Overall Impression: Saranac makes a decent pale, it's pretty drinkable, not overly flavorful but not bad either, a solid brew.

Bottle. Poured amber with an off-white head. Aroma was sweet and malty. Flavor began with sweet malts and yeasty flavors, but ended slightly bitter. Not what I expect from a pale ale.

Pours clear amber into a shaker. Beige head recedes to skim surface leaving spot lacing. Resin and malt aromas. Sour malt upfront with a lasting sour hop finish.

Pours clear copper with assertive tan head. The moderate aroma has notes of roasted malts, caramel with faint soft floral hoppiness in the background. The taste begins with mildly dry roastiness and a pulse of floral hop that seem to become increasingly more grapefruit like in hoppy tartness. The hops never reach a hoppy level but manage to just nudge out the malts midway and into the finish. The malts and hops become earthy along with faint dark fruitiness as the taste ends.

Bottle 12fl.oz. @ home.Clear medium to dark amber orange color with a large, frothy, good lacing, fully lasting, off-white head. Aroma is moderate to heavy malty, roasted, light to moderate caramel and nutty, light to moderate hoppy, orange. Flavor is moderate to light heavy sweet and bitter with a average to long duration. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft. (170808)

Clear amber with medium off white head. Sweet aroma with toasted malt, caramel and hoppy notes. Flavour likewise with a bitter finish.

Bottle at home ... From my GBBF 08 60 bottle haul ... Copper ... Though not as big and powerfull as many US beers this still have a bit of a US hop nose (despite its description of englih hops!?) little sweet caramel ... sweet fruity easy ... decent hop malt balance ...Tasty ... but nothing special ... but its definitly got a US charcater not an English one ...

12 oz. bottle. Reddish pour, clear, with a one finger head. Leafy malt aroma with some malty notes. Taste is malt forward, slightly grainy, with some leafy and citrus hop notes.

Bottle from GBBF 08. Attractive pale chestnut colour with lasting thick beige head. Hopped with English goldings and fuggles. Beautiful strong English hop aroma. The Fuggles just sing. Classic English ale? Aroma reminds me a bit of Meantime IPA. In the mouth though things turn downwards a bit. No idea of the ABV. The malt is there, but gets hugely over-ridden by these big bitter EKGs. Throws it out of balance. According to the ad in Ale Street News it’s won an award. I have to ask how? It’s not horrible, but it is terribly unbalanced. Right, if you let it warm up a bit, the toffee malt comes through. This balances the hop. Still a biting almost sour finish, but at least there’s some balance. Aroma is stunning, an interesting beer, but an example of an English pale ale? Oh no. Try Courage Pale Ale and see if it’s like this. Still I did like the English hops.

12oz bottle. Filtered copper-amber color with a respectably moderate head. Crisp with a decent hop bite up front, but then fades into sweet, smooth malt flavors. A nice fruity, fresh characteristic comes through in both the aroma and palate. Good session beer.