Beer Review: Karbach Brewing Company Sympathy for the Lager

Brewery: Karbach Brewing Company
Beer: Sympathy for the Lager
Style: Vienna Lager
ABV: 4.9%
Character: Brewed with a blend of pale malts and generous amounts of German noble hops
Metal Connection: TIAMAT – Sympathy for the Devil (Rolling Stones cover)

skulls-reviews3-5

Damn, I should have drank this one when I first bought it in Dallas this past May. Now Karbach is in San Antonio where I am, and I don’t look cool anymore checking into a very unique beer before everybody else. Oh, who am I kidding, I still look cool!

Using a recommended Pilsener style glass for this beer, Sympathy poured a hazy dark gold color with a thick foamy white head which went from a three finger wide size to about one finger wide, and remained the same throughout the drinking session.

The aroma of this beer was pretty basic, and complimentary to the style of a lager beer. The aroma has a earthy hop bitterness overtone that hit me right away. There is a bread like aroma, and a toasted malt aroma is present. There is a slight spiciness, I’m guessing from their “generous amount” of German Noble Hops that were used.

The taste follows the nose giving me a lot of bready malts, and a good amount of hop bitterness with an earthy flavor. This is a very pleasing lager.

The body is light to medium, with a decent amount of carbonation. The mouthfeel is smooth and creamy, and it has a slight dry crisp finish.

I am going to be honest with you here. This was one of the hardest beers to review, cause I am not a huge fan of Lager style, but this one was a good one, and it it probably the best Lager I have had in a good long time. I did try my hardest to get all the characters and notes in the aroma and flavors, but it was pretty hard for me since basically, this beer was introducing me back to a style I generally stay away from. I am a fan of this beer, indeed, and I will look forward to getting my hands on some more cans of Sympathy for the Lager.

Metal Connection: To damn easy! Of course I could have used the original Rolling Stones version here, but this is a Metal site for fuck’s sake! So I give you the awesome band, Tiamat and their mournful, creepy version of “Sympathy for the Devil.” This song was on their 1999 full length album, Skeleton Skeletron. I have been a fan of Tiamat ever since I first heard the song, “Smell of Incense” from their 1992 album, Clouds. They have changed their style drastically over the years, but still remained a band I really enjoy. Same goes for the Lager style beer. It was a beer style I was introduced to early, and over the years it through some changes and more breweries making this style, and now here we are full circle, and I am enjoying it again.