Hi everyone, I am planning out an Oktoberfest party with a bunch of friends. A good mix of craft brew drinkers and not. That being said some of the not craft drinkers like Sam Adams Boston lager and would like to start an introduction to Homebrew with something they are familiar with and go from there with other options. What German style beer would you recommend that might be similar enough to a Boston lager?
(Some context new to lagers but excited to use this as practice for making them!) Thanks!
It’s not a true Vienna lager, as it uses Crystal malt which the Germans usually don’t. But it’s about as close as you’re going to get. Or Marzen (the amber to copper color Oktoberfest, as opposed to the yellow Festbier style which is also often called “Oktoberfest”).
from my memory - sam adams is a premium macro 2row beer with max ~5% medium crystal.
i always think that good beer simply stands for itself ie. just get a good quality german lager or pilsner. literally any mainstream one from becks to konigpils etc. it is going to be tastier than a NAIL.
BUT, imho you can lead a horse to delicious water but you cant make them drink and you also cant make them necessarily “like” it.
people ive known IRL who are simply commited to marketing/image/popular brand over taste beers wont ever really change their mind and i just wouldnt worry about doing so.
A few years ago I emailed SA looking for info on their Honey Porter. They offered tips on Boston Lager instead.
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We are glad to hear that you are interested in homebrewing. You may already know that Jim Koch, founder of The Boston Beer Company, started as a homebrewer. We take pride in our homebrewing roots, and every employee homebrews at least once per year for our annual employee homebrew contest. While we don’t send out our exact brew process/recipe (we keep those as a trade secret!) Here’s a few tips for brewing Boston Lager, in case you’re interested: Malt: Two row pale and two row C60 Hops: Hallertau Mittelfrüh (late boil/dry hopping) and Tettnang Tettnanger (early boil) Yeast: Clean German lager yeast There are a lot of great books and websites for homebrewers. The Complete Joy of Home Brewing (Harper Collins, 2003), a book now in its 3rd edition, was written by Charlie Papazian, founder and president of the American Homebrewers Association. The American Homebrewers Association’s website is www.craftbeer.com. Another site, www.howtobrew.com, contains a plethora of free information.
Yeah definitely not looking to “convert” anyone lol! Hoping for the best and giving it a good shot! If they don’t like what I brew then they’ll have a few of their favs sitting in the fridge. Always fun to try and share the hobby!
We visited Boston in June 2025. Of course, HAD to visit Sam Adams at 30 Germania St, (Jamaica Plains), Boston, MA. WOW! IMO, what a difference in the taste of the Sam Adams fresh vs what I find around here.
Probably too late now to answer, but I would have just brewed a Festbier..it’s light enough in color for the non-craft beer drinkers to make them think it’s similar to BMC beers. Went to Oktoberfest a couple years ago, 10 guys in total, with the other 9 all non-craft drinkers, except for on ocassion driniking my lagers…and they all could not get enought of the Festbier at the tents. Granted Festbier there is not “craft”, since it’s the big boys of Munich, but still.
Were you shocked at how small the place was? Lots of folks to this day still don’t get that 99% of their beers are not brewed at the Boston brewery. Funny story, I meet Jim Koch back in 80’s when Sam Adams was first coming out, he was going bar to bar in Boston to try to get people to try his beer for free swag and he was definitely having some himself. Ran into him about 15 years ago and mentioned I met him years ago when he was doing that and how it made me what to be a brewer and how drunk he was, he got a good chuckle out it.
My thoughts too. Boston Lager is quite a bit hoppier than a German Marzen or a Vienna so I don’t know that there is a true equivalent. That said, I believe that BL uses a lot of Noble hops and it IS a lager but there really isn’t a German style that I know of that is similar.
We were just glad to actually, physically be present at the Jamacia Plains location. Went on the brewery tour. Interesting as we, apparently, walked under the street at the parking lot and ended up in the other building.
Maybe good we don’t live close or we’d probably be there too much.
Ha! I live 30 minutes away (depending on traffic) and get there maybe once every 2 years. Live like 8 miles south of Boston on what’s known as the South Shore and there are just too many good breweries with 30 minutes without dealing with traffic into Boston, like Trillium, Vitamin Sea, Widowmaker in my town who are killing it (made Craft Beer and Brewing’s top 20 small breweries and top 20 IPA’s lists this year) and others a little farther out in suburbs.