Full Sail Session Black Lager

Brewed by Full Sail Brewing Company
Style: Schwarzbier
Hood River, Oregon USA

Serve in Dimpled mug, Lager glass, Stein

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A nice black lager. Pours dark but not complete opaque. Minimal head. Aroma is a light malt. Taste is malt with a hint of chocolate. Nice mouth feel, though not thick. Not a bad Black lager.

Bottle. The pour was a very murky dark brown with some ruby highlights and an average sized (1-2 finger) creamy beige head that was mostly diminishing, leaving behind a very thin layer of residue and a small foamy ring thus producing some good spotty lacing. The aroma was of dark roasted caramel malts, a mild resin hop and a leathery yeast with mild notes of coffee, chocolate, molasses and a bit of black licorice. The taste was decently malty and mildly bitter all the way through with notes of molasses and licorice early on and then having hints of chocolate and coffee at the finish. The flavor lasted an average duration with the mild dark roasty flavor left to linger for just a little while. Mouthfeel was just a shade or two under medium in body with a watery and mildly creamy texture and a prickly carbonation. Overall a nice mellow dark brew, very easy to drink, yet still having that wonderful dark beer flavor. Absolutely a great session beer, hence the name...

Basically no aroma. Pours dark brown, head dissipates quickly leaving a solid lace. Mild carbonation with a taste as boring as its name "Black. " Nothing special.

Stubby bottle. Poured a soda brown with a fizzy tan head. Nice aroma of roast, coffee, and just a slight hint of grain in the background. The flavor found roast and light chocolate. Light to medium body and a light sweetness.

Pours dark with a finger of off white head. Very dark red to black color. Smell is a faint lager sweetness. Taste is more malty and ashey. Not bad for a lager.

Pours dark black, small head. This has convinced me maybe once and for all that I do not care for most lagers ( outside of Sam Adams and Brooklyn Brewing Company ). Taste is dry, flat and watery, with no finish. NO ! Quaff score 2 / 10

Passable, black lager. This would be pretty boring without the dark aspects which add some nice complexity. Nothing to see here.

Bottle. Very dark brown pour with a smaller white head. Aroma is chocolate malt and a soft roastiness. Lighter palate - lighter than you might guess based on looking at it. Taste has pretty good depth - chocolate malts, roast, and maybe a touch of sweet molasses. Decent brew.

UPDATED: MAR 27, 2012 Very smooth and easy to drink, surprisingly clean finish. Dark lager isn’t something I would normally seek out, but this definitely seems to be an above average example. I’ve always been fond of Full Sail, and this doesn’t disappoint. Caramel, chocolate, roasty, black, clear, brown foam, clear, light sweetness, medium body, creamy, average carbonation. That said let me explain this what this brew is all about. Unlike wine, there remains comparatively little snobbery around beer. This beer is a great example of how great beer can be as unpretentious as possible. It doesn’t hurt that it’s one of most enjoyably drinakble beers I’ve stumbled across in a great long while. Let’s consider how this beer came to be—it’s a moderately-sized independent brewery in Hood River, Oregon asked themselves, “Hey, what can we do to beat the big breweries at their own game?” And the result is something that’s equal parts clever marketing and really good beer. There’s the offbeat stubby bottle. The retro-cool-without-trying-too-hard label. And the rock, paper or scissors bottle caps are very handy for determining who makes the next beer run. As for the beer, well it’s a lager just like Miller, Bud and all the rest. Except that this beer beats all of them at their own game simply by being better. Then there’s the added final twist—it’s a dark lager, so you get some of the added complexity and flavor associated with darker beers, while at the same time sacrificing none of the hey-let’s-pound-a-few-after-a-day-at-the-beach drinkability that made the Milwaukee and St. Louis breweries famous. To some extent, this beer is what it is and it ain’t Pliny the Younger. But the more you drink it the more you come to understand it. It’s a stroke of genius and damn good beer to boot.

Bottle from New Beer Distributors, NYC, drank at The Dessie whilst packing for the next phase of the adventure, 19/12/11. Deep ruby ringed with beige. Inviting aroma more complex than expected; chewy dried fruits, molasses, liquorice. Sticky mouthfeel at the ABV with fig and soft lightly singed barrel. Tweak of roast in the finish. Really decent chewy dark lager somewhat like San Miguel. And I love the stubby, cough medicine style bottles.