Köstritzer Schwarzbier

https://www.koestritzer.de/

Brewed by Köstritzer Schwarzbierbrauerei GmbH & Co.
Style: German Schwarzbier
Bad Köstritz, Thuringia, Germany

Founded way back in 1543, the Köstritzer brewery, is a market leader in German Schwarzbiers (black beers). The brewery is located just east of Kulmbach, the birthplace of Schwarzbier, and is situated in Bad Köstritz, a town in the district of Greiz, in Thuringia, a state in east-central Germany, known for its vast forests punctuated with mountain peaks and medieval villages.

Schwarzbiers, lest we forget, are light-bodied, crisp and clean dark coloured beers, more similar to a light lager than a deep bodied stout, proving that not all black coloured beers are calorie full bitter tasting experiences….. Schwarzbiers have a long history in Germany, some saying they even date back to the Stone Age and those pesky and slightly mad Celts………either way it is a style I still have my reservations about. I dont see the point to them in all honesty………

These days the Köstritzer Brewery have branched out to produce other beers to their famous Schwarzbier, they also produce a variety of Pils, and cola and beer flavoured pop, a Witbier and a pale ale.

The beer is well popular in Deutschland and, even though, the brewery was behind the iron curtain from 1956 to 1976, the beer was still exported to West Germany. Since 1991, the brewery has been owned by German giants, Bitburger Brauerei.

Review: 0,5l lovely black bottle of Köstritzer Schwarzbier: 4.8% vol.

Says from “1543” on bottle, wow that is some history……………comes in bottle and in can, and can be found in draft in certain selected areas, and is purportedly Germany’s most popular black beer.

On pour you get a pitch black colour, as one would expect! Also getting a lovely looking tan head, quite big on the pour, massive actually! But it eventually settles down to a decent normal sized foamy head. Some lacing. An ok in the appearance department.

Smell is of light lager notes, but not much on the nose at all, very mild. Not really getting the expected caramel or coffee notes though. Dark fruits and roasted malts on the low level. A little disappointing on the nose.

Onto the taste, I am getting a lovely frothy feel on the tongue, very nice, and a smoky peaty kind of taste, very nice. Great start to the beer, hits you straight off the bat, lovely.

Dark chocolate, coffee and caramel in prominence and the barley and roasted malt flavours working them taste buds, delicious.

And as expected with a big bottle, you get a lot, another plus of course!

The flavours do fall off the more you get into the beer, but still enough in the mouth to enjoy.

A very pleasant light bodied beer to drink and one of the better Schwarzbiers I have had in a long while.

That dark chocolate and roasted malt flavour kick just about hangs around.

Overall I enjoyed this beer a lot, very easy to drink, very smooth and soft, and the tastes and flavours are there doing the business, and this is one I will be returning to for further inspection in the future. A clean crisp well balanced Schwarzbier. Nice one.