The typical mobs of crazed bargain hunters did not swarm the shopping malls this year for Black Friday, with the pandemic forcing them to move to online shopping to acquire the latest trinkets and gewgaws. Rather than overindulge in the annual bacchanalia of capitalism, I decided to binge on Black Lagers for Black Friday.
The macrobrew drinkers in the audience can be forgiven for their unfamiliarity with Black Lagers, as they are uncommon outside of their native Germany. Fortunately, we have the best local offering in Alberta right here in our own backyard, courtesy of the Meridian Black Lager from Chestermere’s own Township 24 Brewing. This beer has won medals at the Alberta Beverage Awards for the last 3 years running, so it has fans not only here in Chestermere, but across the province.
I can still fondly recall when the first Meridian Black Lager was unveiled in the Township 24 taproom on Rainbow Road, met with glee by the beer cognoscenti who had long craved a local option for this unique beer style, known in its native Germany as Schwarzbier, which a trip quick to Google Translate will tell you simply means Black Beer.
Township 24 Brewing will be celebrating their fourth birthday on December 28, and their Meridian Black Lager has been one of their core brews the entire time, much to my delight. Like our other small businesses in Chestermere, Township 24 has been hit hard by the global pandemic, so I was happy to support them with take-out and delivery orders throughout their forced closures, and in this brief lull between the fourth and fifth waves of the pandemic, I visit the taproom every Friday for their famed Pilot Beer Fridays, when new and exciting one-off brews are released.
Schwarzbier is a fairly uncommon beer style in Canada, but has long been a favourite of mine, and is on the must-try list of any beer snob. Schwarzbier is a dark beer for those who claim to not like dark beers, as the lager yeasts and cold conditioning make it a clean-tasting beer with plenty of dark malt backbone, but relatively low residual sweetness and only low to moderate hop bitterness.
My first exposure to Schwarzbier was on a European vacation near the turn of the millennium, sitting in a centuries-old brewery in Düsseldorf in the historic town square beside the train station, contentedly washing down a spicy bratwurst with a lager beer that was dark as night.
Experienced boozers in Alberta may recall a sadly now-defunct craft brewer named Brew Brothers, who operated in Calgary for 20 years, before closing their doors in 2014. The Brew Brothers Black Pilsner was the only local Schwarzbier available in Alberta for many years, and was missed terribly by the local beer nerds when Brew Brothers shuttered their doors.
Fortunately, the brewery and taproom location, known as the Fox & Firkin in the heyday of Calgary’s Electric Avenue during the era of my squandered youth, was soon acquired by Last Best Brewing, part of the same family as Jasper Park Brewing, Banff Avenue Brewing, and Edmonton’s Campio Brewing. Knowing the faithful following of the Black Pilsner, Last Best Brewing pays homage to Brew Brothers with their own spin on the classic recipe, now known as Dirty Bird Black Lager, a patio favourite of mine for many years.
Another local gem is the Munich Lager from Fahr Brewing in Turner Valley, which faithful readers may recall produces the most authentic German beer this side of Munich, being operated by a German-born brewmaster of great renown. Named for its use of Munich malts in the grain bill, this brew gets its dark garnet colour from specially debittered dark roasted malts, providing notes of coffee and burnt chocolate to the light and clean base lager, resulting in a robust flavour more commonly found in ales.
While dark beers have traditionally been the domain of ales and stouts, these dark lagers are the perfect gateway brews for those who enjoy light and crisp lagers, but also crave the richer and more robust flavour profiles of ales. I have converted many a macrobrew drinker to the dark side with a pint of the Meridian Black Lager from our local pride and joy in the Township 24 taproom, and you can too!
