Name: Sam Adams Alpine Spring
Style: Zwickelbier
ABV: 5.5%
I love Sampler Packs; It helps me, being the indecisive individual I am, make a choice as far as what to get whenever I make a visit to my local liquor store. This past weekend, I was grabbing a bomber when I noticed the Sam Adams Spring Sampler Pack was on-sale. Since Spring is trying to claw it's way into our great state, I took it upon myself to buy it. Most sampler packs have 4 different types of beer, but oh no, this one has six!
Yes, despite the size of Samuel Adams Brewery, I still believe they produce quality beers and I find their limited releases to be very good as well. So I will be reviewing each beer in the sampler pack this week. For my first choice, I'm going with Alpine Spring.
Alpine Spring is a Keller/Zwickel Bier style, which from my research is a fairly rare beer style. Believe it or not, one of the local beers around here used to be a Keller style, which was Surly Hell. Now the description of Surly Hell says it's a Zwickel Style Beer but it's listed as a Munich Helles Lager on the websites.
Alpine Spring pours a cloudy dark orange color. The head retention is decent and leaves behind some lacing. Looking in, you really don't see any activity in terms of carbonation
The smell is a fairly strong aroma of yeast and bread with a slight hop bitterness and a faint malty backbone. Smells like fresh bread; It's simple but pleasant.
The flavor, much like the smell, is primarily yeast, flour and bread. There's a hop bitterness on the back of the palate and the after taste is very yeasty in character. Tastes like....liquid bread.
The palate is light bodied and has a very mild level of carbonation. It's the type of body style that is meant for casual drinking on almost any occasion.
This is a beer that can be justifiable in almost any situation, from watching football to grilling out, from tailgating to picnicking. It's a simple yet tasty beer backed up by some easy drinkability; Definitely worth checking out if you get the chance to buy it.
Sam Adams Alpine Spring - 8/10
