Saranac Pale Ale

Brewed by Matt Brewing Company
Style: English Pale Ale
Utica, New York USA

Serve in English pint, Shaker

12oz bottle. Orange/red/amber hued body with a nice thick light tan head. About 2.5 fingers thick, dense and creamy, with good retention. Some excellent lacing for the style is present as well. A really good looking beer. Nose of bitter citrus hops, floral perfume hops, caramel malt, sweet fleshy fruits and some soapy notes. Fore is pretty heavily astringent and bitter, rolling along the tongue we get sweet caramel malts and some sweet citrus fruits. Back end is more of the same, leading to a healthy dose of bitterness in the swallow. This thing isn’t perfect or super in your face or anything like that, but damn if I don’t like it quite a bit. I could knock a few of these back as a session brew. Medium bodied, prickly carbonation, slightly oily. Finish is bitter, lengthy, then at the very end some watery notes. Good beer.

Copper-amber beer with minor head and lacing. Decent hop and malt notes, but Saranac’s signature metal shows up as well. Not exactly floral. This common complaint is reflected in the taste, which best described as bitter metallic. Malts hardly present. Medium body. Basic bitter from the basic brewer.

12oz bottle poured into a pint glass. Pours a slightly hazy copper with a one finger head. Head quickly dissipates leaving slight lacing. Smells of earthy hops with a bit of caramel and metal. There is a metallic taste throughout that is somewhat unappelaing. Earthy hop flavors dominate along with caramel and toffee. Moderate bitterness along with a good bit of sweetness from the specialty malts. Overall not a very impressive beer. A bit too sweet and the metallic taste is a turn off.

bottle at GBBF 2011 - golden body with a bubbly white head - hoppy citirc nose - malty and very fruity flavour

Bottle. Pours clear yellow with a small white head. Aromas of citrus, perhaps some pine, and sweet malt. The flavor is sweet citrus peel (orange and some lemon), mild tropical fruit, and slight earthy malt. Average. [899]

Floral hoppy and grassy smell Bitter Small, quickly dissipating head on top of clear amber body, light-medium body

this pours a golden to slightly amber color, with a white head. The aroma is very malty with toffee, caramel, and some grassy hop aromas. The flavor is strong in caramel, with earthy flavors, and some grass. the palate is about a medium body, but maybe a little heavier with bitterness that starts at the front and malt and hop flavor finishes. Overall this is tasty, but nothing really stands out in about it.

12oz VA bottle. I honestly only tried this because it was part of a mixed 6-pack. It wasn’t bad, just not a good pale ale. Pretty light on the hops/bitterness with some hints of butter in the finish. Meh.

Looks normal. Smells earthy woodsy and soft and slightly sweet with citrus. Tastes of lemon and anise. Feels soft and creamy with a tingly finish. Good.