Pours a decent looking brown with about a fingers worth of tan head. Aroma is a little malt and kind of generic ’beer’ smell. Flavor is maybe just a touch roasted. Very smooth, but not terribly complex. Goes down very easily. Not a bad beer, but nothing to write home about.

12 ounce bottle. One of six beers in the Saranac Sampler Adirondack Trail Mix six-pack. Drunk in Arlington, Virginia. Saranac Black Forest poured black with a tinge of red at the edges. Its head was light brown but disappeared quickly. It smelled of chocolate and tree bark. There was also an undercurrent of sweat or body odor. Fortunately, this aroma slowly transformed into nuttiness and darker chocolate as the lager warmed. It tasted better than it smelled, with a rich dark chocolate as the primary flavor. Would I drink it again? Probably not. The scent of sweat kept interfering with any enjoyment I was getting from the taste. Yes, the sweat smell decreased as the Black Forest warmed, but that smell lingered for too long. This one was too strange for me.

Bottle: Dark brown colored pour with medium sized head. Sweet, malty, caramely aroma. Sweet for sure, hints of caramel and chocolate. Not bad, just sweet.

This is probably my favorite saranac beer. A nice rich malt flavor that’s easy drinking and satisfying.

It’s a decent brew. The description says Black (Schwarz) Beer, but it falls far short of Sam’s Black Lager. My first impression was closer to a robust porter that wasn’t very robust. Roasty, a little watery, with a bit of fruit sweetness. Okay, but not memorable.