Sam Adams Brewery Tour

Today was another glorious day in Boston. Fiancé and I had one thing on our Boston ‘Must-Do’ list when we knew we were coming up here, and we got to do that today –

The Sam Adams Brewery Tour

Where we are staying in the Back Bay area is only a short T ride away from this popular brewery.

Fiance and I were really excited to be able to check it out!

We got there and were given our ‘passes’ for the tour.

 

The tour is free but they suggest a $2 donation to a few various charities that Sam Adams supports. Pretty sweet deal.

  

The promised land.

While we waited for our tour to begin, fiancé educated himself…

And I wrote postcards!

The brewery has these fun postcards that you can send to anyone. They provide the postage! Someone special will be getting this postcard!

 

As the tour started I learned that the facilities in Boston are quite small. They don’t do much mass production here – they still brew beer here, just on a smaller, more specialized scale.

The mass production is done in their PA and Cincinnati breweries.

 

Then it was time to enter the Ingredient room. 

 

Here we learned about the different types of barley used.

I tried both of these samples. The top lighter colored ones tasted like grape nuts. The darker colored ones tasted like rich , dry cocoa.  

We also got to check out some  hops.

If you smash the above pictured hops in your hand you will get an awesome beer aroma from the leaves.  Don’t eat the hops!

 

After the ingredient room we did a little more touring of the facilities.

 

These barrels hold Sam Adams Utopia – which, according to the Guinness book of World Records, is the strongest beer in the world. It’s aged in oak barrels and costs over $200/bottle! We didn’t get to sample that, but it sounded good! 

 

Some more pictures of the active brewery…

 

Then it was time to line up for TASTING!

 

Everyone grabbed a seat in the Tasting Room. A free tour and free samples at the end -  What could be better?

 

I was quite excited to try some samples straight from the brewery!

 

I also enjoyed this picture on the wall – don’t the hops look like artichokes?  I want this framed picture!

 

A few beers on tap.

 

Some of our sample beer waiting to be drunk.

 

We even got this free tasting glass to keep! I sort of love it!

 

Our first beer sample – the Boston Lager. Apparently all the beers in the Sam Adams line, originated here in the Boston brewery, except for the Lager, which was first brewed in Jim Koch’s kitchen.

 

Doesn’s that look delish? 

One happy girl!

   

Each tasting glass had a separate step listed on the back. Fiance got step 2.

I got the best one – Step 4!

 

Fiancé decided to play with my camera for the below pictures. I believe he could be quite the photographer!

Lining up our next sample.

  

Sam Adams Summer Ale – this one was my favorite!

Our tour guide Jessie was awesome! Informative and funny! Best combo for a tour guide in my book!

 

Last up we had a special surprise! We got to try one of the Home Brew finalist beers – the American Rye – which is being judged this summer to potentially be one of Sam Adams next brews! If it’s picked as a winner (which I think it will be!) it will be available for purchase next year!

It was yummy!

 

   

Fiancé and I really enjoyed the tasting!

Our tour guide told us we would reach the end of the tour when we looked up under our glass and could see the ceiling!

Wah Wah!

I guess my tour was over!

 

A few more silly pictures outside the brewery!

But this is how everyone feels leaving the tour – AWESOME!

Upon leaving a little birdie told us that if we hit up Doyle’s down the street after the tour, we would get a free Sam Adams pint glass, so obviously we had to head down there for another drink.

 

These glasses are awesome. They preserve the flavor of the beer – we are excited to take them home with us!

 

Apparently Doyle’s has been featured in various movies and is a really old bar. I just love pubs in general so it was cool to check out.

I got another Summer Ale and also sampled the Cherry Wheat.

 

 

Fiancé got the  Lager.

  

Fiancé was in charge of picking the appetizer we were going to split. He picked the hang-battered onions rings.

They weren’t the healthiest option, but they were pretty good. After an afternoon of beer sampling, it pretty much hit the spot!

    

I am off to dinner with fiancé!