Saranac Pumpkin Ale

The gold standard of pumpkin beers so far in this young autumn. Saranac has long been held near and dear to our hearts for being the closest thing to our hometown pumpkin beer. Brewed right down the thruway in Utica, New York, and available by the six pack, twelve pack, case, or as part of Saranac's fall seasonal sampler, this is a truly exceptional pumpkin beer for a reasonable price ($6.99 for 6, $11.99 for 12-- at Wegman's). But, truth to tell, in past years regional loyalty kept us coming back to Saranac more than the quality of the taste. We bought in bulk, in large part, to support an Upstate New York  neighbor. In 2010 and 2009 Saranac pumpkin was middle of the road, not too sweet, not too dark, but not too flavorful, either; the pumpkin was there, along with a light patina of spice, but the more you drank down the bottle the less you could taste either. It wasn't a bad beer (it didn't grate, for example, like Wolaver's), just a mildly pedestrian one.


No longer. Saranac has stepped up their pumpkin game, and we applaud them. The 2011 recipe ushers in a new, more robust era. Welcome to flavor country. The pumpkin taste is stronger than ever (not obnoxiously so, as if they simply dumped loads of canned pumpkin into the vats, but carefully measured to produce a perfect amount of our favorite gourd), complimented with a good mixture of spices. Indeed, the best thing about this beer may be it's spicing. It boasts a subtle, and curious, blend of sweetness and bitterness, mixed to perfection that simultaneously allows the brew to play to both of the usual crowds of pumpkin beer consumers: sweet-toothy I-want-pumpkin-pie-types and their malty give-me-the-natural-pumpkin-or-give-me-death counterparts. The name of the Saranac pumpkin game remains balance, though at much higher level than past batches. This is the Goldilocks of pumpkin beers, then. Not too dark, not too light, but just right for all comers. 

We give it a solid A.