Schwarze Gams - Privatbrauerei Loncium

biboergosum

Alberta (Canada)

3.1/5  rDev -0.6%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

330ml bottle. No pasteurizing, no filtering - good to know, and good to know that a familiarity with German isn't necessary to know that. Anyways...

This beer pours a murky dark brownish amber colour, with a measly half-finger of thin, bubbly head, which leaves a few specks of lace around the glass as it quickly beats it.

It smells of oily party-mixer nuts, a bit of chalky cocoa, understated caramel, a tart apple essence, and meek leafy, herbal hops. The taste is fruity, kind of sour malt, the apple tendency not shaking itself loose, more bar-top nuttiness, nothing more that a hint of caramel and chocolate, and weakly bitter leafy, earthy hops. Very little warming
from the uptick in ABV.

The carbonation is even, and mostly flying under the radar, the body medium weight, but a bit too clingy to keep up any pretense of general smoothness. It finishes on the sweet side, but still riddled with that sour fruitiness.

One of the stranger bocks that I've yet encountered - tartness and sourness not being a usual menu staple. The dunkel side could also use a bit of a shot in the arm, so overall, I'm left fairly underwhelmed by the whole deal.

Serving type: bottle

09-20-2012 03:40:18 | More by biboergosum

IronDjinn

Alberta (Canada)

3.13/5  rDev +0.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

Thanks to Jim at Sherbrooke for the sample. From a 330 ml brown bottle. Pours out a translucent cloudy nut brown hue, with a brief foamy beige head.

Nutty malt with light notes of sweet chocolate and caramel on the nose, mild grassy, herbal hops, and a curious sourness.

Nutty malt up front in the flavour, some bready caramel character, sweet chocolate as well, rounded out with some spicy, grassy hops. Weird grainy sourness in the aftertaste that spars with the leafiness of the hops. Some alcohol warmth lingers in the aftertaste as well.

Medium-bodied mouthfeel, smooth texture that turns almost slippery, with low carbonation.

An okay offering for a straight Bock style, can't say there really is a lot of this style available locally, although I've been fortunate enough to judge enough homebrew versions to know my way around it. This one has some extra character to it due to the bottle conditioning.

Serving type: bottle

08-06-2012 08:13:18 | More by IronDjinn