Sunday Night Suds - Saranac Belgian Ale

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Saranac Belgian Ale.

Although I have reviewed other Belgian Pale Ale's in prior posts (see Blue Moon Pale Moon - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2009/02/sunday-night-suds-pale-moon.html and New Belgium's Fat Tire - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2009/12/sunday-night-suds-new-belgiums-fat-tire.html ), its been a few years since I presented the definition for this style of beer. As such,I reproduce below the BA definition of Belgian Pale Ale:

Belgian Pales consume the Belgian brewing scene, and were initially brewed to compete with Pilseners during the WWII time frame. They differ from other regional Pale Ale varieties, by traditionally being less bitter, using aged hops for a delicate hop finish, and boasting sweetish to toasty malt overtones. They should be decanted properly, leaving the yeast in the bottle. This will showcase their brilliant color range from pale straw yellow to amber hues. Most will be crowned with thick, clinging, rocky white heads. Flavors and aromas will vary. Some have natural spice characters from yeast and hops, while others are spiced.

There's a recent growing trend to make much more "hoppy" Pale Ales, to entice the US market and its hopheads.

The Saranac Belgian Ale poured a dark amber with a little bit of foam. The banana like spices his right away, but the flavor was not too over the top. The beer is nice as a change of pace brew and due to the way that Saranac markets it (part of a mixed pack) you wont have to worry about what to do with it as you will never have more than two at a time. Of course if you really like the brew, you will have to drive up to Utica to beg them for some singles, but they are really nice up there and its worth making the trip...

Saranac Belgian Ale 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 Belgian Ale, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/26617.

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

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