See You On The Other Side
Notch Brewing

 

Can thanks to yllib.
Solid to really good black lager/schwarzbier.

 

Pours dark brown with reddish, amber, mahogany veining. Tan head. It's super dry, chocolate, roast, so dang delicious. Would love to have this side by side with Cerne. I did get to side by side it with Bingo's Black Lager. Both beers are well done and terrific, but I would say that the low abv that Notch shoots for here leads for some of the notes that you may want (in my case, chocolate) to be less prominent or deep. This no doubt is a great feat of a black lager. It's hard to have this much flavor at this abv but Notch does it. It also accomplishes the goal of being a beer I would want to have liters of in the company of friends. That is all to say that this is not my favorite Schwarzbier but it certainly is a great beer that I would drink a lot of if available to me.

 

I think the 4.0 ABV kept this beer too light and boring for my tastes. Needs more body and depth of flavor. I wonder what it would taste like at 5.0%.

 

Poured from a can dated 11/03/2020 into the test glass.
A - Dark Chestnut in color, excellent clarity, allows for the carbonation to be on display. The offwhite loose knit froth, lasts the entire experience. Lacing is loose and abstract.
S - Touches of cocoa, hint of coffee, earthy hops
T - A bit of char, and again the ever so slight hint of chocolate, dark toast.
M - Light on the palate, body punches above its weight, carbonation acts as its own leg of the chair. All this adds to a rich experience. Clean and crisp finish, with a dry linger.
O - A very good offering, the narrow band each element runs in, screams focus. The brewers talent on a canvas that would lay bare any flaw. In the case of this lovely lager, only pleasure.