Beer of the Week

Wamp’s Wisdom

Kostritzer Schwarzbier is a 4.8 percent alcohol, black lager from Germany.
It pours a dark black with mahogany highlights on a lit edge. A white head dissipates quickly. Aroma is of chocolate and roasted malts. Taste is clean with no hops but a nice roasted malt profile that finishes clean leaving a trace of vanilla.
This beer is brewed according to the German Reinheitsgebot meaning only water, barley, hops and yeast are used.
Pair with weinerschnitzel or seafood.

Rico’s Reaction

Kostritzer’s black lager has a good flavor and is easy to drink. Though the experience wasn’t revolutionary, it was a reminder once again of how much German beers benefit from the purity of their brewing.
My sense of smell isn’t very keen — and frankly it’s often just flat wrong — but the aroma was light and pleasant with just a hint of a sweet, dark fruit such as a raisin. The black lager has a nice lingering bitterness to it. It shares some similarities with Beck’s Dark but without that beer’s more metallic overtones.
Brewing since 1543, Kostritzer was bought by another German brewery I enjoy from time to time — Bitburger —  in 1991. Although I don’t recommend trying this, apparently Kostritizer Schwarzbier has enough substance it can be served as a substitute “meal.” The German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — author of “Faust” — is reported to have sustained himself on the black lager when he was too sick to eat anything.
Paired with reading one of Goethe’s works or maybe just watching a collection of “Sprockets” skits from “Saturday Night Live.”