Bundle up with Sam Adams

Beer Fever with Weaver: Revisiting trick-or-treating

Gritty McDuff's Halloween Ale?$8.99 for a six-pack at Hannaford By now, it is safe to say that fall is in the air. With peak foliage already past and the amount of popped collars increasing daily (we'll chalk those up to the wind), I can't help but think of days gone by, when visions of inventive costumes and candy-stuffed pillowcases danced greedily through my head.

Beer Fever with Weaver: For beer, looks aren't everything

St. Pauli Girl Lager?$8.25 for a six-pack at Uncle Tom's Market. Recently, while doing research for my honors thesis on the early stages of advanced senioritis, I was perusing my latest edition of "You're a Stud!" magazine when a familiar and enticing advertisement caught my eye. The page was completely black but for a gorgeous woman, whose body and tight dress are comprised of golden, bubbly beer, and her hair of dripping and full-bodied foam. She is standing in a sassy "oh-no-you-didn't" pose: hands on hips, thigh bent, head cocked. The slogan, leading right into the neck of a bottle of St. Pauli Girl Lager, seemingly takes the words right out of her (and my) mouth: "You never forget your first girl." It is with this image in mind that I made my most recent trip to Uncle Tom's Market.

Beer Fever with Weaver

This piece represents the opinion of the author:

Alex Weaver

Columnist

October 27, 2006

Samuel Adams Winter Lager? $7.99 for a six-pack at Hannaford

By a show of hands, how many of you faithful readers are coming off a miserable week? I'm talking a week so bad that each meal feels like a mini Christmas and Friday's "Beer Fever with Weaver" (OK, fine, or Thursday's "Grey's Anatomy") is like the light at the end of the tunnel of infinite graded assessments. Five hands just shot up in my apartment, and considering I live in a quad, I'm going to assume that this past week just wasn't that much fun for anyone. Throw into the mix that I woke up the other morning to frost on my computer screen, and I'm just plain happy that the weekend is finally here. There's just no way of getting around it: winter is on all around us, and so are midterm exams.

But, like everyone else, there's a light at the end of my tunnel every week as well. In this case, it's Sam Adams Winter Lager. This week, I've decided there will be no fancy stories or witty anecdotes; I'm just going to get straight into it. The exquisite malty nature... OK, seriously, I'm not fooling anyone here. Has anyone ever seen that movie "Kazaam"? You know. The one with Shaquille O'Neal: "The world's most powerful genie has just met his match." Well, Winter Lager is nothing like that movie: it's good.

Being from Maine, I really look forward to winter?hockey games, the first snowfall, landing that perfect snowball right between Ted's eyes. But, I will be the first to admit that there are some things about winter that just aren't that pleasant. Take, for instance, coming out of back-to-back classes and being buried from a snow slide off the roof. Or you discover that your car (or bike, in my case) won't start and you find yourself using this as justification not to go to class and climb back into bed. Or, even worse, tracking that awful slushy snow into your apartment and being too cold and depressed to do anything about it.

Rest assured, Winter Lager will lift those wintertime booze... I mean, blues (alcohol does makes you feel warmer, right?). Winter Lager's label introduces it as "a dark wheat lager brewed with winter spices." Ahhh, winter spices! Don't you just love a good sugarplum lager? Well, if not, you're in luck. The spices in Winter Lager are predominantly that of orange, cinnamon, and ginger. Though not the first things that come to mind when I think of Yule Tide Cheer, they do combine to create a full-bodied, wheaty malt taste that seems to nip at hints of caramel and citrus. It's dark red and amber color reflects the quality of its taste. And surprisingly, as a Weizenbock?the heaviest and darkest of the wheat beers?I found it to be an almost ideal balance of hoppy bitterness and smooth cinnamon finish.

Sam Adams Winter Lager is the perfect remedy for those cold winter nights when all you want is to settle in front of a warm fire and a cold, well, beer, instead of 100 pages of reading and a migraine. For, as much as you wish you could, there is just no stopping the onslaught of a Maine winter. So instead of dreading the drop in temperature or darkness closing in at 4 p.m., just think of all the good things that winter has to offer?like beer?and specifically that of Sam Adams Winter Lager.

Seeing how this week's beer tasting didn't happen, I shot one of my pals up North a text to see what he thought: "Ho Ho Holy S---! this stuff is good!" You heard right folks; even the Big Man knows a good thing when he tastes it. So be proud of the state you decided to spend four years of your life in and embrace the winter that is so characteristically Maine. For if these truly are the best four years of our lives, shouldn't we drink like it?

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