Review 62
6/17/12
Sprecher Black Bavarian: 6.0% abv
Looking at another style of lager, we turn to the brewer Sprecher to provide us with a look at the black lager. If you've ever had a black lager, it was probably Guinness's new Black Lager release. So let's see how it fairs against the competition. On the nose, there is a unique strong caramel note out in front, followed by malt, vanilla, fudge and cocoa.
The nose isn't horribly complex, but it does offer a uniqueness, and is prominent. The taste offers up slightly more complexity, offering slight coffee, vanilla, malt, caramel, wheat, green apple, slight molasses only present in the arrival, and an earthy overtone. Overall, this is a lighter statement, lacking the heavy coffee and chocolate notes that you'd see present in a stout. If you want a good starter beer, this appears to have the right DNA for it.
The finish is weak, short, and sweet, offering up slight coffee and caramel, but dying off quickly. With a lack of defined experience in black lagers, it becomes hard to give a confident rating on how this beer performs. It lacks severely in complexity and flavor, but actually offers more than black lagers we've tried in the past. It's definitely worth a try if you like lighter style dark beers, but didn't blow us away.
Score: 8.0/10
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