Beer Review - Savor Commemorative Beer

Dogfish Head & Samual Adams SAVOR Flowers Collaboration - 10% ABV

As we left the SAVOR Beer and Food event in Washington D.C. this year they presented us with a bottle of beer to take home with us to remember the event.  This years commemorative beer is a collaboration between Sam Adams Brewery and Dogfish Head Brewery.  Neither of those breweries produce beers that tickle my fancy for the most part, but both have offerings here and there that I appreciate from time to time.  SAVOR Flowers is another stellar example of how collaboration beers can outshine the beers produced by each individual brewery.

The name pretty much gives away the product ... Flowers it is named and flowers it does provide.  The first deviation from the norm is that they substituted rose water for the base component.  Then they added dried lavender, hibiscus, jasmine and rosebuds to the brewing process "to further enhance the beer’s botanical qualities".  Then on Jim Kock's annual trip to Bavaria to pick his hops for Sam Adams, he stumbled across a new variety of hops known only as #369 which has increased floral notes.  They added 30 lbs. of this hop into the brew to add even more complexity.

THEN SAVOR Flowers was aged in Barrel One—the same bourbon barrel Jim used to age the premier batch of the first “extreme” beer, Samuel Adams® Triple Bock, in 1993. Barrel One is the first barrel originally used for spirits which was then used to age beer. For the last 18 years it has been filled with Samuel Adams Triple Bock.

The beer comes in a 750ml bottle (cool shape) and is corked.  It has a lower carbonation than most and the head is just a thin, white ring that doesn't persist.  The smell is pretty much what you would think it would be ... flowers.  The taste is amazingly complex; honey, bread, grass, rosemary, cinnamon, earth, ginger and bourbon and really like nothing you have ever tried before or ever will again.   Your first sip will confuse your tastebuds and there is a good chance that you will never like it, but if you take your time and sip, and concentrate on all of those flavors, you may decide that it is phenomenal.

Lucklily we have 2 more bottles to pop but are hesitant to do so because we know that when they are gone, they are gone for good.  But with all of the subtleties of the flavors we dare not wait long.  Damn.

Sam Adams Brewery
30 Germania Street
Boston, MA 02130

Dogfish Head Brewery
#6 Cannery Village Center
Milton, DE 19968