I give the folks at Sam Adams a lot of credit for running an annual homebrewing contest. It has been going on since 2001. Moreover, the mother of all Sam Adams beers, its Boston Lager, came to life in 1984 as a home-brew in the kitchen of founder Jim Koch.

But I wasn't crazy about its three winning homebrews that are being packaged and sold in its LongShot Variety Six Pack. One of those beers, a Cranberry Wit, was made by Carissa Sweigart, a national sales rep fror Sam Adams in Colorado. The other two come from homebrewers not affiliated with Sam Adams. Those are a Traditional Bock made by Alex Drobshoff and a Double IPA made by Mike McDole.

The homebrewers of America also get a shot each year at getting a brew sent out on the Sam Adams label. McDole's beer won the contest in 2007, but it had so many hops, and hops were then in such short supply, that he agreed to wait a year for his beer to "go national."

McDole's Double IPA, which has six pounds and seven different varieties of hops per barrel, overwhelmed me.  Drobshoff's Bock, an attempt to replicate an authentic German bock, was my favorite, but it was almost too sweet for me. And the Sweigart's Cranberry Wit, a blend of cinnamon, orange peel, grains of paradise and cranberry, was probably a brewing accomplishment, but it failed to float my boat.

I give the Boston Beer crowd props for trying to stretch the beer frontiers, even if I am not out there.

The deadline for entering this year's Sam Adams homebrew  contest is April 15 through May 1. Details at this link.

Am I alone in my assessment of these homebrews gone big-time?

Anybody like them? Anybody drink more than one?