Another one from Saranac, yep you can tell i got one of those sampler 12ers. The Gen4 label purports to represent 4 generations of brewing in this family-owned brewery in Utica, NY. But, as anyone local can tell you, most of those years since 1888 were spent brewing absolute swill under the dreaded names Utica Club and FX Matt. God those were terrible beers, but terribly cheap.
The one redeeming quality of FX Matt beer was that it came in a “beer ball” which is a plastic sphere about 3 gallons capacity, so you could get a lot of beer, cheap, without laying down a deposit on a keg and tap. Naturally, when emptied, the beer ball provided minutes of drunken entertainment being kicked around the yard. Until some fool inevitably put his foot right through it, and stumbled around with a beer ball on his foot, which was guaranteed to make the rest of the party fall over laughing so hard.
Now to the future, which is already here, and the FX Matt brewery is restyled as Saranac. Goodbye to the swill, but goodbye also to the infamous $7 case of 24. Saranac beers are pricier, not outrageous, but not cheap. The quality you’re paying for is clearly in evidence with the recipes they’ve been putting out. This entry in the IPA rodeo is truly a pale ale, cloudy and yellow like it ought to be. Label calls it “hop forward”, which it is clearly not, when compared to its recent peers. The hops are citrusy but understated, and the label’s mention of “tropical” is also baffling. Nothing here tastes like a mango.
The beer side of the equation is not as flimsy as the Matt Brewery was known for, but it’s not as stocky as some other IPAs out lately. Notably, Saranac’s own “American Pale Ale” has less hop and more body, and because of that it really beats this Gen4 IPA up. Don’t get me wrong, an IPA is supposed to be thin beer, it’s just that the real-beer taste of their APA was such a pleasant surprise.
This one does have a good balance of sour and sweet, but as usual at Saranac the alk % is not listed. Strike that, turns out they put the alk% in tiny print next to the gov’t warning, and i did not find it on this bottle before getting my deposit back, but this is a “session” IPA, so it’s about four and a half. On the whole, i like the true-to-form IPA body, the cloudiness of the beer gives it authenticity, and the flavor is fine. In the middle of the pack it goes, rating a 5.5 for round appeal without standing out in the crowd.