Private Tour of Sam Adams
by Chase Doelling
Many breweries idolize the scale and notoriety of Boston Beer’s Samuel Adams. While distribution and product lines increase for this large brewery, they are able to keep the craft culture close by constantly experimenting with brews and supporting the community with events like the Longshot Homebrew Competition.
During a trip to Boston, we were able to arrange a private tour with the manager of beer tours himself, Adam Cupples.
As we began the tour, we aptly started in a private tap room that has a few tables and chairs that were used to go over several samples of beers, including the Rebel IPA (the red spray paint tap handle).
In moving out to the main brewing floor, Adam explained that this is where they create the smaller batches that allows them to experiment a bit.
As a home brewer, you might have seen your fair share of brewery tours that can range from pointing to the fermenter behind the bar to in depth discussions, but we really care about the toys you have to play with.
An interesting item that you don’t normally come by is this immersion boiler. This allows the brewers to toss in hops and other special ingredients and with a touch of a button, the boiling wort will fill and then be extracted back into the rest of the boil.
As Adam guides us around the brewing area we come by a not so hidden, not so small barrel room. It was filled with barrel batches going back to 1992, many of them the prized Utopias.
Their barrel aging project is impressive to say the least, after experimenting with a few different brands they have found Buffalo Trace whiskey barrels add the greatest complexity to their liquid. As we walked through the enclosed area there is one barrel that stands out.
This is no ordinary barrel, this is an 86' Macallan barrel aging what can only be assumed as the most delicious beer on earth. Adam mentions that this is beer that is drank after long-time brewers retire.
Unfortunately what was not captured in pictures are 3 massive 400 gallon casks back in the corner of the room used exclusively for souring. These were deconstructed, flown in, reconstructed and slathered with brett and lacto. The beer held in these swimming pools is known as Kosmic Mother Funk. It ages in these large barrels for 12 months and serves as the backbone to all the barrel aged beers. Once ready it is then blended with other batches from anywhere from 5% to 50% depending on the style.
In leaving the barrel room we were able to take a glimpse into where the magic happens, Samuel Adams Nano Brew room. Given the nature of the space no cameras were allowed, but if you were to imagine a mad home brewer with unlimited toys that pretty much sums it up. There is no beer you couldn’t make in this lab and would make any home brewer salivate.
After touring the campus we returned back to the tap area to taste how one of their sour blended beers ended up. We were able to finish the day on the Stony Brook Red that utilizes a 50% blend from the sour bunker of beer.
If you make your way out to Boston, Adam runs a Malt Mass on Sunday mornings for the true beer geeks.
