Black Oak Premium Lager

Bottled from a trade: Unsure of the date on this sample. Pours a very light copper color with a nice cap and lacing. Lively carbonation. Light fruity hops in the aroma over some grainy sweetness. Bit of a fizzy mouth feel..from carbonation but this settles back as you begin to catch some crystal malts and some hops in fair balance...fast clean finish...not in the same league as the pale ale and nut brown ale...certainly a u=turn from their wonderful porter and saisson. A very forgettable lager I understand why it would be deleted.

Rating this from memory, as I somehow never got around to officially rating it when it was still available. It was always the weakest of Black Oak's three main beers, presumably an attempt to capture a bit of the mainstream market. Better than many other Ontario "premium lagers" to be sure, with a bit more colour than most and some soft hops in the finish. But with lagers like Creemore and several good imports available, it just wasn’t one that I bothered with very often. Hopefully, the decision to kill it off will give them more time to play with interesting seasonals and one-offs, as that’s where Black Oak really shines.

Thick white foamy head which is persistant. Golden yellow coulour. Downhill from there, malty aroma with soapiness (and I dont use soap to clean my glass). Tart and lemony taste with barely any malt or hops to help. Average.

Scrawny cereal and limping citrus...Good lace retention over watery, sweet blandness...One for the father-in-law I'm afraid...

(Bottle) Pours a large, white, quick dissipating head and a highly carbonated, golden body. Looks like ginger ale. Nose of doughy malt and slight hops nose and flavour. Lightly tart and fizzy. Average.

A shade darker than your typical mass-produced swill, and exactly what you’d expect (and hope) from a North American micro lager. Smelling the beer conjures up thoughts of fresh baguettes and hot buttered toast smothered in honey, while the mind eggs the glass away from the nose and down to the lips. The flavours are quite restrained, and continue in the bready vein the nose hinted at. Perfect balance between sweetness and bitterness makes this quite a thirst-quencher. If you are trying to encourage a friend to give up corporate beers and work up the courage to try a micro, this one’s a great, inoffensive starting point

ALmost no head. Tiny aroma with a light fruit background. Sweet, lightly hopped texture with an almost vegatble flavour. Thick body.

Pours a clear fizzy golden with a bland musty old hops aroma. Light, crisp, semi-sweet body. Not as bad as a lot of American standards out there.