We’ve got to admit, Sam Adams is a pretty tasty beer. We at ITR are actually fans of it so we were both shocked and relieved, in the sense that this was caught early, to hear this news. The Boston Beer Co., the makers of Sam Adams, recently found that some of its beer bottles may have bits of glass inside. The problem was found after a quality control check was made on some bottles. The company was able to pinpoint where the bottles came from and are now issuing a recall.

The recall only applies to Sam Adams beer that is stored in a brown glass bottles. The defective bottles come from a manufacturing plant that makes about 25% of the company’s bottles. The problem was discovered in a Cincinnati plant but it applies to other plants as well.

In a statement, the company said:

“We are disappointed and disturbed by this development, and we are doing everything we can to address the situation,” Koch said in a statement. “Brewing great beer is not enough. Because of these bottles supplied to us from an outside vendor, we didn’t live up to our drinkers’ expectations.”

“While the possibility of injury to an individual consumer is very low, people who bite or swallow a fragment of glass could possibly be injured,” the company said in its statement. “Anyone who has consumed beer from an affected bottle and becomes ill, or shows signs of complications, should see a physician immediately.”

Don’t rush to the liquor store just yet if you think you have some of the defective beer. Instead, apply for a refund online via a handy registration form. A quick and easy way exists to tell if the recall applies to your beer, just check the bottom of each bottle for code N35 followed by OI. If your bottles have that code then you should ask for a refund.

We thought bottles are normally disinfected before food is place into them. Shouldn’t this process have removed any glass fragments from inside the bottles? Perhaps the problem lies with the actual stability of the bottle and not glass sitting on the inside. Either way, it’s a good thing the makers of the beer fessed up to it and issued a recall before someone else found out and caused big problems.

[Read here and here]

[Refund form here]

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