The real point of this review is to rebut a comment I heard recently.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to review the beer, but I wanted to address an idea that raising one’s beer standards results in poverty…or something like that.  You’ve heard it before.   Someone states:  “I’d love to drink the ‘good stuff,’ but it’s just too expensive.  I’ll have to stick with my Michelob Ultra.”

True, the old proverb, “you get what you pay for is warranted.”  I am sure that Utopias Mike downed the other night tasted better than anything I’ve ever had, but, as he admitted, it was a rare treat; a luxury.  The point is, you can drink decent beer for pennies more.  Case in point:  my wife went to the grocery store the other night.  It’s Christmas time, money is tight and there is no real promise that in the future we’ll be bathing in tubs full of gold coins, so she was shopping economically.  At the grocery store, she could have bought a six pack of Budweiser for me for $5.99.  I would have drank it.  I am not that snobby.  But instead she walked out with six pack sampler of Saranac Ales for $6.29.  That’s $.30 more than Bud, and a wise choice.

So tonight I’m sipping on Saranac’s brown ale.

The color is a mid-ruby brown.  Just looking at I can tell it’s thinner than other beers in its category.  It pours smoothly.  Not much head at all.  The smell is confusing.  For a minute I was afraid I was using a dirty glass.  It’s not very winey.  No metallic smell I was expecting either.  I can pick up on hints of chocolate malts, and minimal hoppiness.  This is good though.  While I love a crisp hoppy flavor, it seems extremely trendy right now to throw mounds of hops into everything.

The flavor is not bad…especially for $6.29.  It is pretty mild.  The hop isn’t overwhelming, neither is the malt.  The chocolaty flavor is stronger than expected, and there is a decent balance between the bitter hop and the mildly sweet malt.  If I were to grade it on an academic scale, I think I’d shoot for a B-.

“A B-, you say…that’s barely above average.  My delicate palate wouldn’t touch that Saranac with a 39 1/2 foot pole.”

Well suite yourself, but I am enjoying it, and for $.30 more, it’s an alternative that’s a no-brain-er.  For $.30 you can upgrade from an F (Bud, Michelob Ultra, Etc.) to a drinkable B-.  The bottom line is, claiming that you drink the same crap night in and night out because it is affordable is a cop-out!  Grab a Saranac!