Irish? Sort of?

St. Patrick's Day, that much-maligned, much-slighted, much-misunderstood holiday has come and gone, and with it, its poignant mix of the ridiculous and the sublime that reached its pinnacle this year in a lightly-accented Indian investment banker wearing a bright green Dartmouth sweatshirt and gaudy aviator sunglasses messily drinking out of a bag at 10 AM on the PATH train from World Trade Center to Hoboken while loudly discussing how much he loved reading Dubliners in college.

Anyway... As previously mentioned, I managed to find the "American Originals" sampler pack from Sam Adams. As a lover of variety, I enjoy sampler packs, as it allows me to try a multitude of tipples without having to buy four or six of everything. Two of everything is sufficient for me, and I have to say, this might be the first Sam Adams sampler that has really nothing to be ashamed of. The summer sampler has that noxious Blackberry Witbier, the winter sampler used to have a truly foul Cherry Wheat, and replaced it with a similarly bizarre (but not quite as mind-blowingly terrible) Chocolate Bock.

Sadly, not made with scotch.

But this one? Nice work. I really like the Scotch Ale, which pours a nice deep amber, and a suitably herbacious head. I liked how caramely malty it was, and how smoky the finish got. It's apparently brewed with peat smoked malt, which explains the smoke flavors, but there's also some nice hop bite that cuts through the haze. This was really very delicious.

Not very Irish. Also, not very red.

Not quite as delicious, but still good is the Irish Red. I would have liked a little more red color in this one, as the roasted quality of the malt was not readily apparent on the tongue. I drank this on St. Patrick's Day, or as we Bostonians like to refer to it, Evacuation Day. On it, we Bostonians celebrate the departure of General William Howe and his Redcoats from the City of Boston.

Anyway, the Irish Red is a little thin and watery, with a reasonably smooth yeastiness that adds a sort of buttermilk twang / cream thing. The hops weren't too aggressive, so a sweetness came to the fore as well. Now, to be sure, the Irish Red is kind of the runt of the litter for this particular sampler, but the fact that the schwag of the sampler is still plenty drinkable says volumes, when you think about the utter garbage that Sam Adams has produced in the past.