Review Date 4/2/2010
Try?
Re-buy?
OK, you say, I'll bite. What is Z Lager? Where do I get Z Lager? And just how does Z Lager taste? Rest assured, my friends, all these questions will be answered in due time. But first, I will explain what Z Lager is: it's a smoked amber lager brewed and bottled by Colorado's Fort Collins Brewery. Obviously, the beer is fashioned after the famous rauchbiers of Germany's Bamberg region, a style of which I for one am particularly enamored.
Rauchbiers (and Z Lager of course) are made with smoked malt, in which a portion of the malt used in brewing is dried over a wood fire (beechwood or hickory perhaps). Long ago, kilning malt was a far less precise science than it is today, and beers might often have a hint of smoke to them. Rauchbiers attempt to emulate that lost trait and elevate it to an aesthetic element in beer, rendering them akin to smoked meats and fish in the world of cuisine.
This style is not often produced in the United States, and when it is it's often with a different base beer (porter is common, witness Alaskan Smoked Porter or Stone Smoked Porter). Fort Collins version is about average in alcohol at 5.5% by volume with a moderate 30 IBUs. It is conveniently available in the company's sampler 12-pack of beers.
Fort Collins Z Lager pours to a burnt orange color with a light, creamy head formation and a decidedly smoky malty nose. There's even more smoke in the palate-but we'll get to that in a moment. The base beer merits mentioning first, and it's of good body, form and even chewy (if a liquid can be said to be "chewy") with caramel flavor. Then there's the smoke, very aromatic and very noticeable right from the first sip. It's thick with notes of hickory, green olive, and a little salty.
The smoke is even more noticeable in the finish, where it merges with a dash of herbal hops. It dries and lingers on the tongue after sipping, too. This one reminds me a lot of Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier, and that's high praise indeed. One of the better domestic rauchbiers I've tasted.
Quite often, I'm underwhelmed by the amount of smoke I find in domestic rauchbiers. That was not the case here, however. I want smoke in my smoke beer, and this one has it for sure. A natural match with barbecue, sausage, or your smoked Easter ham.