Rohrbach Highland Lager

On first glance, you wouldn't peg Rochester as a place to find great seafood.  Sure, we have Lake Ontario on our doorstep, but pollution issues have caused severe restrictions to be placed on the consumption of fish from the lake (roughly speaking, you can probably eat about 1oz of fish every 1,000 years).  However, there are a couple of shining examples out there, and Henrietta's Crab Shack is one of them.  It's in the old Bazil location on East Henrietta Road, owned and operated by the same family, but with an emphasis on high-quality seafood - particularly shellfish.  I've been here a couple of times and am always impressed by the freshness of their food (shipped in from Boston every morning) and the atmosphere they create.

But why am I writing about seafood on Upstate Brews?  This was supposed to be about beer!  I mention it only because I went for a drink after work with some friends there today, and enjoyed a lovely couple of jars of Highland Lager along with some crab legs and nachos. 

Rohrbach's is one of my favourite breweries in the Rochester area - they make a good range of craft beers, all of which I thoroughly enjoy drinking - and they also have a tap room and restaurant in Gates, which I've promised myself I'll visit one of these days.  Their brewery site, in downtown Rochester, is right by the Public Market and they do offer tours on Saturdays if you're interested in how ale is made.  I'll try to get my hands on some of their Pumpkin Ale, but I may have missed the boat on this as it's already November...

Their Highland Lager is a subtle brew, with a gentle aroma of malt and a dark gold colour.  Drinking this beer on tap certainly has its advantages - the effervescence of the last couple of beers I've tried was noticeably absent this time around, leaving a very smooth texture.

Like the last lager I tried, this beer had a pretty light body, which makes it a great drink to have with snacks - you don't want an overpowering hoppy taste interfering with the lovely shrimp and crab legs.  It has a pleasantly malty aftertaste, with a sweetness behind it which is very welcome.

It's a good pick for a place like the Crab Shack, as it won't overpower the subtle flavour of seafood but it has enough body to also stand on its own.  If you want a beer with more hoppy 'oomph', Rohrbach's can certainly cater to your needs in that department too - and I'll be glad to review their other varieties in the near future.

3.5 out of 5.

PS I think the Crab Shack should really invest in some Oyster Stout.  Thoughts?

Saranac Lake Effect Lager

I absolutely love this time of year, especially here in Upstate.  I grew up in Britain, and while I do still love the place dearly, I've always slightly resented my home country for its utter inability to produce proper winter weather (well, until last year, and by then I'd left the country anyway).  Come to think of it, the UK climate was never that good at producing any kind of weather, apart from rain in the autumn and overcast skies in the summer. 

Contrast that with the weather you get in the region around Lake Ontario, where I'm now based: hot, humid summers where your rich neighbours can get some real honest use out of their outdoor swimming pool; crisp, dry autumn days that show off the striking colours of turning leaves; freezing winters where you can fully expect snowstorms, and where a White Christmas is pretty much a guarantee; and then the beautiful springtime, made all the more dramatic by the memory of the winter that the land is shaking off.  There's a saying I've heard a few times in the short time I've been here: if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes; it'll change.

Only in Upstate NY could you name a beer after the local weather, and get away with it. Saranac's Lake Effect Lager does just that: it's named for the way in which the proximity of Lake Ontario exacerbates the high snowfall and winds in the areas around Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo during the mid-winter season.  The Lake Effect and I have a special relationship: it stopped me getting to my green-card interview, as we would have had to brave 40mph winds and heavy snowstorms to get there at the scheduled time.  (Yes, I did re-schedule, and no, I'm not an illegal immigrant.)  But I digress.

Saranac beer is brewed by the Matt Brewing Company, a family-run microbrewery based in Utica, NY.  They make a range of drinks, including Bohemian Pilsener, which is inspired by Czech brews - can't wait to try that one!

Lake Effect Lager, on the face of it, doesn't look, taste or smell like much of a lager - it's pretty dark, has an aroma of malty caramel, and tastes a little hoppy.  However, I'm not complaining - it's a pleasant surprise to see a self-professed lager that has some character.

The aftertaste of this brew deserves a special mention: toasted barley with a caramel undertone.  There's nothing I like more than a slightly burnt, toasty flavour working its magic on your palate after a sip of good beer, and this one had just the right hit for my liking.

The one criticism I have of this beer is the slight weakness of flavour as you're drinking it - this isn't an IPA or porter with a strong flavour, most of the interest comes in the aroma or the aftertaste.  This might be because it's a lager with a lighter body, but I expect a winter beer to have a touch more flavour in the drinking.  The toasty aftertaste more than makes up for this, though, and I can recommend this beer without reservation.

4 out of 5.