It’s hard to know exactly what to expect from a Samuel Adams special release. The Boston Beer Company rightfully earned its place as one of craft brewing’s pioneers in the 1980s, but in recent years the company has for the most part spent its resources in consolidating a nationwide empire. Boston Lager remains as dependable as ever, beloved as one of a select handful of quality beers one can find at practically any gas station or corner dive bar (along with Sierra Nevada and New Belgium). But when the company reaches for a higher rung of the beer geek market, that’s when things tend to get confusing.
Even as the company stretches against the boundaries of what can still be considered “craft beer” by the Brewer’s Association, they again turn toward innovation on a more limited scale. First there was the “Imperial Series,” with beers that ranged from doppelbock and imperial pilsner to imperial stout and imperial witbier. Then came an expansion of the limited release series into smaller batches, with beers such as Tasman Red IPA, Third Voyage Double IPA and Grumpy Monk Belgian IPA. Finally and most recently, BBC got into the barrel-aging game with their “Barrel Room Collection.” Who knew they even had a “barrel room”?
Thirteenth Hour Stout is one of those barrel room experiments, a “Belgian-style stout” packaged in a unique 750 ml bottle shaped almost like a bowling pin. It’s telling that the company would design a whole new bottle for this series, as they are looking for any way to differentiate their offering from any other barrel-aged craft brew on the shelves. In terms of innovation, Sam Adams is typically late to the party, and thus they find other ways to stand out—in this case via packaging. It makes one ponder how far their marketing actually is from the likes of Miller, which continues to crank out new bottle shapes in a desperate effort to stave off the sales collapse of Miller Lite.