Sam Adams Has Been Testing a “Remastered” Boston Lager Recipe in New York
Photos via Boston Beer Co.
Some in the craft beer community have already seen this news in brief when it came and went back in 2020, but it’s new to us, and potentially widespread in its impact: Boston Beer Co. has been tinkering with the recipe for Samuel Adams Boston Lager. That alone will always be major beer news, given that Boston Lager is one of the most iconic brands in the history of the industry. It’s news in the same way that it would be news if Sierra Nevada said it was revamping Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.
In Boston Beer Co.’s (BBC) case, they’re referring to the new version of Boston Lager as “Remastered,” and hedging their bets in terms of how they choose to describe the new version, stressing both that the recipe is “the same” and “improved” at the same time. This is to be expected when you’re dealing with a storied recipe like Boston Lager, which played such an integral role in the American craft beer boom since its introduction in 1984. After all, the biggest potential pitfall of such a move is risking the perception that reliable Boston Lager drinkers will think that the beer has changed for the worse.
And ultimately, that’s the crux of what makes this such a difficult proposition for a company like BBC. Overall, the company has transitioned in recent years away from even being primarily a “beer company” as the name would imply, as production of Angry Orchard hard cider, Twisted Tea, and Truly hard seltzer has long since eclipsed beer production, making BBC a producer of “malternative beverages” first and foremost. This presents BBC with an obvious mandate to bring its beer portfolio back to its former glory by helping tired brands such as Boston Lager, but it’s very hard to update an old brand like that in order to seek new customers without alienating the ones you still have. It’s a classic catch-22.
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