Kostritzer Schwarzbier
Beer No: 86
Page No: 722
Category: Dark
The fun continues...sort of. As the World Cup moves on, the games are becoming more and more important. And fresh off their 4-0 beating of Australia, Germany goes out and...lays an egg. Not only do they miss a penalty kick to tie the game, but they suffer a bad red card (two yellows) and let Serbia win 1-0. It's not all doom and gloom for Germany though. A win in their third game and they advance to the next round.
So then we move on to Slovenia vs. United States. And unless you've been living under a rock for the past couple days, you know the horrible outcome of this one. First the U.S. comes out playing sloppy soccer like they did versus England and goes down early in the 12th minute. They then allow another goal right before half in the 42nd minute. But, they storm out of the half time break, score quickly in the 48th, and then pick up another goal to tie the game in the 82nd minute on Bradley's amazing goal. And then...well, they score again in the 85th minute, however, this referee, officiating his first World Cup game ever, waves it off. WHAT? WHY? Well he certainly won't tell anyone what the call was on the field, but after the game it comes out that he called offsides. So...he calls offsides from behind the play, when his assistant on the sideline with a perfect view of any possible offsides calls nothing? Great. So here we sit with 2 points and slim chances of advancing.
And then it happens...England scores no goals against Algeria and can only manage a 0-0 tie. How pathetic. England can still advance with a win next week. And the United States advances with a win as well, but how sad for England to win and still get 2nd place in the bracket? With the United States taking the first seed with a win (assuming England doesn't go out and score 5 or 6 goals, of course). Should be an interesting Wednesday next week.
Back to the beer though, today's beer comes from Germany, which lost, putting me at 2-4-2 overall with my beer picks. This Schwarzbier (Black Beer) comes from Kostritzer Schwarzbierbrauerei (so obviously, this is their specialty beer). Stating on the bottle it's the #1 black lager in Germany, I can see why. It's clean, crisp, and easy to drink. Which then means that it really has no flavor. It's a watered down lager without any complexities and just the slightest hop and malt flavors. It certainly is a refreshing beer, and better than it's Brazilian counterpart, Xingu, but it's nothing special. Hopefully the next two beers in the lineup perform better - one from Japan, and then Italy.
As an aside, I'm keeping my rating from 2003 when I initially rated the beer. If I had to re-rate it, I might move my overall rating down a couple points, leaving the final rating around 3.1 or 3.2, but a 3.3 isn't far off, so I'll just leave it as is.
My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:
Kostritzer Schwarzbier by Kostritzer Schwarzbierbrauerei (Bitburger)
Aroma: 5/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 6/10
Palate: 3/5
Overall: 15/20
Rating: 3.3 / 5.0
Had from bottle at Stuffed Sandwich on July 25th, 2003 - Day 25 of Blake's Beer Month™
After looking through the multitude of beers available at the Stuffed Sandwich, I asked Sam for a Xingu - he told me I had to try this beer first - no reasoning, just to try it. Oddly enough, this was my first Black Beer - didn't really know what to expect - and was pleasantly surprised. The beer pours black (duh) with no clarity and a small amount of carbonation. The head is light brown with good lacing. The aroma was faint - yeasty, malty, but faint. The flavor was lagerish - a bit dull - nothing too special. The beer was easy to drink and was just what you would expect from a black lager - lager-like taste with a completely black appearance. On with the Xingu!
