India (style) Brown Ale
Brewed By: Saranac Brewery
Brewed In: Utica, NY
Type: Brown Ale
ABV: 6.0%

What They Say: Taking an India Ale to the next level, Saranac India Brown Ale has the malt backbone to carry the hoppiness you expect in an India Ale. Carefully selected malts from North America and Europe are decoction mashed to highlight their character and the brew is complimented with generous amounts of citrusy Columbus, Cascade and Centennial hops. Cheers!

Website: Saranac passes my muster for a good website. Navigation on top, everything easily noticeable and findable without much work. Well done, guys.

Why I Picked It: Part two of the 12 Beers of Winter series. This is another new beer making its debut in the 12 Beers. We’ll say this replaces Oatmeal Stout since they’re trying to sneak the same label painting past us. Quick aside, this is one of the reasons I love Saranac’s Winter and Summer Samplers. They actually use it to debut new stuff. The 12 Beers Of Summer this year will debut FOUR new beers. Compare this to Sam Adams’s sampler packs which offers two Boston Lagers and two Sam Lights. This almost makes up for the decision to drop from one each of 12 beers to two each of six beers. Don’t they realize that having one each in a 12-pack could get me through THREE MONTHS of columns?

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Presentation: Saranac goes for the brown label here with a autumn looking brown scene with a lovely little stream with the mountains in the background. In the foreground is two cute lil bears. 3

Originality: I am sure someone else has done this beer. The idea of “let’s take an IPA and mess with it and try to make it beer” can’t be new. Regardless, I’m pretty sure it’s the first time I’ve seen someone market something as an India Brown Ale, so points there. 3

Taste: It’s funny how things work out. I was really excited by the Vanilla Stout and ended up indifferent to it. I was really not excited about the IBA and loved it. The deep maltiness totally counteracts the brutal hoppiness that makes me hate IPAs. The hoppiness is still there, but it isn’t the first, last, and only taste. All the stuff I like about browns is enough to kill off the hint of pine-coney awful that I don’t. 7

Body: This beer’s body isn’t setting the world on fire. It’s thin and hoppy like you’d expect from an India-style Ale but has the brown malt’s strength. The problem I have is too much of it sticks around too long because of the India Style. I’m not a huge fan of the dry-mouth IPA factor and this has all that combined with dry-mouth brown ale feature. Not a huge fan of either, but points for trying. 6

Efficiency: The beer is a sneaky 6.0. Sneaky because it’s really tasty and really easy to drink and it’s right on the edge of being a Big Beer. The problem is the India style hoppiness is present enough to give you that annoying IPA dry-tongue. The strong ABV isn’t quite enough to counteract the lingering IPAness, but it’s close. 7

Versatility: If anything, this beer would make a good punchline if you could buy it in a six-pack. You could bring it in to a room of snobs and when they ask you about your IPA, you can laugh at them and tell them you don’t drink that crap. Then you can laugh maniacally and reveal that you actually have an IBA and smugly tell them if you wanted a pinecone, you’d go outside and eat one. 6

Final Grade: 32 (of 50) – Good beer.

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