418Brewing
Well-Known Member
Okay, so I've got this neighbor who is in LOVE with a particular beer. But no matter what I ask or how I ask it, he can't tell me ANYTHING concrete about it.
And, since I homebrew, he wants to know if I can make it.
Here's what I know - it comes from Kansas City, some microbrewery there.
He's brought it back before, but he takes gallon glass jugs there to be filled, so they don't have a label or anything and he can never remember the name of the beer or the brewery. I'd like to smack him, and I've asked him to just write the name down the next time and give it to me, but I'm not exactly holding my breath on that.
So my faint hope is that someone will recognize the description I can give, having tasted it myself.
It's a very dark beer, I would say somewhere around a standard porter in overall color and visual impression. (It's been awhile since I tried it, so forgive me if I'm not more precise.) It's got a bit of malty weight to it and a good balance of bitterness that isn't overbearing. The most notable quality is a really distinctive black licorice type of flavor. The strange thing about that (aside from the fact I've never come across that particular flavor in a beer) is that I very much do not like black licorice, and somehow the flavor in the beer is distinctively black licorice and I like it. I'm not really sure how that works, something in the flavor of black licorice is missing and whatever that is is the thing I apparently don't like about it.
The impression I get is that this is a regular (perhaps seasonal) beer put out by the microbrewery. So does anyone out there recognize this brew?
If it helps, he says it's the closest thing he's ever found to a particular beer he had long ago in Munich or somewhere around there (again, not exactly forthcoming with the details) in a bar he believes was called Das Boot. (I'm betting that's a rather popular bar name in Germany.)
And barring any Internet magic that would help to identify the beer in question, how would one go about achieving licorice notes in beer if I wanted to reverse-engineer it from taste?
And, since I homebrew, he wants to know if I can make it.
Here's what I know - it comes from Kansas City, some microbrewery there.
He's brought it back before, but he takes gallon glass jugs there to be filled, so they don't have a label or anything and he can never remember the name of the beer or the brewery. I'd like to smack him, and I've asked him to just write the name down the next time and give it to me, but I'm not exactly holding my breath on that.
So my faint hope is that someone will recognize the description I can give, having tasted it myself.
It's a very dark beer, I would say somewhere around a standard porter in overall color and visual impression. (It's been awhile since I tried it, so forgive me if I'm not more precise.) It's got a bit of malty weight to it and a good balance of bitterness that isn't overbearing. The most notable quality is a really distinctive black licorice type of flavor. The strange thing about that (aside from the fact I've never come across that particular flavor in a beer) is that I very much do not like black licorice, and somehow the flavor in the beer is distinctively black licorice and I like it. I'm not really sure how that works, something in the flavor of black licorice is missing and whatever that is is the thing I apparently don't like about it.
The impression I get is that this is a regular (perhaps seasonal) beer put out by the microbrewery. So does anyone out there recognize this brew?
If it helps, he says it's the closest thing he's ever found to a particular beer he had long ago in Munich or somewhere around there (again, not exactly forthcoming with the details) in a bar he believes was called Das Boot. (I'm betting that's a rather popular bar name in Germany.)
And barring any Internet magic that would help to identify the beer in question, how would one go about achieving licorice notes in beer if I wanted to reverse-engineer it from taste?
