Unspecific German-styled dunkel lager allows phenol hop astringency to drag down chocolate-caramel malting and brown-sugared winter spicing. Toasted nuttiness adds some depth as wavered red and orange fruiting dissipates.

Sweet Czech dark lager brings caramel-burnt toffee, brown chocolate, molasses cake and creme brulee niceties to the front above light hop toasting. Honeyed pumpernickel breading and tobacco-leafed crisping sit way below mocha attributes.

Before America’s microbrew revolution swept the nation, this original Czech-based Budweiser product would rate higher. But competition’s thru the roof so its mild dark-roasted mocha malting and pleasant toasted hop bittering seem complacent by today’s standards. Dusty cocoa-powdered dark chocolate chalking, distant brown-sugared molasses sapping and slight chestnut-praline conflux pick up minor charcoal acridity for musty Old World moderation.

Somewhat dull dark lager at least betters most nebulously drab schwarzbiers. Dark chocolate, toffee and cocoa tones get coarsened a tad by astringent light-roasted hop murk. Pecan, marzipan and burgundy illusions tease the soft mocha surface. FYI: go to elpedalero.com for coolest collection of Latin American beer labels.

Overreaching Estonian dark lager suffers from murky earthen hop coarsening working against pleasant, if musty, chocolate-spiced burnt caramel malting and ancillary fig-cherry conflux. At its center, molasses-sugared medium body recalls peanut-buttered Mary Jane candy bar, hard toffee and marzipan. But nasty astringency cuts like a knife.

Indistinct cola-browned dark lager never fully integrates. Murky oatmeal-sugared chocolate malting and dewy molasses sapping undone by dirty watered swill. Black licorice snip and wispy nuttiness lost at the dire mocha finish.

Indifferent dark lager brings phenol schwarzbier mustiness and reedy porter acridity to muted stout-like mocha chalking. Baker’s chocolate, dried cocoa and coffee-stained walnut receive musky peat-smoked grain roast, thwarting molasses-sapped gingerbread spicing. An uninterestingly lower-rung hybridized style.

On tap, delectable Bavarian lager (a specialty beer made exclusively for Barcade’s three locations) brings beguiling chocolate, cocoa and toffee flavors to caramel-toasted Munich malting. Soft-hopped earthen peat dewiness and recessive dried-fruited sherry-port conflux affect amiable mocha finish.

On tap at Little Falls’ 381 Main, fine one-off prune-hued ‘dark common lager’ augments resinous Warrior hop bittering with dried fruited abundance. Ripe prune-raisin conflux and chocolate-spiced Belgian yeast funk saddle burnt toast bottom. A rich sessionable beer for more adventurous lager heads. 

Slick molasses-malted caramel toasting, disruptive metallic astringency, and acetous iodine driblet thankfully outdone by streamlined chocolate-cocoa spicing. Subsidiary tobacco-roasted gingerbread, pecan pie, dehydrated fig, raisin, almond, butternut and hazelnut illusions penetrate dry rye breading. As bottle drains, ample mocha prominence dissuades blunt alkaline acridity of wildly variable, thickheaded, coppery bronzed, medium-bodied dark lager.

Effective Munich dunkel lager (given noir-like dark ale labeling) contrasts cocoa-seeded black chocolate chalking, peat-smoked molasses malting and buttery toffee sweetness against coarse hop roast. Mild nut-roasted rye-pumpernickel breading overcomes fizzy phenol fizzing and slick schwarzbier-styled mocha plasticity. 2012 version boasted richer dark chocolate malting and deeper peanut-shelled hazelnut-walnut conflux.