My afternoon with Sam Adams

When I walked into the brewery there was a small television crew filming a red-cheeked woman making coffee.

“What is going on?” I inquired of the gentleman handing out tickets for the Sam Adams brewery beer tour.
“Some woman brews her own coffee. A local station is doing some piece on local beverages, I don't really know. Want to go on a brewery tour?”

And so my afternoon began at the Samuel Adams brewery in Jamaica Plains, Massachusetts. I wandered around the lobby reading Prohibition time lines and perusing a collection of antique beer bottles until a girl in tight jeans and a pair of Uggs called the crowd to assembly.

“Free beer,” she shouted, hoping to elicit a response from the twenty or so people gathered in the annals of the Boston Beer Company building. She didn’t look like much, but after the tour and tasting, this little lady convinced me that the Boston Beer Company is the work place of my dreams.

After an exhaustive history of the company, a run down of the raw ingredients and brewing process and a few samples of fresh beer, my tour guide stood around with me for a half hour or so and answered every inane and geeky question I had. She started working at the brewery during her third year in college and knew nothing about beer. Now, she has a vast knowledge of the beverage and is beginning to brew at home, a habit encouraged by her employers. My afternoon at the brewery brought about a couple of revelations for me:

1) When fresh, Sam Adams lager is one of the crispest, most thirst quenching brews I’ve ever tasted. It tastes like freedom.
2) I need to find a job in a brewery.