Stay Down
Carton Brewing Company

 

 

Caught a Carton I've not enjoyed at the brewer, at the Park Slope Coop.
a) Decent look, with tan head, cola like, but only a bit of last and lace.
s) Plenty of char and ask for a light lager, sweet cola like, but not over done because balanced by grassy hops.
t) Follows smell, a sweet one, but not cloying due to the hop, grassy and char notes from hops and malts.
f) Mouthfeel of the beer is astringent, dry, like a dry stout.
o) Kind of the best features of a Harp & Guinness/ black and tan.

A: The beer is jet black in color. It poured with a quarter finger high off white head that died down a bit but consistently left a large patch of bubbles on the surface and a narrow collar around the edge of the glass.
S: Light aromas of dark malts are present in the nose along with hints of piney hops.
T: The taste has flavors of dark malts with slight hints of piney hops and a light to moderate amount of bitterness.
M: It feels medium-bodied on the palate and has a moderate amount of carbonation. There is a moderate amount of dryness.
O: This beer is quite dry and hoppy for a schwarzbier.

Serving type: can

 

The beer's creamy and foamy tan head that has good retention. The beer is 45 degrees and served in a pint glass. The head dissipated slowly and left a smidge of lacing on the glass. The color of the beer SRM 35 dark brown nearly black and is opaque. No other discernable features in the beer's appearance. A black and orange stripe with a cassette tape on the side is on the label. I bet the younger generation has no idea what cassette tape is.

I first smell dark roasted malt and char as I pour the beer into the glass. Next, I get fruity like tropical, oranges, grass, herbal, bread, earthiness, and phenols.

First off, I taste dark roasted malts with char and grass. Next, I get earthiness, pine, floral, and phenol.

The mouthfeel of the beer is astringent and dry.

The body of the beer is medium, medium carbonation, and a medium finish.

When I smell the hops and saw the dark beer I thought, oh shit a black IPA. Not a huge fan of black IPAs the beers; furthermore, they often have too much char mix with super astringent hops. The beer does not taste like black IPA. I wonder if it lager with dark malts and hops, just looked and it is somewhat close to that. Tasty beer, well balanced, and satisfying beer.

 

 

 

This is a terrible example of a Schwarzbier. Pretty much everything about it is incorrect to style.

As a “dry hopped black session lager” as it is advertised, I suppose it could be alright in its own way, but its not for me.

The flavor has a floral and white grape like taste on top of a cola. Both in flavor and feel. Very crisp, carbonated, and thin/watery. A little ash/char in the end.

I would describe this as a hoppy Coke.

I love schwarzbiers, so I’m really excited to try this. The pour looks like it came from a bottle of Coca Cola from the old green bottles. I can give no greater compliment.

Light smoky notes on the nose as well as earthy malt notes give way to flavors that feature the smoke and malt notes on PED’s, which is astounding given the 4% ABV.

This is truly a pleasure to drink.