Last week I had dinner with a friend who told me that each night he enjoys a different beer typically bought from a local supermarket called Wegmans. He would make notes for himself on what he liked, or didn't like, about each beer. I told him he should start a blog about that.I was thinking of that conversation while standing in the beer section of Wegmans today. I typically drink just one flavor of beer - Yuengling Lager. I recently bought some of the just-released Sly Fox Oktoberfest, the subject of Post No. 214, which was very good. As I was browsing the enormous selection a particular box of beers caught my attention. It was called "12 Beers a Falling" by Saranac. It contained two bottles of six different beers, including Oktoberfest, Pumpkin Ale, India Pale Ale, Irish Red Ale and two others.
I didn't know much about Saranac, like where it was even brewed. So I googled it in the store. I read this about the meaning of Saranac:
Saranac. The word conjures up visions of clear lakes, open skies and breathtaking mountains. To the native people of our land, the Iroquois, the word means "Cluster of Stars." They lived with the beauty and serenity that was inherent to the lake and surrounding area. We borrow that name in the spirit with which it was created. We brew our Saranac line of beers from the pure water that flows from the Adirondacks and the grains that grow in its unspoiled soil.
That was enough for me.
I later learned that Saranac was founded in 1888 by Francis Xavier Matt, or F.X. as he liked to be called. F.X. was a German-born immigrant, just like David G. Jüngling, who later changed his last name to Yuengling.
I thought the meaning was "multi-tentacled alien beast whose immense, gaping mouth is lined with several rows of sharp teeth." But then I realized that's a sarlacc, not Saranac.
ReplyDeleteIn response to your suggestiong to write a blog about my sampling exploits, I can say that there is already a website that does a much better job. Beeradvocate.com has a list of most known beers sorted by type or by brewer, along with a grading system determined by the members of the website. Some go into great detail, ranking by smell, taste, mouthfeel, etc. The descriptions written will describe the smells based on the hops used (earthy, grassy, citrusy, etc).
ReplyDeleteEveryone has different tastes of beer, and usually the beers that get A's are ones that I don't like, and the ones that I do like usually only get B's. The nice thing about the site is that you can drill down by reviewer, so if you can find someone with a similar palate, some of the work may already be done for you.