Pete's Amazing Amburana Black Lager
Hoppin' Frog Brewery

Tall can bought from the brewery some weeks ago... finally getting to try it. Poured into a pilsner glass, it looks like cola with a short khaki head that fades right away. The smell was pretty strong out of the gate. I take it that's the Amburana wood. This beer smells like cherry cola, but with the spice kicked up a notch. I get the vanilla and cinnamon with some woody notes. It's has a very interesting flavor, somewhere between schwarzbier and cherry cola. It really straddles that line well, but what else would you expect from Hoppin' Frog? It definitely has an alcoholic character to it—rum-soaked is a good way of putting it. It's warming and yet clean on the finish. Slight roasty, woody sort of bitterness at the end with some chocolate and licorice.

Glad I got to try this after the rare pilgrimmage to the brewery.

 

Glossy mahogany with brown edges under a fine but dense tan blanket that slowly disperses to a sparse film and microbubble ring.

I didn't realize the ABV was up there, but it expresses with tones of rum soaked vanilla before ushering in a woody tobacco roast with threads of cola and even a hint of cinnamon. About as American a schwarz as one might think up without entirely eschewing the style.

It swallows vanishingly clean and gently warming with a semi-bitter bite.