Sunday Night Suds - Shiner Bohemian Black Lager

This week, Sunday Night Suds looks at Shiner Bohemian Black Lager.

Now that camp has ended and the family has returned, Sunday Night Suds can take its rightful place on Sunday Nights (at least until Yom Tov comes). I apologize to any who were inconvenienced by this minor adjustment over the summer and will endeavor whenever possible to start your week off with a new Kosher beer review.

This week's review looks at another of the brews out of the Spoetzel Brewery of Shiner, Texas - the Bohemian Black Lager.

Regular readers of this column will recall reviews of other dark lagers such as the Waterloo Dark Lager (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2008/09/sunday-night-suds-waterloo-dark-lager.html ) which was more like a standard lager with some specialyt malts which added the dark color and a little more body to the flavor. Additionally, last winter the column reviewed the Samuel Adams Black Lager which had heavy overtones of chocolate malts and seemed more in the stout family than a "black lager."

This brings us to the Shiner Bohemian Black Lager. The experts at Beer Advocate define the Shiner Bohemian Black Lager as Schwarzbier which is explained by BA as:

German for black beer. It doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily heavy or light in body, although they tend to lean towards light. Unlike other dark beers, like porters or stouts, they are not overly bitter with burnt and roasted malt characteristics that the others tend to depend on. Instead, hops are used for a good portion of the bitterness. Very refreshing and soul lifting beers, they also make a great alternative for the Winter. Especially when you are looking for a lighter beer, but one with depth of colour and taste.

The Shiner Bohemian Black Lager (no word on what makes it Bohemian) is not extremely bitter and is quite drinkable by itself or with a meal. I enjoyed mine tonight with steak and bison ribs (barbeque style, of course), but the brew will easily stand up to any grilled meat or poultry.

Shiner Bohemian Black Lager is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit, although the brew does not bear the Va'ad symbol on its label. If you would like me to e-mail you the Va'ad LOC for Shiner Bohemian Black Lager, send me an e-mail and I will gladly oblige.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about Shiner Bohemian Black Lager, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/143/32575.

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