Fresh hopped. Bier das Schwarz Massive.
It's a keg only beer so I have 1 litre bottle of an 8% ABV Beer, so this would be 6.31 standard drink units, this would be around 240 calories a serve size.
Brewed by Hallertau Brewbar & Restaurant in the style that is Schwarzbier or Black Lager, and they're in Auckland.
Hallertau Brewing announce BDSM, a Motueka fresh hopped Imperial Schwarzbier brewed in collaboration with our friends at Liberty Brewing Co.
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A session of BDSM coming up, what's not to like[/caption]A dark German style lager that balances roasted yet smooth malt flavors with moderate hop bitterness.
Bier das Schwarz Massive was made using 80kg of wet Motueka cones in the hopback.
Tastes similar to an American style Cascadian black ale, but it's malts are more European. The wet hops impart a citrus aroma, giving the chocolate a distinctively JAFFA twist.
So what could possibly go wrong? A beer that I belive won the people choice as the best of Hopstock this year, and on my radar but I thought out of reach. Until today.
I pop the top and I get a rich chocolate aroma mostly, it's enough to make a man smile.
Of course coal black pour, that's not difficult to pick, very lively, and the cup runneth over, all over. I knew this was going to happen and yet so unable to stop it.
Aroma in the glass is still the same dark cocoa chocolate, and the first sip is just something delicious.
Delightful amount of bitterness, lovely amount of the chocolate dark roasted thing, and a great mouthfeel that ends in a sharp and tangy finish. If anything this is over carbonated, too much bubble fizz action going on on the tongue. Could explain the finish.Oh and great lacing in the glass as you drink, I like that, just for aesthetics of course.
This is another beer at the slightly her end of ABV-ness and so I might need a safe word, this would be easy to get carried away with.
It is pretty much everything that everyone said, both sides the good and the bad, I lean to the this is a good beer end of the scale, to be honest there wasn't much at the other end, a lack of dissent.
A deserving winner though? Perhaps, but it isn't a common style, and looking back on other dark lagers I've had I tended to enjoy them. I guess this is a different beer that is don't well. I've noticed that as it warms the hop character becomes more apparent, which is really nice. I wonder if I might have voted differently, I picked the Deep Creek/Behemoth Yin, and IPA, as my beer of choice, I guess when you don't take in all the choices you go with what you know.
The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 9 of its things from the thing. this is really something nice. I'm burping away in-between singing along to music that seems to be getting louder with each week of the dial. I'm loving the hop 'roughness' that's arrived, as it does just before the roasted burnt notes kick in, and well before the tangy finish. Clever stuff, the safe word appears to 'another please'.
The double dip review
Am I enjoying it? Gosh yes, it was everything I thought it was going to be and a bit more. For once the expectation and experience gap was non-existent.
Would I have another? 'another please' is my safe-word ford this :-)
Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? I would and you would beg me for another, or not. I think that this is a beer that would sit well mid-evening if you were serious about it being a talkative evening, because after a few you might stumble into mumbling about love and other things undefined.
Music for this, well it was vinyl night in and there was a selection of things going on, Pink Floyd, Elbow, Jack White, Mike Oldfield, David Bowie, The Police, Dire Straits... it was quite a party, for one.
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In amongst all the lovely was 'Elbow', and the song 'Some Riot'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_kk9WZ2zLw
A friend of mine grows his very own brambles
They twist all around him till he can't move
Beautiful, quivering, chivalrous shambles
What is my friend trying to prove?
SCHWARZBIER
Dark brown to black. Medium body. Roasted malt evident. Low sweetness in aroma and flavor. Low to medium bitterness. Low bitterness from roast malt. Hop flavor and aroma, "noble-type" OK. No fruitiness, esters.
Good beer and vinyl records - sounds like a great night in!
ReplyDeleteIt made a real change to play some real records, usually it's the iPod in the amp, but it seemed like a good day to enjoy myself, and yes it was a great night in, on what was a wet cold and windy night outside.
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