Single Source Coffee Lager
The Old Bakery Beer Company

 

From a one-pint can, this brew is absolutely black, with a very thin tan head. The aroma is of coffee...I get heavy roast, but also a powdery, spray-dried coffee scent. Some chocolate...think chocolate powder. The taste is dry, flavorful, and wonderful. Full in body. Wonderful beer.

 

it was sort of unclear at the brewery that this was a black lager, i thought it might be a pale lager with the coffee just blended in. it is in fact a dark one, but not black as they go, more of a deep brown than a black, even some dark red in the right light, with a nice head on it and an aroma of fresh coffee, bitterness, acidity, and all. its roasty sure, but its not over the top on the dark grains, instead it lets the coffee do a lot of that bitter roasty flavoring, while the grain stays more in the toasted, dark chocolatey realm in both the aroma and the flavor. the coffee is great, and it tastes fresh to me in the beer, i dont even mid the acidity, which usually is a turn off in the style, but there is no green pepper or stale coffee here at all, and its not over dosed, but blended in beautifully as to not overwhelm the rather tame base beer. this is easy drinking with an abv under 5%, and a general smoothness despite the coffee textural influence. my first beer from these guys is both inventive and well executed, at least well beyond the degree expected from a newer operation not yet making waves with the beer geeks. all the beer here was ahead of the curve.