Beer In Review: Two From Saranac
Updated 1/22/09 as Saranac's website has changed.
Rather than working up my blood pressure by ranting about
FEMA's inept handling
of Katrina relief funds or
Karl Rove escaping
indictment, I decided to post about beer.
The Matt Brewing Company is located in
upstate New York. Despite the beautiful illustrations of the picturesque
Adirondack Mountains, the brewery is located in Utica, a city whose glory days
of manufacturing and textile mills rusted away years ago. But the breweries have
survived! Matt Brewing makes the Saranac line of beers. Their crosstown
rival, High Falls Brewery, makes Genesee,
Michael Shea's, and J.W. Dundee's line of beers. But, today's post is about
Saranac.
The Matt Brewing company is a small brewery. Dare I call it a microbrewery? But
far from being a start up, the brewery has been in business since 1888. While
unable to get distribution beyond the local scene for decades, they've slowly
managed to gain access to larger markets, thanks to America's re-discovery that
beer doesn't have to look like urine and taste like gym socks in seltzer.
Saranac can be found throughout the Northeastern U.S. and has even made forays
down the East coast into the south. It's the little brewery that could. They
offer several beers year round and rotate their seasonal offerings from a host
of recipes. But unlike most of the microbrew market, the Saranac line is not so
expensive. I typically find it for a dollar or two cheaper than the more popular
brands. We're not talking domestic swill cheap, but it is reasonable by
comparison.
 Saranac Black Forest looks
deceiving. A self-described "Bavarian Black Beer", the dark brown bottle,
coupled with the name, gives the impression that this is a heavy beer, perhaps
even stout-like, but it isn't. It's a smooth, medium-bodied ale that, when
poured into a glass and held up to a bright light, displays a rich dark brown
color with red tones shining through. Not to be confused with Black Forest
Chocolate Cake, it's malt is light on the chocolate and caramel.
It's a beer that I've enjoyed for years. I most recently had it with dinner:
salmon with a parma rosa sauce with peas over ziti rigati. It's good for Fall,
Winter, and Spring drinking. In the heat of summer, this beer becomes a little
heavy, though your taste buds may differ. 5.3% ABV.
 The other offering
from Saranac that I'm reviewing in this space is their
Caramel Porter. It's
one of their limited releases that they rotate in from time to time.
Although it's listed as a "robust porter", this a beer whose bitterness can
easily be overlooked. There just isn't enough bittering hops used here for me to
consider this a robust porter. The website says that they use Fuggles and East
Kent Goldings hops, the former is probably used for bittering while the latter
for flavoring. This is a combination that I use regularly with
my homebrews. Both of these varieties are mild on the
alpha scale so you really have to add a lot for the hops bite to come through.
This beer's mild hop character makes it easier for the caramel malts to grab
your tongue's attention and proudly inform you of their presence. The beer is
light and sweet enough to be considered a dessert beer, not what you might
expect from an offering marketed as a "robust porter." 5.4% ABV.
I had the Caramel Porter with stuffed red peppers (sausage, Spanish Rice,
mushrooms, colby & cheddar cheese) though I can't say that it was a match.
Maybe I should've saved the beer for dessert.
3 Comments:
 jnubel said...
- I've had many varieties of Saranac. Black Forest for a while was a favorite.
Mostly because it wasn't available in NJ so the case that I did enjoy was
personlly imported from upstate NY one summer. My current personal favorite beer
these days is Murphy's Irish Stout. I can recall the day of tasting the
infamous "coffee beer" (probably guiness) on campus down at Faegans. You were
there Dave, so you should remember. While I didn't care for it then, today that
is all I seem to want when given a choice. Cheers!
- 6/15/2006 4:42 PM
 Mike said...
- Mmmmm. Sounds good. Never had either, but Saranac's pretty easy to find in
NYC, so I'll keep my eyes open.
Found a deli with a very nice beer
selction in my neighborhood.
- 6/15/2006 5:24 PM
- DED said...
- Jim: I agree. Murphy's is a good beer. And I remember the "coffee
beer" incident quite well (it was indeed Guinness). It's funny how my taste in
beer has changed over the years.
Mike: I promise to keep reviewing beer in this blog. I've got at least 5
that I can think of off the top of my head that are chilling in the fridge.
- 6/16/2006 10:16 AM
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