Ummm.... Errrr... Ick.
Written: Apr 28 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: attractive, unusual bottle for my collection
Cons: darned near undrinkable
The Bottom Line: Either I got a bad bottle or everyone who likes it is crazy, but my experience with Jacobsen Dark Lager is that it's just plain nasty
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| scmrak's Full Review: Jacobsen Dark Lager |
Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe I got hold of a bad batch. Maybe everyone else who's tasted Jacobsen Dark Lager is nuts - but for my money, the bottle I drank was a waste of enough money to buy a couple of gallons of gas. Don't get it? Read on...
Jacobsen Dark Lager may well be the ultimate retro brew. The Carlsberg, Denmark, brewery valiantly attempted to duplicate the original 19th-century recipe of founder J. C. Jacobsen, even going so far as to tinker with the brewing water's trace element composition. That recipe calls for floor-malted Munich malt, Hersbrucker hops, and glucose syrup.
Jacobsen appears quite proud of their unlimited dedication, to what I'm not certain, since they printed the tag phase thrice on the labels and even molded it into the bottle once. The bottle itself is quite unusual; an attractive slightly tapered brown glass with a pronounced shoulder and a logo with the image of the founder cast in the glass. It looks vaguely like a potato masher or an androgynous version of Mrs. Butterworth, if the truth be told.
The proof, however, is in the beer. Jacobsen Dark Lager is classified as a Munich Dunkel style, a dark lager with an ABV of 4.5 to 6% and a sweet, malty flavor. The current offering meets some of the standards for the style, with its relatively dark color and 5.8% ABV. As for the rest...
Tasting notes:
The pour: pours an extremely hazy red-brown color, closer to amber than chestnut brown. Liquid is crowned by a thin, tan head of less than one finger's width that quickly dissipates to a fine layer of lace. A few traceries of lace follow the meniscus as it descends. A thin layer of dead yeast in the bottom of the bottle.
The nose: a musty yeast aroma overpowers all else, though malt and a slight floral hop aroma peep through as the brew warms. Nothing else seems able to penetrate the aroma of yeast - the Ms claims the nose is redolent of fish sauce, though perhaps she just has a hankering for Thai.
The tongue: displays a lightly carbonated mouthfeel similar to flat 7-Up. Some malty caramel flavor and a slight hop bitterness. Rather than bitter, the beer is sour as if it were well past its sell-by date. Thin in the mouth, with a very slight creaminess.
The finish: sour, with traces of malt and hops so faint as to be almost imaginary. Musty yeast and sour wort flavors linger on the tongue.
I'm not certain why I taste this so differently from everyone else out there. Perhaps the bottle I bought had been shelved too long and gone stale (I should send the code to Jacobsen and find out if it really was old). I've had many a dark lager before - Beck's, Bohemia, and Ayinger, among others - and never run into one that was this near undrinkable. If Jacobsen wants to send me a replacement bottle so I can try it again, I'm open to an offer - but I'm sure not going to pay for another bottle out of my own pocket.
Recommended:
No
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