Saranac Root Beer

My wife and i visited some friends in Buffalo, NY recently and were introduced to this nice little beverage which is brewed and bottled there in NY. Saranac has been around since 1888 and is made by the Matt Brewing Co. Matt's also brews beers, but we will forgive them for this even though we won't forgive Weinhard's. It's better this way. I had not heard of it before visiting Buffalo, where it is sold in the local grocery stores and gas stations, but found out that it can be found here in Arizona from the Soda Shop, which is nice.


The bottle is a regular shaped glass bottle with a colorful
red and gold label, some fancyish writing on the front with the name of the root beer, and a happy little picture of the brewery where it is made. To be honest, it looks

like a beer bottle, which isn't all that surprising since they brew beer also.

When Dick (my friend from Buffalo) first told me about it, i thought he was saying Similac, like the baby formula. He has a couple little girls, and i thought he wanted me to try out his Similac stash. I wasn't really looking forward to it, but i can assure you, Saranac tastes nothing like Similac. It's a lot sweeter for one, and two, it doesn't make you crap your pants. It is actually a very good root beer. Not too sweet, great after taste (again, a hint of wintergreen), good carbination, and an all around enjoyable beverage. We had it with dinner one night and it was great. I was thoroughly impressed with Dick's selection, which i guess i should have been since he's an IBC man also.

My official review is that Saranac gets 8 (eight) IBCs. It's a nice little treat. At about $6 or so for a 6-pack, it's not the cheapest, but it's usually going to beat out most of the competition around it. If you can find it, that is. I am not sure how prevalent it is around the nation. I say go for it if you have the opportunity. It's a good compliment to dinner.