Sunday Night Suds - Saranac Red IPA

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Saranac Red IPA.

 

This week's post completes my review of the 2012 the Saranac Winter Box. As I have been mentioning in various posts over the last two months, 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 - the Black Bear Bock (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2012/12/sunday-night-suds-saranac-black-bear.html), Belgian Pale Ale (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2012/12/belated-sunday-night-suds-saranac.html), the 4059' Porter (reviewed last week here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2012/11/sunday-night-suds-saranac-4059-porter.html) and the Red IPA.

 

The experts at BA have classified this beer as an American Amber/Red Ale, which they define as:

 

Primarily a catch all for any beer less than a Dark Ale in color, ranging from amber (duh) to deep red hues. This style of beer tends to focus on the malts, but hop character can range from low to high. Expect a balanced beer, with toasted malt characters and a light fruitiness in most examples. The range can run from a basic ale, to American brewers who brew faux-Oktoberfest style beers that are actually ales instead of lagers.

I would not necessarily agree with BA as to their characterization of the beer as an American Amber. Although the category is apparently drawn wide intentionally, the beer leans more towards an IPA than an Oktoberfest type brew. I found that the beer had a nice hop bite with some piney aftertaste as well. The beer would go well with spicy chinese food or even lighter stews.

 

Saranac Red IPA 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 Red IPA, please follow this link - www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/86600.

 

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

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