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Saranac - Pomegranate Wheat (12:11)

Since I seldom pass up a chance to try some new beer, and I respect the brewers at Saranac, when they released a Pomegranate Wheat Beer I had to try it. The mix of fruit flavors with wheat beer is one area of American brewing where even some of the more competent brewers have done a test batch, tasted the result, and then slapped a neat name and spiffy label art on the result and ignored the urging of their self-respect to pour it out.

So here's the label, with a black bear wearing shades and juggling pomegrantes, not a good sign, but the name is pretty direct, and no one can claim they didn't know what went into it.

On the pour

Cloudy, but not murky, I don't expect crystal clear from a wheat beer, even when there are no other organic molecules in play, so this isn't a fault. And the head was thin, although it did look smooth and inviting. During the 10-15 minutes I had this brew in my mug the head stayed thin but not gone. That's not unexpected for wheat beer, either.

The aroma, well it was pretty subtle to say the least. Many of these fruited wheat beers have an overpowering aroma of the fruit to assure you that "This is real fruit beer." Saranac did put in the fruit, but maybe it was the stealth pomegranate they used. Wheat beer generally isn't  overpowering in aroma, so I didn't expect a lot of malt, or hops, and I was not sure what a pomegranate should smell like anyway, I didn't get much feedback by sniff.

The taste

Well, it was time to taste it, and I took a good gulp or two and then thought about the taste. The flavor hit me at the front of the tongue, and the back of the mouth. I could taste the pomegranate, but I think Saranac used too much subtlty here, the taste didn't really separate itself from wheat beers of any other competent brewer. I was prepared for too much fruit character, but this is a first, most brewers either get it right or get too much and hide the basic flavor of the beer.

Overall

I hate to say it but I was disappointed by this brew. I had another, and I let it warm a bit before opening, it still went down as well as any other wheat beer, but I still had no particular good or bad feature to note. It wasn't particularly filling, it would be refreshing on a hot day, so what? Saranac has made some brews I didn't like, but that was preference, not because the brew lacked enough character to make me care one way or the other. I didn't dislike it, but worse than that I didn't care.

I didn't like this one, and don't recommend it.

[/2007/05/14] permanent link