Sunday Night Suds - Saranac Black Bear Bock

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at another of Saranac's new winter offerings - the Black Bear Bock.

 

As I mentioned in last week's post, the Saranac Winter Box has two of their better winter seasonal beers - the Chocolate Lager (reviewed here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2011/12/sunday-night-suds-saranac-chocolate.html ) and the Big Moose Ale (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2009/11/sunday-night-suds-saranac-big-moose-ale.html ) along with four new varieties - a Red IPA, Black Bear Bock, Belgian Pale Ale and the 4059' Porter (reviewed last week here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2012/11/sunday-night-suds-saranac-4059-porter.html).

 

In last week's column I thanked Dan R for letting me know that the new Saranac Winter Box was in stores. In this week's column I must wish Dan R a mazal tov on the birth of a baby boy. The Shalom Zachor was awesome, and the beer was all Dan R's home brew! If and when Dan R starts selling his brews commercially (he has gotten some decent grade from Sam Adams for some of his homebrew submissions) you could see some of them reviewed here!

 

Back to the brew under review, the Saranac Black Bear Bock. This beer is not a typical bock as the malts are very subdued and the beer almost seems like a pilsner to me. While Saranac does not generally brew 12oz beers with a high alcohol content, the lack of a kick in this brew along with the mild flavor, made me wish that they had amped up the alcohol content. I would not recommend this beer as it seems to me like Saranac has missed the boat on this one. Of course, they have such a great product line that the lack of taste in this brew does not make me wonder about the other new beers in the winter box. Still, it would have been nice to have a little more depth in this one.

 

Saranac Black Bear Bock is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit as is every other beer produced at the Matt Brewery plant in Utica, NY. Keep in mind, Saranac has begun to brew some of its High Peaks series off site and these bottles do not have kosher certification from the Va'ad of Detroit.

 

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about the Black Bear Bock, please follow this link - www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/87146.

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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