Buying for bottles: Good Juju and Sam Adams for the win!

lefthandbrewing.com

I have been a bad little beer consumer, and haven't been keeping great track of the individual beers I have been drinking. Shame, shame upon my head. I'll try to do better next time. I've been busy/lazy/drunk? Do any of those excuses fly?
Anyways, you are in for a treat. Its summer, and what beers go best for summer? Something lighter, less malty and refreshing of course! On my way to a boxing match viewing extravaganza, i stopped off for a 6 pack and picked the first thing that grabbed my attention. Good Juju has a very distinct label and packaging, and its by left hand brewing company, which is a pretty stable bet for me. So i bought it for about a reasonable 9 dollars for the 6 pack. Its no honey brown for price, but hey, i wanted fancy freaking beer.
At first taste, you get a mouth full of ginger with this stuff. Did i mention that? Its a ginger infused beer. Surprising at first taste to say the least. Not in a bad way, but in a wow, that is a powerful flavor sort of way. It reminded me of how all sushi tastes when i go eat it.... like
pickled ginger.
I don't want to give you the wrong idea. I drank all of them. And enjoyed them. Its more of a try it and see how you feel about it.

borrowed from: http://onceuponastein.com/taste-tested-samuel-adams-spring-thaw-variety-pack/

I also picked up a mixed pack of sam adams a while back. Holy shit there were a lot of varieties in this box. While they all blended together (i'm not sure if that's sacrilegious for someone from near boston to say) but they weren't too distinct. The ipa, white lantern,  and alpine spring were hoppier than the rest, although i'm not sure i could tell them apart while drinking. The maple pecan porter was wayyyyy overly malty, at least in my option. I'll keep my candy in my icecream and out of my beer next time i think. The lager and the irish red where just basic beers.  A solid mix, and all of them were drinkable, but nothing too distinct. I feel like i've let down my boston roots. Oh well :). There are plenty more colorado beers to try!

Cheers!

Beers of Dubious Vintage...

Over at my uncles the other day and nabbed a Sam Adam's Noble Pilsner from the fridge. While the nifty little age indicator on the bottle said best before August 2012.... begging the question when will a beer no longer be good to drink?

Beer is a perishable product, meaning, it will at some point go bad. However, nothing can really grow in beer that will kill you. So, using my patented rachel logic, I drank the beer. It was pretty good. Light, a touch hoppy, but still mild, i think i liked it.
Anyways, here's the lesson for today. I may have said this before, but most commercial beers (non craft or micro) are pasteurized. Sam Adam's isn't an exception for most of their beers. This particular one was kept refrigerated  which is said to help keep the beer from hitting that skunked state for a little longer. Skunked, by the way, is what happens to beers that have passed their prime. Normally, beers are said to last 3-6 months, but that can be stretched. Honestly, not much is going to happen to the beer, just maybe a steady decline into not tasting as good for quite a while. With proper storage, some beers can improve, however.
Check out the Beer Advocate: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/101/store
Anyways, the moral of the story is, if you find a beer in the back of your fridge and you have no idea when its from, take it out, pour it in a glass, sniff it and see how feel about it. It might not be half bad yet!
Cheers!