It’s a sad thing when good beer goes bad. We all know the story. A good beer, brewed from a fine brewery by a loving brewmaster, given only the finest ingredients. At some point, however, the beer falls in with the wrong crowd. Afternoons spent basking in the sun, sitting around in warm warehouses, even dancing through dirty tap lines are just some of the shocking activities our beer engages in. Yes, it’s sad indeed when good beer goes bad.

To be sure, Samuel Adams Boston Ale is not a bad beer. In fact, Jim Koch and the Boston Beer Company use freshness dating to help fight the never-ending battle against bad beer in America. Fresher beer is better beer for the most part, since time can give the agents that cause bad beer a chance to do their insidious work. What though are the signs of bad beer? There are many, but here are the most common:

SKUNKING
This phenomenon, also known as the Heineken Effect (at least by me), is the result of a photochemical reaction between sunlight and hops. The end result is traces of the same chemical a skunk produces. Yuck. Beer packaged in green or clear glass will skunk in as little as a minute in direct sunlight. Brown glass affords much more protection, but is not a perfect shield against skunking.

OXIDATION
Heat and age will oxidize beer, giving it a lifeless, wet-cardboard like flavor. This is the leading cause of bad beer among microbrews. Avoid old and dusty bottles of beer sitting on your retailer’s shelves. More than likely, they have reacted with oxygen to give these off flavors.

PHENOLIC
This is mostly a problem with draft beer and homebrew. Chlorine in water used to brew beer can cause this problem. If draft lines are cleaned with a chlorine solution and inadequately rinsed, phenolic notes may result. They are characterized by a medicinal, band-aid like flavor.

INFECTION
This is an invasion of the brew by bacteria, which will impart sour, vinegary notes. It occurs at the brewery, generally during packaging. Interestingly, some beers deliberately undergo bacterial fermentation. The resulting sourness is welcome in a Berliner Weiss or a Flanders Red; it is not tolerable in a pale ale or lager.

I should add that I have never had a bottle of Samuel Adams Boston Ale that suffered from any of the above maladies. The beer is muddy red in color with a good head formation and an appetizing hoppy nose. The palate is invigorating and malty, a tad chewy but fairly clean of fruity esters. This cleanness is a result of the cold aging the beer undergoes (30 days for Boston Ale), a process generally used in lagers to make them crisp and refreshing. The finish has a noticeable hop twang to it, slightly aromatic but with a bitter Saaz bite as well.

Boston beer calls this a stock ale, a style they define in the following manner:

Stock ale is one of the few classic beer styles to have originated in the United States, and the style has a strong New England heritage. Stock ales were brewed and fermented in the traditional ale manner and then aged in cool rooms called "stock cellars." The special ales were called "stock" ales because of this extra aging, which gave them a characteristic body and smoothness.

In many respects, stock ale seems to resemble German Altbier. Altbier is a malty brew, top-fermented as an ale but then cold conditioned to smooth it out and with an impressive amount of hop bitterness. Boston Ale is a credible Altbier. It made its debut in 1988 as a selection in the Sam Adams Winter Classics 12-pack. I remember to this day my excitement at taking home my first 12-pack assortment and popping the top on my first Boston Ale.

Boston ale works well with pork and poultry dishes, or even a simple sandwich. I enjoyed a bottle tonight with a turkey sandwich with lettuce, mayo, stuffing, and cranberry sauce.