Samuel Adams is back with its latest version of Utopias, its extreme beer.
Utopias is Sam Adams’ limited-release beer that clocks in at a whopping 28% ABV and sells for $210 a bottle.
It has been available at select locations since last week and for the first time will be available on tap in the Samuel Adams Cincinnati Taproom on Nov. 15, which is marking its one-year anniversary.
It’s not available everywhere, though. It’s not sold in 15 states due to its high alcohol content — Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont and West Virginia.
Sam Adams describes the beer as a reminiscent of a vintage Port or Sherry due to its barrel-aging process. This year the brewery experimented with Cognac and Madeira finishing barrels. The beer is ruby black in color and uncarbonated. It is bottled in a custom, 25.4-ounce ceramic decanter modeled after brew kettles.
The beer has some Pennsylvania roots. It is made at the Samuel Adams breweries in Boston; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Breinigsville in Lehigh County.
This is the 11th batch of the beer, which has become an annual event for beer fans and people who work for the brewery.
Workers at Sam Adams — and this year Dogfish Head, which merged with Sam Adams — received a special bottle of the beer numbered with the digits that correspond to their hire date.
“Since it was first brewed, Sam Adams Utopias has been nothing short of a labor of love. As brewers we take pride in everything we make, but there’s something special about putting such a unique, extreme beer in the hands of not only the craft beer community but our co-workers,” said Jim Koch of Samuel Adams in a statement.
Utopias ❤️ pic.twitter.com/BEWwcFWG1y
— Samuel Adams Beer (@SamuelAdamsBeer) October 16, 2019
