Sunday, December 8, 2013

Sunday Night Suds - Saranac Rudy's Spiced Christmas Ale


This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Saranac Brewery's Rudy's Spiced Christmas Ale (or RSCA for short).

Found this beer in the 2013-2014 Beers of Winter Box, which which also includes Saranac's flagship Pale Ale (reviewed here - kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2009/03/sunday-night-suds-saranac-pale-ale.html) along with three new beers - the Moonshadow Black IPA (reviewed here - kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2013/11/sunday-night-suds-saranac-moonshadow.html); Decoction Concoction) and two relatively new beers, the 4059 Porter (reviewed here -kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2012/11/sunday-night-suds-saranac-4059-porter.html) and the Belgian Pale Ale (reviewed here - kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2012/12/belated-sunday-night-suds-saranac.html).

The RSCA bills itself as a spiced ale and in the capacity it is true to form. There is a great deal of spice in this brew, albeit somewhat muddled. I had a difficult time isolating any of the spices, notwithstanding the description on the Saranac website that the ingredient list reads like a Christmas cookie. 

However, the larger problem that I had with this beer is that it just does not taste like an ale. There are no hops and the alcohol content is not really present (although BA claims that it is 6% abv). There is a generous serving of malts, but that just does not say ale to me.

Overall, this is an OK beer if you like spiced beer/winter warmers, but I would not rank this among my favorite Saranac products.

Saranac RSCA is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit as is every other beer produced at the Matt Brewery plant in Utica, NY. Keep in mind, Saranac has begun to brew some of its High Peaks series off site and these bottles do not have kosher certification from the Va'ad of Detroit.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about the RSCA, please follow this link www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/101533.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

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