Saranac Pale Ale

It's been a while since I've had a pale ale, so I thought I'd try Saranac's Pale Ale next:

Vittles:

5.5% abv

Appearance: 8/10

The crystal-clear amber color, topped by about a half-inch of off-white foam, does look pretty pleasing.  However, the head did not last very long and left only minimal lacing as it fell.  Low levels of carbonation were also apparent.

Aroma: 18/25

The aroma isn't overly strong.  I smell a decent amount of breadiness, along with a funky grain kind of smell. It also smells a little stale, like old bread, and there are more subdued fruity notes, too.

Taste: 32/40

The taste matches the aroma fairly well, but the bitterness is more prominent.  The flavors are nice and smooth, and they seem to balance nicely.  Both the stale grain and the fruitiness are present, but the fruit notes are fainter in the flavor than they were in the aroma.

Mouthfeel: 8/10

It's medium bodied, with low effervescence and a clean finish.  I like how crisp this beer is, since that makes it more refreshing and more enjoyable for me, especially since I was sipping this while enjoying the warm, sunny spring weather.

Style: 3/5

Saranac's website lists this as an "English-style pale ale," and while it largely fits into the standard English Pale Ale category, there are a few points where it deviates, such as the color, abv, and mouthfeel, all of which surpass the high side of the style guidelines.

Drinkability: 8/10

It's smooth and refreshing, and it doesn't leave your mouth coated with a lingering bitter aftertaste.  I think this would have been a great beer to session if only the abv were lower.  The American craft sector has relatively few truly sessionable brews; this one has the characteristics I'd want in a session beer, but at 5.5%, I wouldn't be able to drink them the way I could a 3.5% beer, for example.

Overall: 77/100

Surprise, surprise -- another average beer.  I remember when I first started drinking beer, back in my college days (think Red Dog), I thought it was so flavorless and bland.  Then I discovered craft beer, which was amazingly flavorful by comparison, and for a while there, I thought every craft beer I tried was nectar from the gods.  But my frame of reference hadn't shifted yet.  Now that I've sampled a very wide variety of craft beers and know how good they can taste, I'm really not shocked to see that the majority of what I try falls in the "average" range, with a few coming in well above, and a few falling well below.  It's amazing how many things the bell curve describes.

I think there are two more Saranac beers left to try.  Cheers!