Saranac's new DIPA is a game changer.

I'm about to try it in twenty mins, by beer guy (MD) got a bottle clearly labeled 'NOT FOR RESALE'.

Will report back.

 

I think the point was that the target market for most Saranac beers are not the beer geeks. It's the beer drinker that just wants the next step up from BMC, and doesn't have the budget for higher quality craft beer.

I'll always have a soft spot for Saranac as some of the first good beer I had during college in upstate New York.

 

Very, very good. Got some floaties in there but that doesn't bother me.

No question this is a beer I would have again and again. Hard to believe it's 8.5%.

 

Pretty weird that MARKETING people would be artificially trying to prop up a beer that isn't even listed with the correct name on here. Sounds like some really dumb marketing people.

I'll agree some of the reviews are suspect, but if you click "Top Raters" there's people with 1,000s of ratings giving this 4.64 and 4.63: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/172285/?sort=topr&start=0

 

Well (and realizing that some OT snarky, anti-Matt comments have already been deleted from this thread) but that comment might be a misunderstanding of the history of West End/F. X. Matt in the other direction. They certainly are among the dozen or so US breweries that survived the post-Repeal > Craft Era shakeout in the industry, and one of an even smaller handful under the same ownership (Yuengling, Schell, Straub and Matt), so in that sense they have been "successful".

But, today, Matt brews only about 250,000 bbl. of their own brands and does a lot of contract brewing for both "craft" and non-craft/malternative companies. Compare that, though, to their over 600k barrelage of the mid-1960s when their flagship was Utica Club, and one finds that like a few other "survivors", they've gotten smaller during their transformation into a "craft" brewer. Certainly a quarter of a million barrel brewer is in no way "massive" in today's US brewing industry when the standard "2 million bbl/yr-up" Federal small/large division means a "large" brewer can have only about 1% market share.

F. X. Matt was at the forefront of the "craft" movement on the east coast - among the first few "heritage" brewers to enter the segment - contract brewing New Amsterdam in the early 1980s, brewing it's own (similar) all-malt Holiday beer in that same period, successfully transitioning it's flagship brand from the popular-priced AAL Utica Club [RIP Utica Club Cream Ale ] to their own all-malt Saranac brand in the mid/late 80s. They went on to brew for Boston Beer Co., Pete's, and, most notably, the Brooklyn Brewery, and numerous others, such as briefly the bottles for the first east coast "craft" brewer, Wm. Newman's Albany Amber. They even did the early batches of Coors' Blue Moon.

In no way am I knocking the brewery - Matt's Premium was my standard draught choice during two periods when I lived in NY State in the 70s and 80s (yeah, not a lot of variety back then - lucky if you could find Genesee 12 Horse Ale) and ordered the brown 12 oz. returnable bottles for home use. Heck, I even like the much maligned Maximus Super. I used to buy beer wholesale directly at the brewery when I had a NY State retail license - I don't think it was any cheaper for me, I just like to hang out on the loading dock, or sneaking into the brewery and seeing stuff one couldn't on the official tour.

 

When there are 3000+ breweries in the US (probably approaching 4 by now), a top 15 brewery is massive by my definition.

 

Newman's Albany Amber

I remember that stuff, not bad at all.

 

Every now and then I circle back around to Saranac. Lagacy was good, for sure.

 

I look forward to trying it. Can't say I've had one Saranac brew that has blown me out of the water yet. Still, I will always remember quite fondly the sampler 12 pack I bought from them a few years ago as one of my first beer purchases.

 

I'd like to try this one for sure. Legacy was surprisingly good, and I've always enjoyed Black Forest, White IPA, and Big Moose- their best beers, IMO. That Wild Hop Pils they put out a while back was a nice surprise as well.

 

When I think of Saranac the phrase "wildly successful" never once came to mind. But Utica Club does have a following so I'll go with you on this!

 

Just because they aren't the beer nerd's weapon of choice doesn't mean they don't kill it. They are a top 15 brewery in size, are in a huge number of states, they're found everywhere, etc. That's pretty damn successful in my mind.

 

Well, like stated above - it's because Saranac-branded output ≠ the total FX Matt output that includes all of the contract brewing.

 

OP, what makes this a game changer? Did I miss something? To me it just sounds like another DIPA in a market flooded with D/IPAs.

 

Saranac always puts out good brews. It is great when a brewery not only brews a variety of beers but those different beers are all quality. Some breweries are really good at only a few beers and some breweries aren't really good at any of their beers. Also it is great that they try new recipes and try them in large enough batches to get them out to a good amount of people.