Miasmatic Review

Samuel Adam's Black Lager

My latest blogspawn, Petey of Petey’s Powderhorn, sponsored tonight’s selection. He gave it to me at Winter Camp a month ago, and I wanted to wait until he started his blog so I could give him proper credit. Tonight’s brew is Samuel Adam’s Black Lager.

Sam Adam’s uses a 12 oz brown bottle, but theirs is custom with the/a signature of Samual Adams molded into the glass. It has a black and gold label with the name of the beer in the middle and a picture of Sam Adams at the bottom.

This is a very dark beer, almost stout like with its very dark brown coloring. What light that passes through has a garnet red coloring to it. There is no floating or impurities; it’s just a thick beer. Almost no head formed when I poured it into the glass. What there was had a tan color with very fine bubbles. It left no lacing on the side of the glass.

The smell is mainly of caramel and chocolate malts. A touch of smokiness and a hint of coffee are also detectable. Chocolate and caramel malts is the main flavor of the beer, a slight hop spice puts a nice finish to it. The aftertaste is mild and fades quickly. What bitterness there is doesn’t last long.

This is a medium to heavy bodied beer. There is a slight creaminess to it that coats the mouth when you drink it. It’s not as thick as your typical stouts, but this isn’t a stout. It’s probably one of the more full-bodied lagers I’ve tasted.

I’m generally not a big Samuel Adam’s fan, but Petey kept telling me to try this one. To be honest, it’s a pretty good beer. I was more than pleasantly surprised with it. It’s almost like it’s trying to be a stout, but fell just short. I really enjoyed this beer and owe Petey one for introducing it to me; I give it a 6.5 out of 10.