Dark Lager Tasting (May 13-15)

Another local dark lager, Miskatonic Schwarzbier in their "My Name Is..." series for standard styles, and another addition to the database.


Great looking beer and the drinking experience matches. Pumpernickel bread flavor and smell, yet clean and crisp. At 4.6% there is no issue with multiples. (Given the usual focus on safety.)
As described by the brewery: (from the website)
"German Black Lager 4.6%

A dark and roasty black lager. Dark in color but light in body. A persistent tan colored head meets beautiful dark brown. Clean, but smooth well rounded roast character blends with subtle sweet bready malt. The dry, floral hop bitterness is complimented by a lingering subtle roast bitter finish."

It reminds me of my first Abita Turbodog, (Myself and a couple of friends emptied a keg at Coops while shooting pool, maybe 20 years ago, before they were overrun by tourists.) Turbodog is classified as an ale, though. Clearly calls for a side-by-side.

Either way, drink what you've got. Prost!!

 

Feldschlößchen Schwarzer Steiger (Schwarzbier)

Never had this beer before. Thick, dark brown colored and a huge beige head.
Nose is full of German pumpernickel, chocolate, licorice and you can even smell the upcoming sweetness.
Taste is quite intense with accents of pumpernickel, red wine and chocolate. Medium body and zero carbonation.
This is way too sweet for my personal taste and I had to fight to finish this 0.5l bottle.

Prost!

 

Probably because so many US craft Dunkels rely on roasted malt for their color and it really pumps that roasted malt flavor into the beer.

 

“Full Basic”. A dark Czech Lager from Aslin Beer Co.

Pours a dark black coffee color with ruby hues in the light. A two finger oatmeal head rises and settles to a thick ring, sticky residual lacing lingers. Nose is earthy hop, bitter coffee, and subtle chocolate. Taste follows suit with a sweet chocolate finish and a sharp feel. Overall, 3.5/5. Slightly above average. Cheers.

 

I realize most people today view porters (and stouts) as ales (due to the typical yeast type). Personally, I don't think of them as ales... or lagers. I see them as their own thing. Once you do, the Baltic porter distinction seems overly picky in its description. Some porter in America didn't take a completely dissimilar path. Yuengling Porter is classified here as an "American porter." It is made with bottom fermenting yeast. The BA description of American porter starts with this: "Inspired by the storied English Porter, the American Porter tends to make its own rules," but the description makes no mention of yeast choice. Instead, the style description focuses on things like hops, coffee and bourbon barrels. It seems like yeast type wasn't really part of the thinking behind the style idea here. Do users of BeerAdvocate really view Yuengling porter as a porter? Would some consider it a dark lager? Both?

Yuengling Black & Tan is a bottled mix of 60% Yuengling Porter and 40% Yuengling Premium (an AAL). It is listed here as an "American porter." If one considers a true "black and tan" to be Guinness Stout mixed with Bass Ale, then surely the Yuengling Black & Tan is a bottom fermented spin through and through. Is this beer a dark lager in the eyes of some?

With that said, for this next dark lager tasting I decided to compare some dark lagers to porters rather than pale lagers... but my goal was the same. Would the porters stand out against the Schwarzbiere? I wanted to add a baseline porter to the mix, so I included a Young's Double Chocolate Stout. I figured it was less distinctively "English" than other imports, had a low-ish ABV, and didn't have the large hop character of many American porters.

Well, the Young's beer REALLY stood out. The dark chocolate character seemed massive in this context. When had alongside bigger porters, this beer doesn't come across as flavorful and chocolate driven, but here it's the opposite. The beer was all bass and no treble. Creamy and smooth. It was nothing like the other beers.

Yuengling Black & Tan was extremely light in this group. The body was very light. There was a small roast character.

The Krombacher was just past its best by date. (It was the best I could find.) It tasted a little off. It's was crisp and angular.

Barrier is my favorite brewery within a very small radius of where I live. This beer was a let down. It had a metallic and funky character. The dark chocolate covered coffee bean character was very nice and sabotaged by the unpleasant elements. My enthusiasm for Barrier has eroded a lot over the years, and this beer has now contributed to that unfortunately.

In the end, the Young's porter was a misfit here. I couldn't say how much of this was due to the yeast and how much was due to the chocolate... but I bet both played a part. Despite being the other porter, the Yuengling Black & Tan was on the opposite end of the spectrum. It came across as a lighter version of the Schwarzbiere, but it was clearly more like them and less like the Young's porter.

 

The head indicates that it had plenty of carbonation in the bottle. Perhaps all of it was released when you poured it.

 

I always thought that if you handed me a glass of Yuengling Porter but said that it was a schwartzbier I wouldn't bat an eyelash.

 

As a lover of side-by-sides, whenever I see posts here with comparative tastings, I always wonder, "Do people realize just how much their impressions of the beers are molded by the act of drinking them side by side?" The experience I had with the Young's beer in the other post was an even clearer example of how malleable things can be. It's like a different beer when in different company.

 

You're right but I had no impact on this (I guess). It felt like it's losing most of its carbonation right at the opening . It's completely dead in the glass after averaged/soft pouring.
Prost!

 

A very important distinction. Munich malt is a base malt so there's much more depth to the flavor. It's also not really roasted, and is semi 'stewed' (kilned with some moisture still) which imparts a touch of caramelized richness.

 

Either I missed it or I'm blanking out -- gotta link?

Sorry -- I really DID miss it right above... reading now.

Not sure I'd consider the Double Chocolate Stout a "baseline Porter," but I enjoyed the read.

 

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...-tasting-may-13-15.666836/page-5#post-7526609

I should add that my reply to you seems really unrelated to your post. I was making connections in my own head. Sorry.

 

And you missed my revelation edit.

 

Chris, those are intriguing questions you are posting here.

Answering these questions are a bit challenging for me since it has been a number of years (at least > 5 years ago) since I drank a Yuengling Porter. My beer memory here was this beer had a noticeable roast aspect to it, more than I want/expect for a Dark Lager (even a Schwarzbier). I went to Youtube to see if there is a video review of this beer (and there is, inserted below) and Ronald "Jay" Theriot describes this beer very similar to my beer memory. Given the level of roast in Yuengling Porter I would state this beer should be considered a Porter (despite being fermented with lager yeast).

I also took note in the below beer review that he is also a fan of Lord Chesterfield (he stated "love the Lord Chesterfield) so he must have a great palate.

Cheers!

 

If you're looking at it that way then the Black and Tan is going to be closer to what you'd expect from a schwartzbier.

 

Packaged on 4/12/22 - consumed on 5/14/22 - poured from a tall-boy into my Moonlight shaped pint glass.

Chestnut body with a delicate wheat cap. Unfiltered, so poor clarity. Fine sandy lacing; average retention.

Restrained malt with notes of milk chocolate, toast, faint walnuts and coffee in the nose.

Moderate roast malt quality balanced in good measure by spicy/earthy hop bitterness. Cocoa, toast, and caramel, lead into a medium-dry finish with hints of earth and ceylon tea. Noble hop flavors persist along with some residual sweetness in the lengthy yet mild aftertaste. Neutral/clean yeast character.

Medium-light bodied, well carbonated, with a touch of astringency.

A decent domestic take on the style - though arguably a bit too heavy on the roast malt.

(3.93)

 

I went with the Hofbrau instead of the Ayinger because of freshness, and boy am I glad that I did!

I'm thoroughly enjoying this right now.

Toasted pumpernickel, fig, light toffee, and a dusting of cocoa powder. It starts rich and malty but finishes super dry. Not much hop bitterness is needed but there's enough of a snappy finish anyway. Very pleasurable and goes down quick.

 

A classic and long time fav....I dig it, and the glass!

 

What luck, found a can of B52's Scharzbier at my local shop. I remember when this came out several years ago, and couldn't drink enough of it. Well, as things go, it was getting harder and harder to find anything from B52 in Houston proper. They changed focus to just distribute around their home base in Conroe, which is understandable. This was always one of my favorite dark lagers around me. Glad my local shop was able to get some fresh this week, and very unexpected as, like I said, I haven't seen it around me in a few years.

B52 Brewing, Schwarzbier, 5.3% ABV,


Pours dark black, nearly opaque. A dense beige head forms immediately. That lasts forever with plenty of lace. All the malty goodness you could expect. Light cereal grains at first, but becomes more toasted like, and baked bread/sourdough flavors. Just enough earthy hops to balance with a touch of bitterness. Though the show is the great malt character. Beautifully carbonated, that becomes crisp then ultra silky smooth. Also, wonderfully dry. Downed in big gulps, as my favorite "Drinkability" saying goes.

Really glad to have this again. All around spot on for this style IMO. Now I just need to get more places to carry this in Houston again, instead of just in the far out there suburbs