Fort Collins Double Z

Brewed by Fort Collins Brewery
Style: Smoked
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

Draught. Body is muddy light brown. Aroma is lightly malty (toasted bread), with a note of smoke. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, moderately acidic, moderately bitter. Medium body, watery texture, lively carbonation. Some smoke and bread in the nose. A little sourish, probably from the sediment. Still didn't find this all that assertively smoky, but perhaps this sample wasn't in the best condition...judging from the amount of sediment, this was getting towards the bottom of the keg.

From growler. Nice smoked lager, along the lines of Spezial lager from Germany. Smoky but not Schelenkerla Ur-Bock smoky. I hope that they decide to bottle this, I bought a growler and the girl pouring said that it is almost gone.

I sampled the Double Z from a growler from FCB's rotating tap.

The Double Z poured a copper-orange with a medium creamy head that quickly went down to a thin layer and showed some lacing. Compared to the Z, the regular Z was a little more reddish and had a bigger head that had better retention.

The aroma was a very pronounced smokiness - much more so than the regular Z. The smokiness was very appealing, I kept coming back to it to enjoy it some more.

The taste was a whole lot of smoke up front with a crisp finish with some citrus, and then a smoke aftertaste. The smoke flavor was much bigger than the regular Z, and much more appealing.

The mouthfeel was a little on the thin side. But overall, this was an excellent and drinkable smoked beer. The brewery was talking about making the regular Z with a more pronounced smokiness and I hope they do. I'm definitely going to have to try more smoked beers as I really like them.