Saranac Pale Ale²
Matt Brewing Company / Saranac Brewery

 

 

Poured from a bottle into a pint glass. Pours orange yellow with a fluffy white head. Smells of citrus and floral hops. Tastes of decent grain with citrus hops, but a tad watery. Beer is light bodied, a tad overcarbonated, but still easy drinking. Overall, a slightly above average beer.

 

At last, my first entry for New Beer Saraunacday (Week 662)! I left off last week coming off of a day of Lagers & I simply ran out of time & steam before I could move on to Ales. My thanks, again, to my local, in-person trader, @tone77, for coming through with some interesting beers in his latest drop-off. I have to admit that he has rekindled my interest in Saranac beers, most of which are only available in our neck of the woods in mixed 12-packs. Time to scour the distributors!

From the bottle: "Fourth Generation Family Brewery"; "This experimental riff on the style takes pale ale to a whole 'nother level. Enjoy the citrusy/tropical hop character in this unfiltered beauty."; "It's hop to be squared".

UNFILTERED!?! A Pop! of the cap & the fun began, starting with an aggro, heavy-handed pour into the awaiting glass. It seemed to explode with just under three fingers of foamy, rocky, light-tan head with decent retention before falling away to wisps, leaving nice lacing in its wake. Color was a slightly-hazy Amber (SRM = > 7, < 9). Nose was odd, like an amalgamation of citrus and tropical, but in a fistfight, rather than a handshake. It was like a battle for supremacy without a pleasant melding. Hey, I like a good fistfight, having been involved in many myself! Let's see how this plays out. Mouthfeel was medium. The taste was all over the place with hints and notes of everything from grapefruit to mango to lemon peel to guava and back again, but none of them were playing nicely with any of the others. It was like a liquefied version of a squeaky jazz tune when the lead singer suddenly breaks into some scat riff & the audience looks at one another, thinking "Am I supposed to like this?" Man, this is so cutting edge that nobody knows what it is really about until some writer reports on it & those of us that were there nod in assent. I am a hophead, but this was such a wild, disjointed go at things that I don't know what to think. Punk meets jazz meets APA! Mind-blowing, but perhaps not what was intended. Finish was veddy dry, pushing up against the envelope of hops saturation. It almost had that graininess that comes from overly dry hopping a beer, but they showed some restraint, at least. What a bizarre drink, but man, I groove on the bizarre. YMMV.

Poured from a brown 12 oz. bottle. Has a dark golden color with a 1/2 inch head. Smell is of citrus, some pine. Taste is well balanced malts and hops, pine, light citrus, very easy drinking. Feels medium bodied in the mouth and overall is a decent beer.

Looks pretty nice, slightly amber golden and mostly see through with lots of carbonation bubbles. Smells nice, I'd call it some what piney and citric with some bready malts coming through. Pretty good flavor but with the hops clashing a bit on the start with the malts to make an anstrigent caramel biting flavor and then moving to a bready finish. Slight bitterness. Creamy and less carbonated than it looked.

 

Pours a clear, orange-tinted golden color with a massive four-fingered, off-white head that leaves heavy lacing.

Big malt and dull pine in the nose.

This continues to the taste, with a blast of malt up front, some dull pine and then a nice hop bitterness on the back end. Just a ghost of the citrus and tropical notes described on the label are in there, too, but they're far in the background.

Medium bodied with a fairly flat mouthfeel.

This is quite the looker, but other than that, a pretty subpar pale ale overall.

This beer pours a hazy orange color with a frothy, one finger, ivory head. Retention is moderate and there are intricate webs of thin lacing left all over the glass.

Smell is citrus, pine, bready malts and whatever yeast saranac always uses that ruins every hoppy beer they make. The yeast does not compliment the other flavors at all.

Taste is the same. Unenjoyable.

Feel is light and smooth with good carbonation.

Overall this beer is not good. I don't know why they insist on using this type of yeast for all of their hoppy beers. It's like paddling upstream against the current, no matter how hard you try it's not going to end well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clear light Amber with a 1 inch white head that lasts quite a while and leaves lots of lacing on the glass. The smell is of citrusy hops that seem more forward and fresher than most pale ales. The taste is of tangerine orange with some grains to balance. Definitely hoppier than their original pale ale. Smooth, clean mouthfeel. Overall, a great addition to the Saranac Irish Roots 12-pack.