It's Saturday so time to talk about beer. This week I'm reviewing two black lagers. These beers were quite a bit different despite being of the same style of beer. In taste not only in can. Let's take a look.
Bon Fire Black Lager
Brewery: Perth Brewery
Origin: Perth ON Canada
Style: Black Lager
Abv: 5.1%
IBU: 24
Marketing: Bright orange, red, and black color scheme to mimick fire (I'm assuming given the name). Bon Fire image (obviously).
Long story-like blurb on the back and additional beer info listed. The can is okay. It stood out on a shelf, so it did its job well.
Color: The beer poured a dark rich opaque chestnut color with an almost plum purple hue to it. The head was frothy and thick and tan color. It stuck around for a decent amount of time, which is always a plus.
Nose: A very sweet malty aroma. Fruity notes and maybe some very subtle smokiness in the background.
Taste: Very predominantly sweet in the taste department, sickly really (in my opinion). Not a lot of bitterness at all to balance it either. Malt forward for sure, with no noticeable hoppy notes. Fruity, with plum, dark grapes and dark fruit flavors coming through. I didn't get any roasted notes, which was surprising to me given the style of beer.
Texture: Nice carbonation over a silky mouthfeel. Medium bodied.
Impression: An unexpected beer but way too sweet for me. I liked the pleasant fruity smell of it but I would have liked some bitterness to balance out the sweet taste. For my personal preferences I would have likes some roasted notes as well. It's not a bad beer, just not my style. I probably won't buy it again.
I drank this one while BBQ-ing. It seemed fitting to me because of the fire element. In a way a BBQ is sort of like a bon Fire. Okay that might be a stretch but you get what I'm saying.
Schwarzbier: The Black Lager
Brewery: Silversmith Brewing Co
Origin: Niagara on the Lake, ON Canada
Style: Black Lager
Abv: 5.0%
IBU: 28
This is a re-visit for me. I reviewed this beer before, probably around this time last year so I won't do just another repeat of the same review. I will say that I generally like all of the Beers coming out of this brewery. This is a decent beer and I definitely preferred it one over the previous one above. It wasn't as sweet as the other and had a good amount of bitterness to balance it out. It had more roasted notes than fruity ones too, which I prefer.
These dark lagers are a bit of an enigma to me sometimes. They look like a Stout beer but drink a lot different. They often have similar roasted notes but are much more subtle and not as pronounced as a stout. I also find them to be not as smooth and a little more bubbly in the mouth.
I drank this beer on the balcony after spending the day painting the exterior of our house. It was a I little reward if you will.
For me it was a good beer I will continue to leave it on my list of decent beers to revisit every now and again.