Monday, 28 December 2009

• Trying Out The New Samuel Adams Boston Lager Sensory Glass

  
  

  
  

  When this new glass, supposedly designed just for Samuel Adams Boston Lager, hit the market, the Boston Beer Company hyped it up and advertised the heck out of it like it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. However, at $4.99 per glass, is it really worth the price?
  
  My dear Aunt Leslie got me a set of four of these glasses for Christmas. To be honest, I'd been eying them for awhile anyway as collectors' items more than anything. The glasses come with a little booklet explaining the design behind the glass and the anatomy of each part of the glass and what it is designed to do. Here's a diagram:
  
  
  
  Pouring the beer, it foamed up a little bit, but the head wasn't as big as I normally got in a standard pint glass, probably due to the shape of the lip. Holding the beer up to the light, you could really see the laser etching at the bottom of the glass go to work as all sorts of active fizzy bubbles moved their way to the top, and this continued right up until the beer was almost gone.

  Taking my first sip of the beer, I was greeted with that typical great Boston Lager flavor. However, there was a distinct difference indeed: the hop note was a bit more pronounced and the beer a little better balanced between hop and malt flavors. The malty sweetness was also enhanced slightly, and you do indeed get a little more beer toward the front edge of your tongue. The head retained about the same as it would in a typical pint glass, but unlike other beer glasses, the head actually slides out of the way of the beer as it enters your mouth, so you don't drink the head down. Interesting.
  
  I tried a few other beers in this glass as well, and they tasted great too. On all of the beers, I got a slightly enhanced hop note vs. my standard glasses, and the beer had a minimally stronger aroma (the difference, however, was negligible). On all the four beers I tried (Boston Lager, Winter Lager, Avery Jubilation Ale, Guinness Extra Stout), the effect was slight but noticeable. That said, I did notice the largest effect with the Boston Lager (don't know if it's a coincidence or it's actually supposed to be that way).
  
  I won't say drinking a Boston Lager in this glass was "like trying a Boston Lager for the first time" as the commercial states. But it did make for a more enjoyable drinking experience, and it was fun to watch the bubbles as they fizzed up the glass. Sure to be a collectors' item, I will continue to use mine and drink from them regularly. This glass does indeed get my recommendation.
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