For the upcoming spring season, Sam Adams has bottled this experimental brew, originally rolled out at beer fests last October. It’s an unfiltered white ale, a golden wheat blended with ten fruits, flowers, and spices, including grains of paradise, anise, hibiscus, and orange peel. Tasting notes follow.

Cold Snap pours, as expected, a cloudy gold in color. It’s surprisingly woody and a bit piney on the nose, with big cereal notes underneath. Intensely musky, these characteristics — nothing I’d call fruity — obscure any hop character at least at first. On the palate, some lemony fruitiness manages to push through the earth tones, bringing on a malty mid-palate before a kind of tree bark character takes over on the finish. Altogether this beer is a bit muddy, though mega fans of wheat beers may find it more to their liking. I tried both the canned and bottled versions and felt the bottled version was a bit fresher.

5.3% abv.

C+ / $9 per six-pack

Samuel Adams Cold Snap (2014)

USD9

6

Rating

6.0/10

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