Trader José Dark Lager
Trader Joe's Brewing Company

A good looking brew. Dark brown with an off white head of good substance and retention. Nice lacing as well.

Nose has lots of coffee and fall roasted malt. Brown surgery sweetness. A hint of molasses

Lovely smooth malt front. Mild roast and coffee flavors. Brown bread and light brown sugar sweetness. Firm bitterness brings a crisp finish

Feel is medium light body. Crisp and refreshing with an underlying richness.

An excellent bargain. Delicious, smooth, and very crushable.

 

I'm a recent transplant from Philadelphia and the unavailability of Yuengling Traditional Lager has inspired my search for a cheap, fairly mellow and drinkable lager here in Denver. Trader Jose's comes close, though I think it's actually a little richer and sweeter than "Lager." But still quite drinkable, with a fine taste of dark roasted barley. Highly recommended.

Nearly identical to Modelo Negra. Wins by a slight in a blind test with Optimator, Maduro, KC, and Marshalls. Nice balance of robust deep taste and refreshing finish. Hands down over Shiner, Weihenstephaner, Celebrator, Breken, Paulaner.

 

 

Poured from a bottle into a pint glass. Pours deep red with a small white head. Smells of dark roasted grain. Tastes of dark roasted grain with slight fruit notes. Beer is light bodied and easy drinking, good carbonation. Overall, a good beer.

 

Tastes almost identical to Dos Ambar or Modelo Negra. Not perfect but gets a perfect score for being a high quality tasting, delicious dark lager for such a low price($6.50 for a sixer by me). I buy this regularly, whenever I’m craving a solid dark lager.

 

 

 

Look: Dark amber. Three fingers of off-white head with decent retention.

Smell: Immediately noticeable bread while the bottle is still sitting on my desk. A deeper smell gives sweet, metallic, and slightly fruity notes.

Taste: Dark bread, mild roast bitterness, clean and biscuity finish.

Mouthfeel: Average body, very high carbonation.

Overall: A surprisingly nice dark lager for a low price.

 

this is actually really good, to me a step better than the two pale ones, its not quite as cheap tasting, has a full malt flavor and structure, but still the capacity to refresh, which i think puts it on part with more well known examples of the style, and it works curiously well in fall, where a little more body and richness make good sense. its sweet all the way through but not overly so, its toasted and nutty and hearty, with vienna lager character, european grain profile to me, caramelized but not too dense, bready and autumnal, maybe a little bit of a malt extract thing to it, but the flavors work. i taste some lager yeast in here which i like too, and its relatively quick finishing for what it is. you cannot beat the price, and of the various trader joes beers, you can do a lot worse than this one. great with spicy food, pleasant for fireside sipping, i really dont have much to complain about. maybe part of it is that i dont generally expect too much from this style, so when the beer is even decent i am typically pleased. not sure where that perception evolved from, or how to break it, but this did the trick for me just fine!

APPEARANCE: Pours a deep browny amber, with huge off-white head and little lace.

AROMA: Malty, with a hint of bittersweet cocoa and toffee. Nice.

TASTE: Sweetly malty, smooth and light bitterness at finish, with a little roast even. Decent and refreshing dark lager here. No problem.

As "dark lagers" go this is pretty good but not great ... Very basic, but that is not necessarily a bad thing... Just a good thing...which is good...just not great

 

Ugh..weird urine like smell..tastes like paper..Thin with almost no body,very watery..
Maybe this batch was old. Dumped the rest of the six pack in the garden..