Far be it from me to get off on the wrong foot. But sometimes the truth just has to come out. I get a little bent out of shape when a beer offers me a low alcohol content. Especially when this beer is of a style that typically offers substantial numbers in this area. It’s not that I go after beer specifically to get drunk. As a lover of full flavored beers of all types, I am in the beer drinking business for the experience first and foremost. This is about gawking at the visual appearance of the beer. This is about breathing deep the aroma that a wonderful beer emanates from its foamy head. This is about letting the rich taste of a quality beer wash over my tongue and desperately trying to pin down all of the notes the brewer intended for me to find.
Sure I want to get drunk as much as the next guy, but not to a ridiculous degree. I’m no alcoholic. While I drink at least a few beers almost everyday out of the week, getting drunk is basically a weekends-only type of activity for this guy. I do love to go out to a bar and get rowdy with the guys. This is probably one of the highlights of my week. But in the end I just want to feel like the brewers behind the beer I’m drinking keep in mind that I do need to get drunk sometimes. After all, if I’m going to spend the time drinking a beer, it wouldn’t hurt to have the knowledge that maybe I can catch a cool buzz without putting in too much work.
The Saranac Pale Pale Ale is unfortunately a tragic example of this problem. But before I get off on the problem with this beer, I will extol its merits. It is definitely one of the paler pale ales I’ve ever come across. By this I mean that the color is a sort of ancient and faded gold. The head on the beer is decent and I gave it a nod of approval. The smell of this beer is all hops. Unsurprisingly, the taste of the Saranac Pale Pale Ale is also all hops. There is not much of a malt presence to be found here. But the beer is only 4.7% alcohol by volume. That number brings a tear to my eye as I imagine guzzling down seven of these bad boys in order to get drunk come Friday night. Still, I’ll probably drink it again if I get a chance.
