[Cellar Review] Samuel Adams Imperial White (Imperial Series) (Vintage 2012)

Brewed By: Boston Beer Company in Boston, Massachusetts 
Purchased: Single bottle (12oz) from a 4-pack bought at Jewel in Chicago, IL; 2012 
Style/ABV: (Imperial) Witbier, 10.3%

Reported IBUs: 15

Tonight's beer should be a lot of fun. Back in 2012, I cracked into a bottle of the Sam Adams Imperial White. I found the beer to be equal parts cloyingly sweet, boozy, and over-the-top. It's a divisive brew, even by my own standards. But I'm curious to see how this one has held up down the stretch. About Sam Adams:

The Boston Brewing Company/Sam Adams is, of course, the brain child of Jim Koch (and Harry M. Rubin and Lorenzo Lamadrid). Founded in 1984, Jim Koch got the ball rolling after college when he decided to resurrect and brew his favorite family recipe. That recipe belonged to his great-great grandfather, Louis Koch, and dates back to the 1870s (where it was brewed in a St. Louis brewery). That infamous family brew is the Sam Adams Boston Lager, of course. You can read more about the history of the Boston Brewing Company HERE, or check out their website HERE.  

The Imperial White has since changed from its 4-pack, 12oz format. Now part of the Sam Adams Small Batch series, this beer is described as having "an exotic blend of spices reminiscent of medieval brewing." Suggested tasting notes include coriander, dried plum, anise, orange, and citrus. This one is brewed with wheat and pale malts; Hallertau Mittelfrueh hops; and orange & lemon peel, dried plum, grains of paradise, coriander, anise, hibiscus, rose hips, tamarind, and vanilla. At 10.3% and 15 IBUs, this is one big, malty, sweet beer. But the real question is....how does it age?

[Cellar Review]  Samuel Adams Imperial White 2012

This one pours into a murky golden-orange body that is super swampy and absolutely filthy. The beer kicks up three-plus fingers of thick, creamy, porridge-like head. The head is golden/orange-tinted, and is sustaining like a wheat beer. It's impressive for a 2-year old beer. Along with the impressively swampy body and thick creamy head, there are some yeast floaters in the glass. Bright light confirms the same stuff.

On the aroma: huge Twizzlers, Doppelbock-like sweetness, oranges, weird medicinal funk and band-aids, eggnog, and lots of intense spice. I'm pulling out big anise, clove, coriander, and some spicy funk. There's an underlying bready heaviness to the aroma as well. 

Age has done a lot for this beer in terms of mellowing out the taste. I'm getting a lot of that classic apple/raisin/apple juice flavor you get from aged wheat beers. Gone is the cloying sweetness, orange spice, and booze. I'm picking up mild orange, bready notes, grains of paradise, anise, Twizzlers, and tons of bread. It's stuck somewhere between a Wheatwine and an Imperial White...and it really reminds me of the Pipeworks' Elijah's Revival. 

Aging this beer was a good idea, and I'm happy I took the gamble. At 10.3%, this beer was not only originally cloying and sickly sweet, it was also boozy. Now that the cloying and sweet part has dropped off, you are just left with the boozy aspects. As it stands now...the booze is not nearly as noticeable. Palate depth is good and the beer has good duration, but this isn't very complex for the grocery list of ingredients involved. This one kind of flat-lines after the mid-palate. You get big wheat, apples, raisins, Twizzlers, and bready orange and spice up front; that rolls into a huge, sweet, bready middle, with tons of orange and spice; the back end is trailing apple juice, raisins, wheat, and bread. The finish is actually kind of dry and bitter relative to the immense sweetness. This one is full-bodied but nowhere near as full-bodied as it is when fresh.

Rating: Average (2.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Light Average here. This is just okay...I'm happy I cellared it, but this isn't doing much for me. Honestly, I need to revisit this beer fresh, but this is one of those beers that is having a serious identity crisis. It's an Imperial White...so it's not a proper Wheatwine, it's not a proper Wheat Ale, and it's not a proper Belgian Strong. You can get a lot of the notes and characteristic from this beer in other, better beers. But anyway, food pairings here include grilled meats, lamb, and anything with a rustic, raw vibe. Would I recommend cellaring this one? Maybe? I dunno. This beer is divisive and problematic when it is fresh, but it also has some good qualities that are lost in this aged version. Then again, the aged version cuts out a lot of the problematic and cloying sweetness, and that's always a plus. 

Random Thought: The 12oz format here is nice. I can't imagine trying to drink 22oz of of this beer, aged or fresh.