The beers of Iwakuni: Kaiserdom Dark Lager

Tonights beer is the Dark Lager by Kaiserdom brewery. I got this at the same World Liquer as the last Kellerbier, refer to that post for information on Kaiserdom brewery. I've had black lagers on the blog before (an Okinawan one recently), but I don't recall ever having reviewed one brewed in Germany. This should be a refreshing treat. 

The can is the same as the previously reviewed Kellerbier except for it's black color. It is the same 1000ml capacity (that's about 33.8 fl oz). According to the Kaiserdom website "The full impenetrable mokka coloured appearance with lucent red sheen is crowned by a creamy head. The roasted malt aromatic fragrance reminds of dark bread and fresh coffee. The velvety smooth malt flavor shrouded by a harmony of sweetness flows elegantly and  cleanly along the gums. The well-proportioned body appears warming and is complemented by a fine bitterness which finishes calm and dry", we shall certainly see. The site also says that it comes in at 23 IBU's and is a 110 on the EBC coloration chart. EBC (European brewing convention), by the way is the European equivalent of the SRM color chart I've talked about before. This beer doesn't get particularly good reviews on either Beer Advocate or Rate Beer. A troubling sign, but it by no means indicates that this beer is undrinkable.  4.7% ABV. I will be using the same generic Kaiserdom mug that came with the Kellerbier. Let's crack this can open.

Nose from the can is malty and oddly enough has a tomato juice scent. Almost has a saltiness to it, a little bread as well. The beer forms a both fluffy and creamy beige head. Color is jet black, dark as night. Nose from the mug is still malty, but has much more bread quality than before. There is another scent that I can't quite identify, but I'm sure it will come to me later. On first sip, It is malty all the way through with bread and salt. It starts with milk chocolate in the middle and then that evolves into dark chocolate and cream in the finish. The aftertaste goes back to milk chocolate but maintains the cream. It's a surprisingly light body, I would put it at upper light to lower medium. No acidity to speak of, finish becomes slightly dry as you drink it. It's a little sweet, not much bitterness until the finish. 

 

Now that prorate doesn't scream 1960's space race. 

I got King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard's album "I'm in your mind fuzz" in today, listening to that now. So sea launched rockets right? Now I don't mean submarine launched rockets or ship launched, I mean rockets bobbin up and down in the waves. I was watching the YouTube channel CuriousDroid and he had a great video on a BDB (big dumb Booster) planned back in the 60's called the Sea Dragon. If it would have actually been built it would have been the largest rocket ever created at 150 meters long and 23 meters wide (that's 492x75 feet). The rocket was conceptualized by Robert Truax in 1962 to be the most cost effective rocket for getting large amounts of materials into space. It would have been a two staged rocket with a single pressure fed engine that would be built in a shipyard and then towed out to sea, fueled at the launch site, and then after it had righted itself from the weight of the fuel and everyone had gotten the hell out of the way, launched into orbit. Hypothetically, it would have created 80 million pounds of thrust and could lift over 990,000 lbs into orbit (with it's own 39,000,000 lbs of mass on top of that). When launched, it could hypothetically kill anyone within a five mile radius.  But why would you launch it bobbing up and down in the ocean? Well kids, a rocket that size would be so big that if you stood it up on land it would collapse under it's own weight. And then you would have something like the Russian N1 Rocket disaster, but on an even larger scale. 

Final thoughts. I don't know what everyone's trippin' about, this beer was delicious. Here I was expecting something hum drum and instead I get something great. Just goes to show how you can only go so far with other peoples reviews. You have to go out there and try beers for yourself if you really want to know if they are any good or not. So if you are out in the wild and see this one, go ahead and try it. I give this beer my blurry seal of approval. 

http://www.kaiserdom.de/en/unsere-biere/kaiserdom-dark-lager-bier