Craftsman Smoked Black Lager

Brewed by Craftsman Brewing Co.
Style: Smoked
Pasadena, California USA

Draft. A dark red-brown beer with a thin tan head. The aroma is sweet with notes of malt, caramel, and nuts. The flavor is sweet malty with light notes of smoke, bacon, roasted malt, and nuts, leading to a dry, roasted, and lightly smoked finish.

From tap at Pizza Port, San Clemente. Pours dark brown with an orange glare and a lacing white head. Mild roasted malt aroma. Flavour follows this closely yet with a nice hoppy note and mild smoke accent into the finish.

Dark brown with a nice thick head. Light smoke, some chocolate in the hearty nose. Firm and smokey taste with chocolate, big toastiness. Very robust, but rounded character.

A nice smokey aroma combined with some roasty maltiness. Pours black with a nice tan head. Mostly some sweet smokey malt flavor and roastiness followed by a bland crispness. Blandly crisp on the palate but still easy to drink.

Bottle, special from brewery. Dark black, nice off-white head. Not reddish in the light like some of the German ones are but the malts are distinctly Bambergian. Nose is mild peat-like smoke. The flavors rise up at the end and in the back of the tongue offer up a smoky kiss. Subtle nuances, very nice.

(Draft: Lucky Baldwins in Pasadena, CA) A nice, flavorful but very easy drinking Schwartzbier, fairly sweet and toasty, lightly roasty, and very gently smoky in the finish. I don’t even think this beer is really "smoked" per se, but just has a slight smoky character. Not hoppy at all, of course, but the roast does contribute a light, lingering bitterness for nice balance. Malty, lightly roasty nose has a lagerish nature, but duh, of course it would. Medium bodied, and with the sweetness kept in check, this is smooth on the palate and something I could easily drink a few pints of. Pours dark and ruddy brown, only slightly translucent. The tall, tan head gradually settles to a thin layer, but always maintains a wide ring, and leaves a fairly dense curtain of lace on the glass. Overall, it’s a well-crafted Schwarzbier, very tasty and enjoyable. I would order this again without hesitation.

Sampled at Father’s Office, April 2007
A dry, roasted aroma greets my nose as does a touch of salty smoke. The beer has a black body with a creamy, light brown colored head that leaves a well defined lacing pattern as I work my way through this pint. There is also a touch of burnt acidity in the aroma, though all in all the aroma is quite light.

The beer is quite dry, yet a hint of smoke seems to add some subtle sweetness. There is a touch of burnt acidity in the finish, while the overall sensation of this beer is quite smooth. The finish reminds me of a standard strength, dark roasted cup of joe, but there is that touch of smoke flavor to make things interesting. The smoke is so smooth and so well integrated; definitely not peat smoked malt, probably beech wood, but it is a bit too subtle for me to tell. This beer has quite a light mouthfeel to it, there is some fullness, but this is not in any way heavy feeling.

The burnt malt notes and smoke really interact in a way I would not have guessed; in some ways they seem to cancel each other out. This makes for a very smooth, integrated, strangely non-descript, yet still fully flavored drinking experience. I can’t decide if this beer needs more flavor, or if it has hit a perfect balance of flavors. Ultimately this is quite good tasting, and it may inspire me to brew one of my own.

Pours with a dark brown body topped by a medium thick head with a good amount of lacing. The aroma is slightly sweet, malty and caramelly with a slight roastiness. The flavor is a little weak but very similar to the aroma. Medium bodied and smooth.