Review: Samuel Adams Wicked Easy Hazy Lager

I've been writing about beer for what seems like most of my life but the greatest honour I ever had took place in June 2019. I was on my last big vacation until this spring in Montreal and I received an email from a brewery media rep asking me if I wanted to interview Sam Adams' founder Jim Koch and talk about Sam Adams' then new Sam '76. Hell yeah I wanted to! We had a great hour long conversation talking about the beer, how craft beer has come a long way since he was a pioneer in the industry and even  had a chat about his hometown Boston Bruins as they were in the Stanley Cup Finals at the time. I'm the kind of person who believes if something good happens to me, something bad is about to happen and sure enough, the very next day I discovered my beer column in the local newspaper was likely to end (which it did a month later), but the chat with Jim had me giddy as eff.

Today I'm checking out Sam Adams' Wicked Easy Hazy Lager, a beer I haven't seen before and discovered only at a random beer vendor in Winnipeg. 

From the can: An "easy drinking" beer wasn't enough for us at Samuel Adams, so we made it wicked easy, hazy & light in appearance and bursting with bright citrus fruit notes from hops, kick back and enjoy the wicked easy way. 4.7% ABV

Appearance: Haziest lager I've seen in many years. Has a bright lemon yellow appearance to it, thick snow white head that diminishes a tad as the beer settles a bit, fairly light overall.

Aroma: Very faint with a citrus aroma to it, tropical hops, hint of pepper, slight graininess, not much going on. 

Taste: Easy to drink, that's for sure. Nice hop profile that gives it a nice citrus presence - mostly lemon, hint of orange peel and other fruits, as well as a moderate floral presence to it. A tad yeasty yet crisp. Sweet, a tad dry and a slight sharpness for the aftertaste at the end. 

Overall Thoughts: Solid lager by Sam Adams but you know what.. this has to be for sure Sam '76 rebranded, and after a quick Google search, it is! I was wondering what happened to the beer as it disappeared off the shelves without a trace. It's smooth but fills a void I need in a nice after work beer to calm the nerves a tad.

Check out my interview with Jim Koch back when I still had relevancy in the beer industry: https://www.beercrank.ca/2019/08/interview-with-Sam-Adams-Jim-Koch-Sam-76.html