United Nations of Beer

Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat

by Ashley Cotter-Cairns
(UNOB HQ)

Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat
Samuel Adams, MA, USA
Visit the UNOB's Massachusetts beer guide

I guess it had to happen. I have a pretty middle of the road taste in beer: unless it's truly vile, I can appreciate most brews. But SOMEthing had to be my worst beer of 2007... and this is it.



I have experimented with fruit beers over the years, most notably Belgian lambics, with varied results. It's fun to try something new. Beer is beer after a while and fruit varieties are a way of injecting a little interest.

Unfortunately, Sam Adams Cherry beer is the most disgusting excuse for a fruit beer I've ever had the displeasure of putting into my mouth.

It smells quite medicinal, as if somebody slipped a few ounces of cough syrup into a regular wheat beer. Not very inviting and that's the GOOD news. It all goes downhill faster than a Teflon-clad haddock on a bobsled run after you actually taste it.

Continues below

The initial taste, like a bitter beer with a cough lozenge dissolved in it, will make you wish you had the 'flu so you have an excuse for ingesting that nasty, chemical, vaguely cherryesque flavour.

Immediately after you swallow this, you'll wish you hadn't. The sad part is the bitter hop taste underneath, desperately trying to escape the drastically unpalatable beer it's become part of.

Finally, once you've banished the hideous ichor to your gut for your stomach to dispose of along with the rest of the harmful bacteria, there's a momentary relapse, an almost pleasant aftertaste. Like an apology for the rest of the experience. But it's too little and much too late to save this beer.

Sam Adams Cherry Wheat beer is truly the nastiest beer I tasted in 2007 and quite possibly for many, many years. Avoid.