Thursday 6 November 2008

The Dark Side of Jever

My friendly neighbours were recently on a trip to the North Sea coastal area of Friesland, Lower Saxony, where they paid a visit to the Friesische Brauhaus in Jever, home of the beer of the same name. They even sent us a postcard telling us they had visited the brewery, andon return home one evening I found a bottle of beer outside our door. No ordinary Jever though, this was the sexy looking Jever Dark. Well ok, I just happen to like the colour combination on the label (although it looked better full).

Despite the appearance in the photo, Jever Dark is a deep chestnut/mahogany brown. It has quite a gentle nobel hop aroma and an alost marzipan-like touch of sweetness. It gives clean tasting chocolate malt with a hint of nuttiness and vegetal notes. As to be expected from Jever, it has a nice touch of hop bitterness. I also detected a slight saltiness, but this may have been after looking at photos of the surrounding area planting maritime suggestions in my head.

Overall, I found this to be a clean tasting, easy to drink beer, and I would have been happy if the bottles were larger than 330ml.

3 comments:

Thomas said...

Oooh. Dark Jever. I'd love to try this. Regular Jever has vanished from Ireland. I used to pick it up on the cheap from Sheils because few people could stomach it, I suppose.

Sat In A Pub said...

Sounds good. I wouldn't mind trying it but although we get regular Jever in Manchester, I doubt I'll see this.

Leigh said...

intersting - not seen this yet! I'm actually quite fond of Jever - once you get past the insane hop aroma - and making a dark version only ticks another box for me! ill have to keep an eye out.