Brewery: Saranac Brewing
Location: Utica, NY
Style: Lager

Switching up from the recent run of big beer reviews – but staying in a New York state of mind – I present one of my latest favorite session beers: Saranac Summer Brew. My friend Peter Wohelski first introduced me to the concept of mixing lemonade with lager for a summer drink. Few bars are actually equipped to do this either lacking a decent lager – or more often – lemonade worth mixing. So, finding a brewery putting together in one bottle seemed like kismet.

Let’ get one thing out of the way at the start: I would have preferred this use REAL lemonade and not a flavoring. Of course, that would have introduced a number of issues that I’m sure someone like Dogfish Head might want to overcome, but just don’t make sense for a session brew from Saranac. The end product does suffer a little from the flavoring factor, but not so much to fail the beer.

It should come a no surprise that this pours a clear pale yellow with a frothy bright white head. While the heads falls a bit quickly, it’s not a real issue for me with this beer. It’s not about the head here – it’s the beer. There is a definite lemony scent combined with a simple lager aroma. I wish the lemonade to lager balance of the scent came through in the taste. Unfortunately, the lemon flavor dominates here. I suspect it’s the flavoring versus a real lemonade. I’ve had well made lager and lemonade with fresh lemonade and the beer and citrus balance perfectly. Think Ale and Stout or a proper Snakebite to understand. The lemonade flavor lends a bit of a soda pop edge to this – not quite Zima territory but bordering dangerously close.

Thankfully, it does not enter the dreaded Zima Zone and stays in a very nice utility beer DMZ just outside the ZZ. This is nothing challenging – nothing extreme – nothing more than a simple crisp beer perfect for a summer drinking while kicking back on the deck next to the BBQ or fire pit. The 3.5% ABV keeps this firmly in the “have a few category.” I had the one for this review while eating Cha Cha Hut Fish Tacos and the pairing was brilliant. Clean simple citrus brew with well grilled fish on a nice summer night. I rarely gets better at the OAB HQ.