Winter is giving way to spring, and we’re in that liminal time between seasons, when the weather just can’t make up its mind. One minute it’s near freezing, the next, the sun is shining. In Finland, people call this time of year “kevättalvi,” which means “springwinter,” but there’s also a great, obscure English word for it: apricity. Apricity is when it’s still cold outside but the sun warms whatever it shines on, leaving everything else chilled to the bone.
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Under such conditions, we’re faced with a difficult but important task: figuring out what beer to drink. Luckily, there’s an easy answer for that too, and it’s been around for centuries. I’m referring to the black lager that originated in Germany known as Schwarzbier, which means black beer.
Many people continue to believe darker beers are higher in alcohol or too heavy or filling. That’s a misconception. Guinness, for example, is low in alcohol at just 4.2 percent alcohol by volume and surprisingly thin bodied. While there certainly are some higher-alcohol dark beers (Imperial stouts spring to mind), color is not the factor that makes a beer more or less alcoholic. A dark beer can be light-bodied just as easily as a golden or amber-colored beer. It’s the yeast feasting on the grain and metabolizing the sugars during fermentation that makes them alcoholic. Color is a by-product of the specific ingredients of each beer, principally the barley, wheat, rye or other grains.
Now that craft pilsners and other lagers have taken beer lovers by storm, it’s time to add darker lagers to the mix. What makes black lagers so perfect right now? They’re light and refreshing but fairly dry, with dominant malt flavors and a more muted hop character, making these beers very smooth and easy-drinking. As such, they’re practically an all-weather beer that is especially ideal during “springwinter.”
Happily, there’s a unique San Francisco-style version of a schwarzbier already available in the Bay Area — brewed by Moonlight Brewing in Santa Rosa. It’s been one of their most popular beers for decades, but you may not have realized it’s a schwarzbier because it’s called something entirely different: Death & Taxes.
For a long time, it was only available in kegs, but several years ago, Moonlight added a canning line and now offers Death & Taxes 4-packs of 16-ounce cans across the Bay. Honestly, it’s one of the best kept secrets on the Bay Area beer scene. I often bring it to share with beer people around the world. It’s that good. They also have a second black lager called Boney Fingers that’s delicious too.
Santa Rosa’s Moonlight Brewing Co. produces Boney Fingers, a black lager, which is among a number of locally made black lagers worth scoping out this season, according to beer columnist Jay R. Brooks. (Courtesy Moonlight Brewing Co.)
But they’re by no means the only ones. I had several good ones at the SF Beer Week Gala earlier this month, including Danville Brewing’s Churro Schwarz, Shadow Puppet’s Pavlovian Response black lager, Shapeshifters Brewery’s Tliltic black lager, which was brewed with heirloom Mexican corn, and True Symmetry Brewing’s Midnight at Noon.
Other Bay Area black lagers include Barebottle’s Dark Cosmos, Epidemic Ales’ Schwarzhammer, Oakland United’s East Bay Nights and Tenma Beer Project’s Fade Into Shadows, which is also a schwarzbier,
You can also find black lager imports, such as Köstritzer Schwarzbier from Germany, and Master Gao Nanjing Black Lager from China.
If you can’t find a black lager, there are a few similar styles, including a Munich Dunkel, which is not quite as dry or roasty, but sweeter and still tasty. Examples include Asahi Black, Hofbrau Dunkel, or Negra Modelo. Alternatively, try a a Czech dark lager, which is a little hoppier with a touch more roastiness. Examples include Tenma Beer Project’s Moonlit Skies, San Miguel Dark Lager, and Sapporo Black.
You may need to work a little harder to find one of these, but it will be worth it, especially during kevättalvi.
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