Boston Beer Enters Whiskey Market

If you're a lover of Sam Adams, read on: The Boston Beer company will begin supplying its Sam Adams brew to two Massachusetts distillers, who will turn the beer into whiskey.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Berkshire Mountain Distillers has bought thousands of barrels of Sam Adams Boston Lager and Cinder Bock, to be distilled in wooden oak barrels. It's a big leap into the craft distilling world for the beer company. Founder Jim Koch told the WSJ that the announcement is a move into a market for niche products, and not mass-produced. Think it's crazy that beer is turned into whiskey? It's not that far out: Beer can be the initial product in making a whiskey, but you wouldn't want to drink a beer intended to be a whiskey.

So what will the Sam Adams whiskey taste like? Berkshire founder Chris Weld told the WSJ that the tastes will vary based on the difference of beers; the Boston Lager will be a lighter whiskey with fruit aromas, and the Cinder Bock will be a bit heartier and smoky. It will be a small batch of whiskeys — only about 1,500 9-liter cases that won't hit shelves until 2015.