If you have ever doubted that the heart of a beer geek beats inside the chest of the Boston Beer Company, look no further than the Latitude 48 IPA Variety Pack that Sam Adams should be releasing in the coming weeks (or months – the 8 Ball is still fuzzy on this, but we’ve heard it’s a late spring / early summer release).

Our source says the Variety Pack will be a 12 pack, featuring the Sam Adams Latitude 48 IPA as well as several single-hop editions of the beer. It’s basically a beer-tasting school in a box!

The single-hop versions of the beer (confirmed by recently-approved label variations over at BeerNews.org) will be Hallertau, Simcoe, East Kent Golding, Ahtanum and Zeus. Too bad there’s not a Smaragd version, because that’s the best single hop beer I’ve had.

This 12 pack is important for a few reasons. First, it’s a sign that Boston Beer hasn’t lost their love of beer nerditry. It shows that you can be a major player and still have a soul, which bodes well for the future of craft beer as other breweries we love continue to grow. Second, and most importantly, it’s an amazingly accessible way for folks across the country to learn about the nuances of craft beer. Even if these aren’t the best IPA’s ever made, the most casual beer fan will come away from this 12 pack with a better understanding of what makes a beer taste like it does. That’s pretty cool.

Sam Adams does quite a few variety packs, but this one is obviously special. As the others were a chance for noobs to taste different styles of beers (or enjoy the efforts of home brewers), this one takes it to the next level, allowing folks to explore the subtleties of the art of brewing. I imagine this 12 pack will create more than a few beer geeks as regular folks explore its contents.

We’ll keep you updated on anything else we hear about the timing of the release, and we’ll happily review the Latitude 48 Variety Pack as soon as we can get our grubby little mitts on it. I personally can’t wait.

.

ADDITIONAL CONFIRMATION UPDATE: RVA BeerMan shared the following in the Comments section below:

I work for a Sam Adams distributor in Va and can confirm some things. Latitude 48 IPA Deconstructed should start hitting shelves in mid-May. Each mixed 12-pack will contain 2 bottles of regular Lat 48 and 2 bottles of each of the single hop IPAs. BTW, the premise of this package is simple: Latitude 48 is brewed with 5 varieties of hops, which were listed in the original post above. I’m super psyched for this package, as each hop variety will be quite different. For example, Hallertau is a Noble hop known for providing more aroma than actual bitterness, while Simcoe is lousy with citrus bite.





.

.

.

.