Brewery: Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams)
Beer: New Albion Ale
Style: American Pale Ale
ABV: 6.0%
Character: a resurrected beer from nearly 30 years ago. One of the very first craft beers made in America
Metal Connection: DEATH – Scream Bloody Gore
In 1976, Jack McAuliffe opened one of the earliest American craft breweries with New Albion Brewing Company. With this new business, he also created what is to be considered the first modern American Pale Ale. Only after a few years in existence, New Albion closed and filed for bankruptcy in 1982.
Well we all know what happened after that, a revolution in American brewing. Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams) founder, Jim Koch was one of the ones inspired by McAuliffe, and look at the giant this company has become. Through a matter of events, Jim Koch was in contact with Jack McAuliffe, and after some persuading, Koch convinced McAullife to revive New Albion Ale with the help of Boston Beer Company.
Koch was quoted as saying “The idea was we would give him all the profits. Hopefully that would make the rest of his life a little better because a lot of us have done very well following in his footsteps.” What an awesome move by Jim Koch! I salute you good sir!
Now, let’s get to the beer, shall we. Poured into a Branchline Brewing can shaped pint glass, the beer looked a clean and slightly cloudy golden color with a thin bubbly white head, which reduced to a thin lined ring atop the beer, leaving little to no lacing down the glass.
The smell was crisp, and fresh with traces of citrus, grass, and some caramel, and bread. Well balanced aroma with the malts and hops.
The taste of this beer, for me is seen as a backbone to today’s standards for Pale Ales. As with the aroma, this beer is not heavily leaning towards malts or hops, it is actually right down the middle. The bulk of the body is a lot of bread and caramel flavors, and there is a subtle back end of grassy and citrus hops. These hop flavors linger on through the aftertaste, giving this beer a bit of a bite at the end. The overall mouth feel though, is light, and crisp with that bite at the end.
I will say that I am very happy to have learned the history of this brewery, and their beers. I have also learned that even one of the giants in the craft beer world can be humble, and give props where props are due. Overall, I was pleased with this beer. I wasn’t blown away, but then again I am a child of the new craft beer revolution, and I have had a high number of different style American Pale Ales. I do hope that the family decides to keep the New Albion Brewing Company going now that there is a buzz about it again. Do you self a favor and go out and get your self a bottle, six pack, or whatever, as long as you show support for this historic beer.
Metal Connection was very easy for me this time around. As said before, Jack McAuliffe is said to be the pioneer of American craft Breweries, so I went with the band DEATH. Vocalist/Guitarist/Songwriter, Chuck Schuldiner, and company are said to be the first “true” Death metal band, and they helped shape the mold of the Underground Metal movement we have had since the 80’s. Here is the title track to their debut album which was released in 1987, when I was only 10 years old! So when these guys were belching out words like “Decapitated head licking your cunt. Sucking all the blood from your stump. Intestinal guts taking their hold. Leaving you dead, stiff and cold.” I was still playing with Transformers, and G.I. Joe toys!
History Lesson Over, BeerMetalDude!
Beer Metal Media 