Samuel Adams Third Voyage Double IPA

The Boston Beer Company (aka "Sam Adams") is a great beer company. They are, by definition, the largest craft beer company in the United States. However big they get, that's how big the biggest craft beer company is. The other craft beer companies agree to this status because Sam Adams does so much to help out the smaller guys. Similar to Sierra Nevada and other big beer companies, they use their flagship Boston lager to make lots of money so they can release small batches of other things. Now, I like Sam Adams as a company and respect what they do, but I'm not always blown away by their beers. I think they can be a little boring.

Fortunately, this Third Voyage Double IPA is not boring at all, and it's actually pretty good. I bought it in a 4-pack of 22 oz bottles at Costco. The other three were gose, imperial white, and honey beer. I thought the imperial wit was good, but I didn't care for the other two. The Third Voyage pours reddish-pale, a little darker than most double IPAs, with a 2-finger head. It's not too hoppy on the nose, just a hint of citrus, but more notes of caramel. The taste is hoppier, with a bright citrus and faint pine notes, but a really big malty backbone of caramel and toffee.

As far as double IPAs go, this is the kind I like, with some structure that's not just hops dialed up to eleven. I'm not sure if you can get it outside the 4-pack, but if I saw it on its own, I'd buy another bottle of it. If I saw the imperial white on its own, I'd definitely buy it.

Since the holiday season is coming up, Sam Adams will soon be releasing their holiday variety pack, if it's not been released already. For the past few years it has included some beers that I liked a lot. One is the Old Fezziwig Ale. The other is Chocolate Bock. I don't really like either the Boston lager or the standard seasonal winter lager, but the variety pack is worth buying just for these two, if they are in it this year.