Seeking a better beer:
Sam Adams founder visits Manch with the lowdown on how to pour the perfect brew and Utopias, his rare new uberbeer

By Larry Clow
HippoPress.com

Like high school, there's a definite social hierarchy in the world of alcohol.

At the top is wine-the cultural, sophisticated leader of the liquor world. Next to wine stand cognacs, sherries and ports, followed closely by fine scotches, bourbons and whiskeys. And then there's beer.

Beer often gets a bad rap, regarded as the lower class of liquors. It's not complex and sophisticated like wine or carefully aged like scotch. Beer is beer, and that's all there is to it.

Jim Koch is looking to change that.

Koch, founder and president of the Boston Beer Company, as well as brewer of Sam Adams beer, recently revolutionized the brewing world with Sam Adams Utopias, a limited edition, 50-proof beer that is the strongest beer in the world.

Koch describes Utopias as the "lunatic fringe of brewing."
"It's unlike anything you could ever imagine beer could be," he said at a recent stop in Manchester. "I feel like Captain Kirk. I want to take beer where no beer has gone before."

Koch brewed only 5,000 bottles of Utopias, all of which were spoken for before the product was even bottled. Now, the rare brew is only available on eBay, often going for close to $200 a bottle. Kock said he does not plan on making more.

"It's the complete antithesis of a mass market product," he said.

It took Koch ten years to brew Utopias, using a delicate aging and distilling process.

The flavor is smooth and sweet, with hints of vanilla, maple syrup, cinnamon and other spices.

Koch describes the beer's flavor as being "between a vintage port, a fine sherry and cognac." It lacks the harshness of cognac and finishes with what Koch describes a "warm, sweet fire in your throat."

"We are tasting flavors no one has created in 6,000 years of brewing history," he said.

Koch was recently in Aspen, Colo., for a food and wine convention where he presented Utopias in a blind taste test to 22 wine critics. He gave the critics two glasses, labeled "A" and "B". In one glass was Courvossier XO Imperial (one of the most expensive cognacs); in the other glass, Sam Adams Utopias. Koch said 16 critics preferred Utopias to the cognac.

"Wine writers are getting cabernet-ed to death," he said. "One thing I discovered is that wine makers love to drink beer."

As soon as the wine tents shut down, wine makers would come to his booth.

"We try to explain that beer has the variety, complexity, integrity and nobility that wine has," he said.

Beers are more flavorful and complex, Koch said. He's tried wines before, but could never really get into them.

"The universe of wines is very limited. There's red or white, and that's it," he said.

Nor is he a fan of hard liquor-according to Koch, it takes too long to acquire a taste. "Enough of work and life is hard and unpleasant," he said. "Alcohol should be neither one of those things."

Still, there is a process to properly drinking a good beer. First, use a clean, room temperature glass. Frosted glasses make beer too cold, and may contain impurities. Pour the beer directly in the middle of the glass. This will "release the bouquet" of the beer and ensure a thick head. Once poured, Koch recommends looking at the beer, noticing its color and clarity. Smelling the beer is also important.

"A good beer has a wonderful smell to it," he said.

Finally, drink the beer. In a good beer, flavors smoothly segue-starting with the sweetness of the malt and ending with the spicy bitterness of the hops.

Flavor is important to Koch. Employees at the Boston Beer Company must invent a new kind of beer before they're promoted to brewer. Koch is especially proud of the new Sam Adams Light, which took two years and 23 batches to perfect.

"It's a really cool light beer," he said.

Koch, a sixth-generation brewer, started the company nearly 20 years ago, brewing the first batch of Sam Adams in his kitchen. And while he's not brewing every batch these days, Koch is still part of the beer-making process.

"I don't throw hops in the kettle anymore, but I taste a bottle in every batch," he said.

He's not worried about a bad batch so much as he's looking for perfection.

"We have a notion of the perfect bottle of Sam Adams," he said. "We get that 25 percent of the time … that's taken me 20 years."

And while Koch feels Sam Adams is more than just a typical beer, he's not snobbish about his competition.

"I try lots of beer … I enjoy all beer," he said. "I won't turn my nose up at anything. All beer is good, but some beer is better."

Larry CLow can be reached at hippo@hippopress.com