by Köstritzer Schwarzbierbrauerie
The Kostritzer brewery is based in Bad Köstritz, in the state of Thuringia in the central part of Germany. It has a really interesting history dating back as far as 1543 and is hailed as producing one of the leading examples of a Schwarzbier.
Schwarzbier is a dark lager, with its origins being traced back to the Middle Ages. It is one of the specialty lagers that German breweries do so well, beautiful in its simplicity.
Dark in body, the beer is much lighter in moutfeel with a clean and refreshing, mildly bitter character. It is basically just dark-coloured lager, balanced and easy drinking without the sharp roasted malt notes of a stout.
I enjoyed this beer much more about 20 minutes after it was poured. At first the flavours were very muted, but as the beer warmed those malts gave off a lot more taste. Don’t let the colour influence your tastebuds, this is a really easy drinking beer that is ever so moreish.
The Kostritzer brewery was fully taken over by Bitburger in 1991, and while the brewery no doubt benefits from the technical, marketing and distribution capabilities of such a commercial brewing enterprise, it is a good example of what happens when big breweries essentially leave their acquisitions to do what they did before they were taken over. The result is one of Germany’s premium schwarzbiers that is accessable to all.
