Sunday Night Suds - Saranac Black Forest

This week's edition of Sunday Night Suds looks at Saranac Brewery's Black Forest beer.

Saranac's Black Forest is one of Saranac's unheralded, but truly underrated brews. The beer itself is a dark beer, but does not carry the heft of a stout or porter. The good folks at beer advocate call this beer a schwarzbier, and explain that:

Schwarzbier ("shvahrts-beer"), is simply German for black beer. It doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily heavy or light in body, although they tend to lean towards light. Unlike other dark beers, like porters or stouts, they are not overly bitter with burnt and roasted malt characteristics that the others tend to depend on. Instead, hops are used for a good portion of the bitterness. Very refreshing and soul lifting beers, they also make a great alternative for the Winter. Especially when you are looking for a lighter beer, but one with depth of colour and taste.

As I mentioned above although the Saranac Black Forest is dark it is not a heavy beer. Having said that, the beer is not like some black lagers whose dark color is essentially due to additives. The Saranac Black Forest is exceedingly rich in flavor with hints of caramel blended with a generous amount of hops.

I had my Black Forest with spicy meat hors d' oeuvres, savory potato kugel and season salt roast chicken (we deferred New Year's Eve to Friday Night so that we could make our shabbos meal extra special by combining the traditional New Year's Eve treats with our Friday Night supper) and the combination was fantastic.

Saranac Black Forest is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit, as is every other brew produced by Saranac. To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about Saranac Black Forest, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/312.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

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