A light beer in a craft beer's bottle
Written: Jun 18 '08 (Updated Sep 25 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: extremely smooth; light bodied; good for parties.
Cons: Weak tasting; rather unsatisfying; misleading name.
The Bottom Line: This is probably one of the better tasting light beers you're likely to come across - but even that's not saying a lot.
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| Chad9976's Full Review: Saranac Pilsener |
I’ve never been a fan of light beers, except maybe at a bar during Monday Night Football while eating hot wings. I prefer taste over a light body, so it’s rare that a light beer can be truly tasty and weighty.
Saranac Golden Pilsener comes pretty close, but I think half the appeal is in the name. From what I understand from the other beer snobs on epinions, this beer is not truly a pilsner, rather, just a unique lager. If you were to do a blind taste test and ask drinkers to distinguish this beer from Miller Lite I’ll bet many wouldn’t be able to do it.
POUR, COLOR AND AROMA
As soon as I poured Saranac Golden Pilsener into an actual pilsner glass I was a bit surprised it immediately took on the qualities of a Bud or Coors Light. It’s extremely thin in appearance and pours to a very light golden color, almost bright yellow, in fact. There’s a lot of carbonation immediately after the pour, but it calms down surprisingly quickly. What’s also interesting is despite the fact I poured it to form a minimal amount of head, its head started off small but then quickly blossomed. Then after only a few minutes the head dissipated rather quickly – can’t this beer make up its mind?
There isn’t much to comment on as far as aroma since this beer has a fairly generic scent, although it definitely leans a bit towards the malts and has a bit sweeter smell. It’s somewhere between that annoying big-name brew smell and the aroma of a true craft beer.
TASTE
Some beers are absolutely delicious and some are completely awful. Then there are beers like Saranac Golden Pilsener which are pretty neutral in taste. This beer tastes a lot like the generic light beers it seems to be imitating. It’s extremely smooth, which is good, but there just isn’t much to be said as far as taste. The palate is weak and watery with the bare minimum of sweetened malts. It certainly tastes better than any beer with the word “lite” in its name, but doesn’t match up to good beers.
BODY
Despite the bland taste, I have to give Saranac Golden Pilsener a pat on the back for its extremely smooth and light body. It’s one of the easiest beers to drink I’ve had in a long time. Since it tastes so much like water, it drinks a lot like water too. It would make a great party beer since it’s so light and smooth. But on its own it’s pretty unsatisfying.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It seems like I’ve tasted a lot of beers lately that are neutral in taste but light in body. I’m torn whether to recommend Saranac Golden Pilsener or not because it’s nothing special, but it is easy to drink and does taste better than your average light beer. As a craft brew it leaves a lot to be desired, but I think the average drinker wouldn’t be too disappointed by this beer.
OTHER SARANAC BEERS:
Saranac Adirondack Lager (3)
Saranac Belgian White (5)
Saranac Black & Tan (4)
Saranac Black Forest (4)
Saranac Brown Ale (4)
Saranac Hefeweizen (5)
Saranac India Pale Ale (4)
Saranac Kolsch (3)
Saranac Octoberfest (3)
Saranac Pale Ale (3)
Saranac Pomegranate Wheat (3)
Saranac Pumpkin Ale (4)
Saranac Summer Ale (3)
Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale (3)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Chad9976
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Chad Polenz
Location: Albany, New York
Reviews written: 657
Trusted by: 147 members
About Me:Check out Chad'z Beer Reviews on YouTube
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