Burleigh Black Giraffe

Brewed by Burleigh Brewing Company
Style: Schwarzbier
Burleigh Heads, Australia

Serve in Dimpled mug, Lager glass, Stein

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Bottle. Pours very dark, almost black, with cola coloured highlights and a fluffy tan head that doesn’t last long. Aroma has at least as much roasted malt as coffee plus hints of dark chocolate and liquorice. Coffee certainly dominates the flavour though, however there are still hints of chocolate, liquorice and malt. Creamy but light mouthfeel with low carbonation and a long roasty finish. Although this is a little like carbonated coffee, it’s a very nice coffee beer, slightly one-note but nice.

UPDATED: JAN 9, 2011 650ml bottle (nicely designed). Pour is near opaque dark red-black with a medium-sized beige head of good duration. The nose is dominated by the roasted coffee beans with a slight background nuttiness. Nice smooth palate with those coffee flavours prominent and a nice bitter dry finish. It has a leaner body than a coffee-infused stout so I think the term "black coffee lager" (or schwarzbier) is accurate.

Bottle. Dark garnet-black body with a small brown head. Aroma-taste: coffee, burnt wood, bitter chocolate, bitter roasted lasting finish. Medium to light bodied. Somewhat acid, acrid, astringent in the finish.

650ml bottle. Black coal colour with a foam top the colour of a good latte.Pours thick and meaty with a strong coffee bean aroma, a bit like iced coffee. Bitter dark chocolate flavour that sits on the tongue. Medium bodied and would go nicely with tiramusu.

22oz. Pour is deep brune to ruby with a large, tan to yellow head leaving okay to little lace. Decent retention. Aroma is mocha, dark chocolate, Starbucks macchiato, sharp caramel, burnt caramel, anise, licorice. Taste is slight black olives but thankfully moves away to bitter coffee, creamy coffee, cedar, oak chips, unsweetened chocolate. Dry palate.

Pours black with a lasting tan head. Nose shows heavy coffee and some oatmeal backed by soft roasted malt. Similar amount of coffee as a flavour, perhaps a bit heavy-handed. Underneath is some sweet malt, very clean. Too highly carbonated.

Black pour good head fawn colour medium carbonation the aromas chickory coffee fresh bean smell flavour rich chocolate nutty caramel liccorice salty note no harm good ibu strength coffee bean taste very good slightly dry finish coffee done well sweet malt good bitter aftertaste nice ale

640mL bottle, Archive Bar, Brisbane Black body, not a great deal of clarity, tan head, reminisant of an espresso. Good intensity of aroma with sweet toffee malts, roast coffee and burnt nutty malt. Medium-to-lean body, carbonation reasonably high, drying texture. Plenty of rich earthy coffee influence apparent on the body, but there’s still some underlying cola, nutty Schwarzbier character underneath which is something that I feel brings the beer together and makes it more complex and interesting. Dry bitter finish, without being overly astringent. Enjoyed this one; well made, good base beer with good coffee flavour.

Very dark, but not completely opaque, Nice tan head that fades leaving a lace. Aromas are all coffee, flavours again plenty of coffee, chocolate and caramel. Smooth and on the dry side this lager leaves you with a nice bitter finish. No mistake, this beer is all about the coffee but it really is an exceptionally good beer and it’s everything that the big competitor wanted it’s recent coffee specialty beer to be, in spades.

Tap at Platform Bar. This is a dark lager so I thought schwarzbier was the best category. Uses Zarraffa Coffee and really is like drinking beer coffee! To this end they have done really well. Not terribly complex, but good easy drinking. More a breakfast beer than beer geek breakfast!