Max Black

Brewed by Max Lagers
Style: Schwarzbier
Atlanta, Georgia USA

Serve in Dimpled mug, Lager glass, Stein

Appearance: Set before me a clear, near black body with a smallish, white head. Smell: Presents a simple nose smelling of grains and various roasted malts, as well as some curious hints of powderized licorice and powdered chocolate. Taste: Roasted grains rounded out with the taste of semi-sweet chocolate and spicy touches of licorice root. Hint of spicy, lightly earthy hops at best with no more than a hint of bitterness. I’ll politely assume the listed 40 IBU’s to be the error of a typo. Drying, spicy finish with a final taste of now unsweetened chocolate. Mouthfeel: Relatively light-bodied. Lightly carbonated -- why’s everything here near lacking carbonation? Drinkability: The Gold, the Red, and now the Black have all been undercarbonated. Like a can of cola left in the refrigerator for several hours. It’s all just so limp and lifeless on the tongue. Ah well!

on tap-pours a tan head and mahogany color. Aroma is molasses/chocolate/anise, some peat. Taste is licorice/some peat, secondary earthy/acidic hops. Light side of medium body.

Color is a deep sable brown, head is tan and fairly persistent. Aroma is smoky with a hint of coffee, and has an odd waxy or dusty overtone to it. Flavor is decent, mainly burnt coffee but again with a waxy hint to it - not unpleasant, but strange. It has a good hoppy bite and a smooth, pleasant texture.

UPDATED: DEC 15, 2009
Date: March 20, 1998
Source: Brewpub
Appearance: dark ruby red, whispy head
Flavor: bittersweet malt flavor, hints of weird stuff, hints of bitterness, too funky

Date: November 20, 2009
Mode: draft
Source: brewpub
Appearance: black, frothy beige head
Aroma: roasted aroma with a light sweetness
Flavor: sweet dark chocolate flavor, touch of caramel sweetness, light bitterness

Aroma: 5/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 5/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 11/20
Rating: 2.8/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: ** /4

Good defintely not great. Had some chocolate and coffee in the flavor to go with too much raisins. Way too watered down. Not my favorite, although its a schwarzbier, and how many quality schwarzbiers have you had in the US?

tap. dark maple pour. thin tan head. hop, malt, chocolate, sugar aroma. smooth. small coffee and chocolate. nice hops and malts. there best by far. a sampler of 5 beers the day I went was $6.34. Rediculous!

Nearly opaque black pour has a thin off-white head. Aroma of sweet caramel and lightly roasted malts with a slightly earthy character. Starts with some toasty caramel and roasted dark malty sweetness with some grainy character and light hoppy bitterness. A decent, fairly authentic schwarzbier.

Draft @ downtown location. Very dark black, but not opaque, color with a small beige head. Roasted malt aroma with dark chocolate notes and a fair amount of black coffee. The flavor had a slightly tart beginning followed up with black coffee. Dry finish with a roasted bitterness as opposed to it seeming like a hop bitterness.