Brewery: Matt Brewing Company, Utica, NY

Brewery Description: “A beer that would make the English jealous! This true English Pale Ale is rich and fruity, yet finishes crisp. You’ll love the copper amber color and medium body.”

Brew Style: English Pale Ale, 5.50% ABV

Recommended Glassware: English pint

The Ugly Truth: Alright, four beers down and two more to go for Saranac.  Thank god.  I don’t mind Saranac, but I’m looking forward to getting to the end of this six pack and buying something different.

Saranac Pale Ale poured a deep copper in color, with some light carbonation rising from the bottom.  Finished with an off white foamy head that had decent retention to it but ended up being low.  Which is all fine, right about where a English pale ale should be.

Aroma-wise, really good.  Moderately strong hops aroma, with a little bit of caramel tone to it from some balancing malt.  It had a really balanced mix of the two, with the light malt caramel balancing the hops perfectly.

However, I’m not sure where those things went when it came to the taste.  They completely disappeared on me.  Don’t get me wrong, the taste is pretty good but it didn’t live up to the aroma.  Low hops flavor that didn’t reflect what I found in the aroma, same thing with the malt.  The taste was smooth, though not even remotely bitter.  The hops flavor that was present had a slight citrus tinge to it that worked pretty well.  The low carbonation level lead to a light mouthfeel and body.  The taste was straightforward, with no secondary flavors creeping in to ruin it.  Finish was clean with no strong aftertaste to it.

Overall, its not a bad English pale ale.  It could definitely be stronger in the hops flavor and the malt to make it a better beer.  I personally found it kind of weak for a pale ale even though I liked the taste.  It was an easy drinking beer with nothing crazy to it so it gets a bonus point for simplicity and ease of drinking.

The Verdict: I’m giving it a 7 out of 10 bottlecaps.  Not a bad beer, but not an awesome one either.