Black Beer

While many people are familiar with Sam Adams’ Black Lager, they don’t realize what style the beer is and that the true German examples are very good (better than Sam’s, which is a good take on the style). I don’t drink a lot of lagers, but tonight’s beer was one I could drink and drink and drink. It was Mönchshof Schwarzbier, a German Schwarzbier “brewed according to the German Purity Laws of 1516″ (that’s what it says on the bottle). Since I don’t drink a ton of lagers, the only other beer in this style that I’ve had is the Black Lager from Sam Adams.

Anyway, this beer poured a creamy dark brown color with a creamy 1.5 finger head that left a lot of lacing as the beer was drunk. The beer smelled of sweet chocolate and caramel. The taste was awesome. Milk chocolate, caramel, and roasted malts all mixed in to give it a nice round smooth flavor. If I didn’t know what this was, I would’ve thought it was a stout. The beer is very smooth and creamy. It’s a very drinkable beer and a good introduction different styles for people used to drinking Guinness. I wish I had more of it as I could easily drink this all night. It was better than the Sam Adams, but I’m not knocking the same version of this style as it’s also a good one (though not quite as creamy).