Regal Lager
Wild Rose Brewery & Taproom

On-Tap at Craft Beer Market in Edmonton. I missed out on this one at the brewery in Calgary so was happy to find it still available.
Dark, cola brown with a short, off white head. Good foam retention, rings of lace left behind.
Smells are of roasted malt, bready, caramel, wish there was a bit more smokiness present.
Taste is more on the malt side, caramel to start. finishes with some herbal leaf hops.
Medium body, average carbonation, dry finish.
Kind of average, good enough but could have more flavor.

 

This is an agreeable rendition of a style I love. It pours with a thin head, more cola fizzy than I would like to see. The nose is roasted malt with hints of chocolate, and the taste brings more of these flavours to the party. The finish is a bit thin and dry for my tastes. I prefer it when the substance of a beer lingers in your mouth. This taste is over quickly, which is a bit disappointing. I'm not sorry that I picked up a bomber, but I won't be racing to try it again.

650 ml poured into a tulip. Very dark brownish black brew with three fingers of frothy, sudsy beige foam. The head disintegrates rather quickly but a good finger remains perched atop the darkness below.

Aroma is pleasing enough, rich caramel malts jump out initially but are followed by some lager yeast earthiness, sour plum, raisin, root beer, faint ash, grass. Mellow and subdued but not lacking a certain grace.

Taste features a notably dark fruit tartness, soft smooth roasted char (not massively astringency or smoky), low key dry chocolate flakes and molasses, and a prominent hay-like and grassy Mittlefruh hop bitterness. A single sulfurous match strike. Very gentle carbonation. Low to medium bodied. Rather chalky and dry, although eventually the fruitiness starts to translate as grape candy.

A schwarzbier is not supposed to taste like a stout. This is a relatively clean and crisp style that is relatively devoid of bitter chocolate and coffee flavors. I think this is a fine example, if rather fruity for a lager.

Appearance - Pours a cola brown with two fingers of foamy beige head.

Smell - light roasted bready malts, caramel, leafy and floral hops, lager yeast.

Taste - Starts off with the light roasted bready malts then goes into the caramel, light leafy and floral hops, and lager yeast. The flaovurs are mild for the style.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes dry.

Overall - A schwarzbier that has elements there. I was hoping for more of the bitterness from the roasted malts and hops to shine through in this one. Some adjustments will make it more true to the style.

650ml bottle - strange diamond prism in the (Rocky Mountain) rough imagery depicted on the label.

This beer pours a clear, very dark russet brown hue, with three fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly ecru head, which leaves some gelled amoeba lace around the glass as it slowly and evenly recedes.

It smells of lightly roasted, and slightly meaty caramel malt, a subtle sour dark fruitiness, light root beer notes, ethereal wet ash, and tame leafy, earthy hops. The taste is bready caramel malt, a touch of gritty yeast, black licorice, bittersweet chocolate, faint bruised banana, and still understated earthy, leafy, and weedy hops.

The carbonation is fairly low-key and innocuous for the most part, barely a frothy emanation to be had, the body on the weak side of medium weight, and generally smooth, a certain clamminess evolving as it warms. It finishes off-dry, just, the maltiness waning, the fruit getting more sour, and the cocoa now damned-near invisible.

An okay version of the style, the roasted character kept almost too much in check, and the proclaimed chocolate turns out to be a show up late, and leave early sort of party guest. Anyways, worth checking out, as are any of this brewery's offerings, but my skirt remains duly draped around my knees when I fully consider this one.