats the tongue and then a moderately bitter hop kick to finish things up. I was surprised that there was also a subtly roasted quality to the maltiness in there that works pretty well with the pine flavors. I though it was a bit watered down though, I wish they would’ve let this one be a little more full…it would’ve been a really good beer if it wasn’t as thin. Even so though, I did enjoy this take on the style and it was definitely the most respectable beer to come out of this year’s competition.
You might say I was a little harsh on these, I know I would think I was real hot-shit if I had been one of these homebrewers, but I was honestly very underwhelmed. I’ve been re-appreciating Samuel Adams lately and know that they know what a good beer can beer which is why I was so surprised with their lackluster picks here. Did you have a different experience with them? Did you somehow manage to enjoy the lavender assault from Honey B? Let me know if you did, I’d love to get another take on it. As always though, it’s never a bad idea to try something new if only to know that it doesn’t work!
Cheers!
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