Boston Beer's Samuel Adams is celebrating the United States’ 250th anniversary by traveling back to the country's founding.
The beer brand named for the Founding Father is rereleasing the Brewer Patriot collection, a limited edition four-pack that contains brews made with ingredients inspired by the 1770s. Flavors include porter, hard root beer, dark wheat ale and honey ginger ale.
Shelley Smith, Samuel Adams’ master cicerone, said the unique flavors are reminiscent of the rebelling spirit on which the Sam Adams brewery was founded. The pack was originally launched in 2006.
“That independent spirit really drove [Sam Adams’ Founder] Jim Koch to rebel against the options that were on the market at that time, primarily mass and domestic beers, and really wanted to push different flavor profiles,” Smith said.
Each alcoholic beverage was inspired by a Founding Father and gives a nod to craft beer’s history at the time of the nation’s founding. According to Boston Beer, Thomas Jefferson and his wife brewed 15 gallons of beer every two weeks at their estate. James Madison is named as a champion of establishing a national brewery, and George Washington brewed his own recipes at home.
The patriot pack includes ingredients that typically aren’t found in modern craft beer options, including molasses and licorice root. These were popular in the 1700s because it's what people might have on hand, but some ingredients were used for perceived health benefits and medicinal properties.
The beers also have a subtle smoky character, because malts were dried using fire, as opposed to the modern kilns used today, Smith said.
“It is pretty fun to go back and think about what ingredients would have been included in beers from that time and bring those back, even though they’re probably not what you would typically find in a beer on the shelf today,” Smith said.
The four-pack is available for a limited time on GiveThemBeer.com for $17.76.
America's 250th anniversary is prompting a wave of patriotic innovations across food and beverage, with several other beer giants marking the occasion, including Yuengling and Budweiser.
In addition to the Patriot Pack, Samuel Adams is releasing a Star-Spangled variety pack for the 250th anniversary. It features four of its classic summer flavors with special packaging. The pack includes summer ale, blueberry lager, American light lager and Porch Rocker, a lemon radler.
When considering innovation, Smith said the brewery looks to meet consumer demand, which leans toward low- and no-alcohol beverages, as well as high alcohol content above 9%. Fruit-forward beers are also in demand, which Smith said the Star-Spangled variety pack taps into.
“It’s about driving innovation and thinking about what the drinker [is] looking for today and really being thoughtful and driving that unique experiential opportunity,” Smith said.
