Brewery: The Matt Brewing Company, Utica, NY

Brewery Description: (from site) “A Bavarian black beer with distinctive carmel malt sweetness and rich creamy trademark head. Flavorful, yet smooth; it is very drinkable!”

Brew Style:Schwarzbier, 5.3% ABV

Recommended Glassware: Flute, pilsner glass

The Ugly Truth: Alright, slowly getting back on track with writing reviews.  Saranac Black Forest.  Not an awesome beer, especially as far as Schwarzbiers go for me, but not a bad beer.  Black Forest pours a deep ruby in color, with a fairly dense blackish/ruby red core to it.  Good color, clean with a moderate carbonation to it.  The head was an light tan in color of moderate size and texture, initially with low rentention but once it settled a bit it lasted much longer.

The aroma was really good, nice and clean with a moderate malt presence and no strong hops contribution.  There was a light sweetness to it, with some of the caramel tones coming through.  I found Black Forest to be a bit on the light side for mouthfeel for a schwarzbier, with moderate carbonation.  The most distinct flavor for me was one not mentioned in the brewery description: bitter chocolate.  Pretty strong flavor actually, but worked for this beer.  The flavor was actually fairly rich for what I felt was a lighter body on the beer than expected.  The flavor wasn’t complex, but what was there was good.  It also sported a fairly prominent malt character to it with a bit of sweetness coming out in the finish and some hops bitterness in the aftertaste.

Overall, pretty good stuff but definitely not the best Schwarzbier I’ve ever had.  The bitter chocolate flavor got balanced out some, but was still the majority of the taste.  Give it a shot, but I’ve reviewed a few other black beers that I think are much better.

Verdcit: I’ll go with a 7 out of 10 bottlecaps on this one.