Even Ebenezer Scrooge Would Enjoy This!
Written: Jan 10 '03 (Updated Oct 17 '06)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Spiciness isn't overdone
Cons: You cannot purchase it separately, only as part of a holiday 12- pack
The Bottom Line: A very good holiday beer, from our friends at Boston Beer Company
|
|
|
| Bryan_Carey's Full Review: Samuel Adams Old Fezziwig |
Brewed for the holiday season, Old Fezziwig is a seasonal offering from the Boston Beer Company, best known for its flagship product, Samuel Adams Boston Lager. This beer is brewed only a couple of months each year and is sold only as part of a seasonal, 12- pack gift box, which includes 2 bottles each of six different Samuel Adams products. Boston Beer first introduced this product many years ago; discontinued it for a while; then brought it back for the 2002/2003 holiday season.
Basic Characteristics of This Beer:
Old Fezziwig pours to a dark reddish/brown color and a decent level of foam that falls apart after a few minutes in your glass. The nose of the beer is a little spicy and malty.
This beer is a winter, holiday seasonal. As with most holiday beer, this one is fortified with additional spices to give it a more “festive” flavor. The spices used include cinnamon, ginger, and orange peel. A sip of this beer indicates that the spices are obviously there, but they are not overwhelming, like in the case of some other winter/holiday seasonals. The taste of caramel and sweet malt is equally assertive. Hop level is minimal, and the aftertaste is like a mixture of chocolate malt, burnt caramel, and licorice.
Samuel Adams brews this beer from a starting gravity of 1.052. Alcohol level and calories are a little higher than the average mainstream beer, but lower than most other winter beer. The alcohol level is 5.6 percent by volume and there are 200 calories in a 12 oz. serving.
Food Compatibility:
This beer is a spiced winter brew, and that means that the best food to consume with it would be desserts, especially those that also include spices. A piece of pumpkin pie would match up nicely with this beer, as would a plate of gingersnap cookies. Certain chocolate desserts would also make good companions. And, of course, it’s also a good beer to consume all by itself.
Final Thoughts:
Samuel Adams is the premier craft- brewing operation in America, with a solid lineup of beer products, including both year- round offerings and seasonal offerings. Old Fezziwig makes a nice addition to the Sam Adams lineup. This product, which was named after a character in Charles Dickens’ “Christmas Carol”, is mild enough that most any guest at your Christmas party will enjoy what it has to offer.
Tasting this beer yielded a few surprises. The label says that the beer is brewed using chocolate malt, caramel malt, cinnamon, ginger, and orange. Well, I had no problem distinguishing the taste of caramelized malt, chocolate malt, and ginger. The cinnamon taste was a little bit harder to detect, though, and so was the orange. My palate picked up the flavor of nutmeg, even though nutmeg is not listed as an ingredient (maybe my taste buds, like the color of this brew, are getting a little rusty). The mixture is a good one, however, with a good amount of complexity without too much emphasis on the spice. Samuel Adams markets another winter seasonal, Samuel Adams Winter Lager, which is much too spicy for my taste. Old Fezziwig is a marked improvement over that one.
I really must question the Boston Beer Company’s marketing department and its choice of packaging for this product. It can only be purchased as part of the holiday sampler 12- pack, which includes 2 bottles of six different Sam Adams products. Among those six products are Samuel Adams Boston Lager and Samuel Adams Light- two products which have nothing to do with the holiday season at all. At the very least, Boston Beer Company should have excluded these two products and included 3 bottles each of the other four. But ideally, they should package Old Fezziwig in its own six pack containers. You cannot buy Old Fezziwig any other way besides this holiday sampler pack. And that’s a real bummer for those who would like to purchase several dozen bottles of Old Fezziwig to serve at a party.
Overall, this beer is a very good holiday brew. It’s spicy, like you expect in a holiday beer, but the spices are subtle and they don’t distract from the rest of the drinking experience. Buy some for your next holiday gathering, and watch the pleasant reaction from your guests. It’s a very good brew that helps to put everyone in the holiday spirit!
Be Sure to Click the Links Below to Read Reviews on Other Samuel Adams Products:
Samuel Adams Boston Lager
Samuel Adams Boston Ale
Samuel Adams Golden Pilsner
Samuel Adams Octoberfest
Samuel Adams Spring Ale
Samuel Adams Holiday Porter
Samuel Adams Summer Ale
Samuel Adams Scotch Ale
Samuel Adams Vienna Style Lager
Samuel Adams Black Lager
Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat
Samuel Adams Winter Lager
Samuel Adams Light
Samuel Adams Hefeweizen
Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic
Samuel Adams White Ale
Samuel Adams Brown Ale
Samuel Adams Cream Stout
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.