Verbatim: Founder’s Organic Long Black. $5, 4.2%, 11/5/06, 500ml. Schwartzbier; black lager. Nice dark, with lingering bubbles. You can taste the coffee / choc of the malt. But it’s none too bitter, so accessible. I’d prefer more punch, of course. But very tasty.

Afterthoughts, October 2010: Huzzah, I’ve definitively broken free of the gold = lager / non-gold = non-lager nonsense of my earlier days. Black lagers are bloody marvelous things, great for bending peoples’ boundaries and for their easy refreshingness during colder weather. But what’s this “of course” about the preference for punchier flavours? I almost seem like I’m being blokey. Which is horrifying. Let me be quite plain; I do love a good mild beer, these days. Everything in its right place.