idk this beer is hit or miss, if its fresh i find it to be a very enjoyable beer, when its old just tastes like heavy caramel which is not enjoyable. all in all a nice fresh BL is always a beer i keep around, nothing crazy about it just a quaffable no frills beer
BL is a beer I have always enjoyed. I rarely have more than one, but that one always taste good to me. A great beer to have when you go out for dinner and the restaurant only keeps the usuals around. (I find Sierra Nevada Pale Ale to be a great one beer only type as well, for different reasons.)
SABL got me into craft beer. I fondly remember a pool hall my friends and I frequented. They had SABL then later added Fat Tire. SABL was always my favorite. I have made a few attempts to clone it.
i brewed a clone a few times, was good but fell short, i used 90% 2 row and 10% caramel 60, tettnager and hallertau mittlefruh and wy2124, the thing with BT is it has a sweetness but finishes nice and crisp, my attempt it was thinner and dry throughout did not have that signature up front sweetness and crisp finish
The last time I tried, I tried several grain bills. I didn’t quite follow the guidance on the Boston Beer website. From previous tries I was trying to decrease the color a bit.
I used Mangrove Jacks M76 lager yeast for the first two grain bills and M84 for the last.
Batch 1 and 2 were the best. Batch 3 was too malty. I think M84 was the culprit in the maltiness more than the Munich malt. But, I am not sure.
If I try again I will probably increase the late hops by 50-100%. Fresh SABL has lots of hop flavor. I would probably just stick with 2-row and Caramel 60 in a ratio that got the color I wanted.
I don’t know how they arrange their hops. I just included each variety in equal amounts for each addition. That may not be what they do.
A few weeks ago I emailed Sam Adams looking for info on their Honey Porter. They gave me nothing regarding that beer but did give me some info on Boston Lager. Here is the (automated) reply I got back:
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.