Blackman's Brewery Dark Lager & Hollywood Haze

For longer than most, Blackman’s Brewery have been devout advocates of craft lagers and they’ve approached winter with a rather colourful can filled with a classic beer. Dark Lager is exactly as it sounds with the Germanic stylings seeing the brewery use a mix of darker malts and Tettnang to provide an easy-drinking and somewhat light serve of roast. Alongside those roasted qualities, there’s plenty of sweet biscuit and chocolate but rather than being rich, it's the kind of clean lager that quickly vanishes from the glass and the palate.

Speaking of familiar territory, Blackman’s have taken their favourite parts from West Coasts and hazy IPAs to produce Hollywood Haze. The beer features two experimental hops out of America known as HBC 586 and 1019 respectively alongside Citra for a beer that packs plenty of mango, rockmelon and citrus. So where does the West Coast come in? Although quite a lush affair there’s a distinct bitterness at play that takes it out of cloud land and into IPA’s more classic era.

Will Ziebell

Published May 24, 2024 2024-05-24 00:00:00