Schwarzbier
Scythe Brewing Company

I had this beer on-tap in a jelly jar at the brewery.

Appearance: dark brown with a bit of haze and a finger of frothy tan foam atop.

Smell: lightly sweet, nicely roasty, and quite yeasty. All great features in a schwarzbier!

Taste: malt is a bit on the sweet side with some caramel character and a kind of astringent roastiness. It’s a bit sweet and not quite balanced, but it’s not bad.

Mouthfeel: medium body with a good level of carbonation and creaminess.

Overall: a pretty good schwarzbier, although it’s a bit too sweet for the style for me.

brown lager that has some german character, but was not a standout of the ones we drank in here, a little thin to me, lacking the yeast element i like in these, but with some neat middle layers that add some complexity, leather and fig notes. i do get some weirdness on the ferment, a slight bad breath kind of thing, which was insanely pronounced in their pilsner to the point of making it gross, but here its just off a little, enough else going on where this cant stand out, easy enough to overlook, almost seems like dirty water cleaning the glasses or a dirty rag drying them, rather than a beer issue, but its not easy to tell. some cocoa to it, lighter roast than many, some munich type maltiness too, and light sweetness with it. the yeast is close to neutral which leaves a small hole in this, but its otherwise solid, weird smell aside that does come into the taste late, worse as it warms. trace smoke, date, and new basketball. not exactly a classic example of the style, but the kind of thing that i always get excited to see at newer and smaller operations, good to have folks excited to make beer like this, regardless of execution. there are better options in here for sure and they have some quality control to improve, but we loved our time here anyway!