Samuel Adams

The beer that relaunched American brewing was sold out of a briefcase. Samuel Adams Boston Lager — an amber, noble-hopped Vienna-style lager — is the flagship of The Boston Beer Company and the proof, delivered in the light-lager 1980s, that Americans would pay for flavor.

In 1984, Jim Koch walked away from management consulting to brew his great-great-grandfather's lager recipe in his kitchen, then hauled bottles from bar to bar himself because no distributor would take an unknown. He priced it above the imports on the theory that drinkers equate price with quality, and borrowed the name of Boston's brewer-patriot of the Revolution — permanently fusing the beer to its city.

Boston Beer grew into the standard-bearer of American craft's first generation — big enough that people now argue over whether it still counts as craft, which is its own kind of victory. A note for trivia night: the company is The Boston Beer Company; there is no Samuel Adams Inc.

Clear amber with a persistent off-white head. Toasty caramel malt up front — think brown-bread crust — balanced by a distinctly floral, piney bite of German noble hops, then a clean, moderately bitter finish. Fuller and rounder than a standard lager, with enough hop aroma to announce itself across the bar.