India Black Lager
The Grizzly Paw Brewing Company

650ml bottle - another in their #622 Main Street Series, which essentially means being brewed at their original downtown brewpub location, as opposed to their sexy newish highway-adjacent affair.

This beer pours a clear, dark red-brick tinted brown colour, with four fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves some stellar tightly webbed lace around the glass as it lazily recedes.

It smells of roasted pale malt, bittersweet cocoa powder, some further wet ashiness, subtle cafe-au-lait, and some plain leafy, earthy, and herbal noble hop bitterness. The taste is gritty and grainy pale malt, a prominent free-range char, muddled domestic citrus and more exotic tropical fruitiness, discount store chocolate wafers, day-old black coffee, an ethereal earthy yeastiness, and more laid-back weedy, herbal, and dead floral green hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate for the support job at hand, via its genial frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and sort of smooth, the varied smokey essences maybe not playing all that nice with others here. It finishes trending dry, the malt holding steady, while the hoppy and ashy measures flit about, looking for a place to happen.

Overall, this is a well-made version of the style, even if they've dubbed it somewhat differently - I get the intention to imply that it's hoppier than the norm, but it really doesn't play out that way. Roasted, malty, fruity, and just bitter enough to keep things duly balanced. Good stuff.

For some reason this stuff had a rooibos tea taste going on for me.

 

 

Enjoyed fresh, on tap at the Grizzly Paw pub. This is a gorgeous beer - cola coloured, with a delicate foam head that leaves wonderful lacing. It has a gently balanced hop and coffee aroma - just enough to hint at the tastes to come. The favour is full of roasted malt and coffee. With a nice bitter hop finish. The mouthfeel is light and incredibly enjoyable. Well played, Grizzly Paw, well played!

The second installment of the 622 Main Street series of lagers.

Appearance - Pours a dark nut brown with two fingers of tan head.

Smell - bready and roasted malts, spicy, floral, and leafy hops, hint of chocolate, hint of tropical fruits, hint of yeast.

Taste - Starts off with the bready and roasted malts then goes into the spicy, floral,and leafy hops, hint of chocolate, hint of tropical fruits (citrus), and the lager yeast.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes with a lingering light bitterness from the hops alongside the roasted malts.

Overall - A unique brew by Grizzly Paw. You get elements of different styles (ipa, porter, and lager) into one. All the flavours work well with one another and this brew takes an interesting journey. I look forward to the next installment of this series.