Tasting: Schwarzbier

Appearance: at first glance, it looks black, but when held up to the the light the beer is a deep brown and is actually quite clear. There is an off-white colored head that dissipates into a thin layer but lasts through the rest of the beer 

Aroma: sweet, dark malts; a hint of roast, no hops. The majority is likely coming from the high amount of dark Munich malt is this one

Taste:  very smooth from start to finish. The sweetness from the dark malts is very enjoyable and is well balanced by just a hint of roast. Its not "sugar" sweet, but instead, more of a deep dark-bready flavor. For such a dark beer, the roast is very minimal and if I weren't looking for it, I probably wouldn't notice it. The carbonation is right on and there are enough bubbles to cleanse the palate between bites of food 

Overall: the smoothness if this brew combined with the moderately-low alcohol makes this a great session beer. I think the 3 months of lagering have helped the smoothness, and I wouldn't change anything about this beer. It has been pairing well with everything from cookies to BBQ and is turning out to be a lot more versatile than I originally thought it would be. Elise and I are both really enjoying it (even in the summer) and I should probably make another pretty soon for the late-fall/winter. Maybe next time we'll use a proper lager yeast and compare the difference with the Cali-"lager" (aka steam beer) yeast.

Next post I'll review the Panda Watch Pale Ale

Until then, 

#TeamDietrich