Samuel Adams Alpine Spring

It's been a long day.  Up at 6:30am in Maryland, four hour meeting, drive to Philadelphia, fly back, go straight to a three hour class, then home.  Very tiring.  But in the middle of all this I had half an hour to spare in PHL and managed to find a bar.

This bar was surprisingly well-stocked for an airport watering hole.  I scanned the shelves for a minute and found at least half a dozen new beers to try.  Being in Pennsylvania, a case could have been made for Yuengling, but in honour of the unseasonably warm weather -- 18C when I landed last night! -- I chose a Samuel Adams Alpine Spring (5.5% abv; not available at the LCBO).  This is a a new one from Sam Adams, available for three months only as a seasonal beer (a traditional Boston spring being January through March, it seems).

The label claimed that "noble Tettnang hops, grown in the foothills of the alps, give the brew a bright citrus and floral aroma and flavor [sic]".  And it's true, there was a lot of citrus, to the point where it almost tasted like there was a lemon peel in the beer.  If that's done with hops only I'm impressed.  The floral notes also came through, although I'm not sure I'd describe them that way.  It was that same scent that's common to Belgian ales -- it was a surprise to find it in a lager, but a nice one.  Lots of fresh hops complemented both these tastes.

Overall it's a good, tasty beer.  It seems like a while since I've been able to say that (the last beer I tried left me struggling with the epistemic void -- see an upcoming post).  It's too bad you can't buy it around here; looks like there are a few LCBOs in town that have the regular Sam Adams lager though, which I definitely need to get again.