Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams Black Lager

This week, Sunday Night Suds returns from a brief hiatus and looks at the Samuel Adams Black Lager.

While on vacation with the family in the Boston area, we decided that it would be educational to take a tour of the Samuel Adams brewery. It certianly was a positive experience as we got to see first hand the actual brewing process and were permitted to taste the various types of malted barley which are used in the brew process. (They also passed around a cup of hops, but we chose just to smell, rather than chew the flowers).

During the tour, our guide Scotty was using a cool looking glass fromwhich he periodically sipped his brewery fresh Boston Lager. The glass was much different than the kind that I had seen in my local beer stores, more like the fancy glasses they discuss on BA. So I decided to add it to my collection and use it for this week's review (see picture above).

Unlike typical pint glasses or mugs, the Samuel Adams Lager glass has a wide lip which really allows the scent of the beer to hit you before you taste the beer. In drinking my Black Lager tonight, I was struck by the chocolate tones well before I actually drank the beer. Also, the beer has an interesting ring below the mouth which supposedly allows the beer to retain its head, although my lager did not do that this evening.

But enough about the glass, if you have read this far you are looking for some insights into the flavor of the brew. Initially, I would caution that while they call this a Black Lager, it is nothing like the Waterloo Dark Lager (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2008/09/sunday-night-suds-waterloo-dark-lager.html ) as it strays from typical lager taste. There are strong chocolate/coffee notes in the brew. While you could drink this with a meal, it would probably be best served as an after dinner drink to be consumed slowly.

Samuel Adams Black Lager is under the Kosher Supervision of the Star-K. Having said that, this is yet another Samuel Adams brew which does not have the certification mark on the label. [I attended a shalom zachor this week where the hosts served Sam Adams and had put a copy of the LOC on the table so that anyone wondering about the flavored SA brews could make they were under supervision.] If you would like to verify that the Black Lager is on the LOC issued by the Star-K, please click here http://www.star-k.org/loc/kosher_letter_6635_bostonbeercompany.pdf.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about Black Lager, please follow this link - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/21300.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

Finally, if you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

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