So I figured I picked up a little bit of momentum with getting that first tasting under my belt, and decided I might as well try to keep the ball rolling. I happened to have a couple of unique dark lagers kicking around, so I figured - what the heck - I might as well do a quick tasting of these as well and keep the new posts coming!
Dark Lagers
Shoot me! I've gone straight from pale lagers to dark lagers, bypassing the middle-ground "amber / red / brown" lagers like Dunkels, Oktoberfests / Märzens, and Bocks! But stay with me here, I have good reason! Given that it is so close to Oktoberfest time (three more days until October) when those beers will be readily available, and also considering that I live but 15 minutes away from Kitchener-Waterloo (the home of the second largest Oktoberfest celebration in the world, second ONLY to the original Oktoberfest festival in Munich, Bavaria), I see many a "mid-spectrum" lager in my very near future. So now that I've explained myself, lets move onto dark lagers!
The best way to explain a dark lager would be to ask you to imagine a porter or a stout (ie. Guinness Stout, for those of you who don't know any craft examples), with their bold, roasty, complex, sometimes coffee-like flavours, and their big thick mouthfeel. Now apply what we've learned about lagers to those beers, with their crisp flavours, thirst quenching qualities, and general lightness on your palate. ... Can you imagine that? Well if you can, you've got a pretty good grasp of what a typical dark lager tastes like. If you can't imagine that, well, I guess it's good that it's about that time again. ... "What time?" you ask? Tasting time!!!
Tasting
Beer #1: Wellington One-Off Shadowplay Schwarzbier
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A picture I took during a tour of the Wllington Brewery
recently, during their annual "Realists Customer
Appreciation Party" |
The first of two beers for this evening is actually a "one-off" beer (a beer brewed only once in a small batch, and sold only directly from the brewery) brewed by one of my local craft breweries in Guelph. Wellington Brewery, having been founded in 1985, is Canada's oldest independently owned microbrewery. Their main focus has always been to brew great, traditional English style beers for the people of their community. Speaking of community, they actively encourage the community to come on in and get involved with the brewery, as they hold free tastings and tours every weekend, as well as hold special customer appreciation days at their brewery every couple of months, and their fan-base is wide and dedicated as a result. On top of their regular line up of beers, they have recently started a program called the "Welly One-Off Series", where on a monthly basis they release a unique "one-off" beer (sometimes two!) that people can taste and buy straight from their brewery retail store. These are usually more adventurous experimentations than you would normally find at the liquor store, and their community is always delighted to be their "guinea pigs" when it comes to buying up and drinking all of these exciting new beers.
The name "Schwarzbier" is German for "Black Beer", and the Schwarzbier style seems to have been an attempt by German lager brewers to cash-in on the popularity of the English Porter style of ale back in the day. Schwarzbiers tend to be more malt-forward, focusing on a roastier malt flavour, and little to no hop presence in the flavour, and yet still crisp and refreshing. So with that said, I think it's time to try the One-Off Shadowplay Schwarzbier.
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Shadowplay Schwarzbier... certainly not your typical
straw-coloured pale lager! |
After pouring, the aroma this beer gives off is amazing and complex. Roasty and toasty, it smells like the bottom of a very VERY slightly burnt, rich chocolate cake, with a hint of roasted coffee beans. In the background are faint notes of a light smoke, as well as a little bit of toffee sweetness and maple syrup. If this beer tastes anything like it smells, I should definitely be in for a treat! After taking a sip, I'm VERY much into the flavour. It's both bitter and roasty tasting, yet is perfectly balanced out by an underlying chocolatey and toffee-like malt sweetness. As I said about the aroma, it's like a rich, lightly burnt piece of chocolate cake, and after swallowing, the aftertaste mellows out fairly quickly to a familiar clean bready sweetness. The beer itself is very smooth and creamy, light-bodied, and doesn't "coat" your tongue like a porter / stout would, but instead remains crisp and quenching, and highly drinkable. Overall this is a great and interesting dark lager, with complex and delicious bold flavours, yet remains really easy to drink. It's too bad it's only a one-off beer.
Beer #2: Original Aecht Schlenkerla Smokebeer (Rauchbier)
The second and final beer in this dark lager tasting is brewed by the Historical Brewery Tavern Schlenkerla in Bamburg, Germany. This brewery was founded in 1678, and they specialize in brewing their famous "Smokebeer", which is typically referred to as "Rauchbier". Rauchbier is generally a sweet, malt forward lager such as a Märzen, only with some proportion of smoked malt added into it. This gives the beer a sweet caramelly base, with a huge aroma and taste of campfire or "hammy" smoke. Rauchbiers can be a little intense and off-putting at first, but drink a couple and you'll quickly grow to appreciate it's unique sweet and smokey flavour (or so I hear). Bacon lovers everywhere, take note!
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| Schlenkerla Smokebeer / Rauchbier |
This is actually my very first Rauchbier (aside from a "Ham Beer" that my sister and brother-in-law insisted I taste many years ago before I was even really into beer at all... as could be expected from the name, it tasted like a piece of smoked ham), so I'm not really sure what to expect, aside from what I've read about them. Just pouring the beer into the glass, I can already smell a huge smokey, campfire-like aroma wafting up to my nostrils. Upon a closer smell of the beer, it's almost like I'm transported back in time to an early childhood memory of climbing out of my tent in the early morning to the smell of a burnt-out campfire that has been reduced to just coals and ashes, but also the sweet smells of the fresh air and flowers and dew-covered grasses in the early morning sun. There is a sweet maltiness underlying the smoke, and also a faint hint of smoked ham somewhere in the background. Taking a sip, I'm immediately taken aback by how nice and clean the flavour is, with much less smokey flavour than the nose would imply, and a good solid malty sweetness that perfectly balances it out. It's also incredibly light bodied, crisp, and easy to drink, and has a very clean (if slightly smokey) finish. Overall I'm extremely pleased with this beer. I was a bit apprehensive as to how bitter or smokey it would taste when I smelled it, but it ended up being the perfect balance between a nice smokiness and a solid, sweet, malty backbone to completely round it out. An awesome, complex, and tasty beer!
Conclusions and Rankings:
These were both unique and awesome tasting beers, and I'm going to have a hard time ranking one above the other. But I guess it must be done...
1. One-Off Shadowplay Schwarzbier: As much as I LOVED the Rauchbier, I am a huge fan of porters and stouts, with their roasty, chocolatey, and coffee-like flavours; so to have all those flavours in the form of a crisp and quenching lager is a nice change of pace. I loved the roasty, burnt chocolate cake-like taste of this beer, as well as how smooth and light it was to drink. Like I said earlier, I wish this wasn't only a one-off beer, because I would buy this all year 'round in a heartbeat.
2. Original Aecht Schlenkerla Smokebeer: With a perfect balance between sweet and smokey, it being so clean and downright enjoyable to drink, and the fact that the smell alone was enough to transport me to a "happy place" in my childhood, this beer comes in an EXTREMELY close second. I've only ever seen this beer once (in Ottawa), and that was when I bought this bottle of it. If I were to find it again, I wouldn't hesitate to throw a couple in my basket, and re-live this unique and tasty beer experience over and over again.
Well, this brings me to the end of this short, but very flavourful beer tasting. I hope you guys learned a thing or two about dark lagers, and that you no longer only picture a fizzy, pale beer in your mind's eye the moment you hear the word "lager". Lagers come in all colours and flavours, and while I havn't covered the mid-range "amber / red / brown" lagers yet, I most certainly will in a post in the near future. But until then, I think it's time we take a quick detour into the wild and varied world of... ALES!!! Until next time...
Enjoy a craft brew!
- Sid Ryzebol -
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