Infinium by Sam Adams

Saw this at my local package store, (that's what we folk in New England call liquor stores),  who's fooling who?? - They tried to sell me a $21 bottle of beer by saying there won't be any left tomorrow, we have a limited supply.  REALLY.... Ugh, great marketing ploy Limited release, my ass.

 PITCH: 

Infinium is the result of a two-year collaboration between Samuel Adams and Germany's Weihenstephan Brewery, released just in time for the holiday season.



We popped the cork and poured the golden colored, highly carbonated beer into champagne glasses. The four of us sharing the 750mL bottle could all taste the yeast flavors.



Bert Boyce, a brewer at Sam Adams, told me the beer was "aged on the yeast," which in the champagne world is "en Tirage," a French term for the period of time a sparkling wine has rested in the bottle in contact with the yeast sediment. The yeast deposit was then taken out of the beer, or disgorged, Boyce said, so that each glass poured is clear instead of hazy.



"Two breweries in Belgium that are doing this are both within proximity to the champagne region," Boyce said. "There are mobile champagne bottling lines and they're having the lines come up and package for them. We had to work with someone who has equipment so we partnered with a winery in upstate New York to pull this off."



Boyce called me from the Pleasant Valley Winery, where they were finishing the last of the Infinium. Samuel Adams is releasing about 15,000 cases nationwide while the Weihenstephan Brewery is releasing internationally.



The beer is light and dry, like a champagne, but without being thin.



"It is still very beer like in its impression," Boyce said.



The brewers made Infinium adhering to the rigorous standards of the Reinheitsgebot, the German beer purity law that states all beer must be brewed using only four ingredients? malt, hops, water and yeast. According to the brewers, this was the first new beer style created under the Reinheitsgebot in over 100 years.



"We chose to make it according to their traditions," Boyce said. "We could have added sugar and enzymes to help make it more fermentable and lighter in body but we didn't. It was challenging, and fun, and it's what makes this beer unique. That's why it deserves a place on the table."



The suggested retail price for the bottle, which is 10.3 percent alcohol by volume, is $19.99. It's available for a limited time only. Use the beer finder to find Infinium at local stores.

The day I spend $21 on a bottle of beer is the day that I have already fed and clothed all the hungry and clothesless people across the planet!!