Creamy molasses-sugared coffee ice cream opening fades badly to abrasive nutty sourness. Resinous hop-oiled nut-roasted astringency picks up oats-toasted cocoa chalking, mild chocolate-seeded mellowing, and phenol dried fruiting. Ho-hum.
Unconventional winter lager better classified as first rate schwarzbier since expectant seasonal spicing lacks penetration. Barley-roasted cocoa-powdered mocha indulgence counters ashy walnut bittering and dry hop-charred astringency to earthen peat bottom. Stove-burnt coffee, chocolate seed, smoked molasses, and fig-date illusions politely sour smooth medium-bodied contrariety.
Smooth jet black schwarzbier with egg-shelled cherry wood head recalls finer Baltic porters. Brown-sugared cocoa-dried Baker’s chocolate frontage receives subtle peat-smoked peanut-shelled walnut, cola nut, and Brazil nut bittering to offset sweet toffee, caramel, and cookie dough sweetness. Oily coffee souring, mild espresso dirge, and peat-smoked mineral-grained soy nuance add depth to a creamier, more assertive black lager than usual ill-defined rivals.
Murky cocoa-soured astringency, lousy compost waft, and nasty vegetal spell ruin dried prune-fig souring as well as Muscat wine appeal. Mired in nebulous day-old black bread funk, this warbled German-styled brew seems unbalanced, spreading inconclusive black grape, fennel, and pumpernickel illusions across rotted bock-like variance to phenol finish.
Introduced at 2003 Oregon Brewers fest, unfiltered cola-hazed Schwarzbier-styled German black beer opens with spruced hop nose, pine malt musk and nutty dark chocolate-coffee variance. Smoked wood bitterness stays on tongue forever. Firm finish adds brusque black licorice swirl and ashy residual to the mocha mix.