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Against The Grain Brewery

On tap at The Beer Market in Rochester, NY.

It pours a nice dark black, with a white fluffy head, and a bit of lacing.

Smells like heavy duty roasted malt, wispy smoke, with a nicely melony and grassy hoppiness.

This is a India Schwarzbier, which is clearly a well-defined and traditional style. Joking aside, it works decently well here. The roasty character is very intense, smokey, bitter, roasty, and super earthy, almost root like. The bitterness from the roast, combined with the hops, lingers on the palate for a while. It's almost too bitter and ashy, but it's not too unpleasant. In the middle, between the heavy malt character, is a suprisingly potent hop character. It's all new age German hops, I get some vaguely defined citrusy fruitiness, maybe some melon, with some grassiness and bitter pine as well.

This is medium bodied, creamy up front, with a long bitter finish. There's a normal level of carbonation.

Didn't expect this to work so well, but it did. Can't really say it tasted much like a German black lager, but it certainly tasted like intensely roasty Black IPA.