Das Schwarze
Brewed by Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu
Style: Schwarz bier
Stuttgart, Germany
SchwabenBräu is a brewery based in Stuttgart and owned by Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu GmbH und Co. KG. The company owns the largest brewery in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, a state in the southwest of Germany bordering France and Switzerland, and the location of the Black Forest.
It was founded in 1878 by Robert Leicht. Leicht was a progressive entrepreneur, open to technical innovations, so much so that the brewery very soon had electric light, an artificial ice cooling machine, a cable car, an atomized bottling plant and much more, and in 1897 was the first German beer to be delivered motorized, with a truck from Gottlieb Daimler. At one stage the company had the largest bottling plant in the world!
In 1996, the competing breweries of Schwaben Bräu and Dinkelacker merged to form Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu AG, then after there was a brief flirtation with brewing giants, InBev, who took over in 2003, but the brewery regained independence again in 2007. Bought back by Wolfgang Dinkelacker, great-grandson of company founder Carl Dinkelacker.
Schwaben Bräu produces a wide array of beers, from their Pils, a helles and a wheat beer, and the odd seasonal beer for Christmas and local festivals.
Review: 0,5l black flip top bottle of Das Schwarze: ABV: 4.9% vol
The ‘Black Forest Dark beer’ coming in a nice enough dark bottle with a fiip top.
On pour looks great, a jet black colour, with a bit of a reddish hue, decent frothy white head which settled down to a thin layer, some lacing. Looks crisp and ready to devour. Not a bad looker.
The aroma is faint, very faint. Slightly beery, malty and grainy and some fruits but not much on the nose.
Lovely mouthfuls at the start. Get a taste of the toffee. Can really get a good feel for the beer, and nice creamy mouthfuls. Initially.
Sweet malty taste. Very smooth, but overall not a whole lot of flavours or tastes though.
It is a bit bland, but easy to drink. No kick, no substance to it and a tad bit disappointing.
Second bottle.
Do get the coffee and dark chocolate notes, it is slight though at the front end. smooth, easy to drink, and light but, as I said, it is a little disappointing as all the tastes are only fleeting on the palate. They really need to stick around that little longer!
I can’t taste the alcohol, and it is a pretty weak beer. These black lagers are kind of a waste of time to be honest, no kick, no standout tastes.
I think black beers are the one style I struggle with as I always find them too weak to enjoy and don’t really see the point in them to be honest, but I will keep trying them………………
The city also has a rich cultural tradition with many high-quality museums and art galleries, but for someone who is into more modern pursuits, the city holds one of the largest and most popular dance music festivals in the world, a techno “street parade” around August every year that attracts about a million ravers and the like dancing alongside the lake Zurich. 
A large Irish pub not too far off from the train station. Was my first stop of the day, and ventured in to the quiet bar with a small midday crowd. 
Was in this bar before, so it can get very busy and lively on a weekend night. It is a fun place to be for sure, but the prices of the beers are something to behold. Not going to be doing a large drinking session in a bar like this unless you are very flush with the cash! But this is Zurich one of the most expensive cities in Europe so its par for the course here. 
The Strauss bar is a small dive bar located on the crossing of the Langstrasse. Looked like an interesting place so I ventured in. 
I ordered a pint of Hürlimann. I actually thought the bar was called Hürlimann since they had it in big lettering over the front of the bar’s entrance, but no it is in fact a local lager. The first thing I noticed was the huge price differential compared to the Smithwicks I had just up at Kennedy’s Irish Pub. The beer I ordered was virtually half the price!
Final pub before I got the train home. Decided to head to this bar as I was told it is infact the oldest bar in the city. Located in the Old Town with its nice cobbled streets. 
Has the usual look of the chain, wooden interior, nice and comfy setting, English beer on tap, British food on the menu, darts to play, the Premiership on the box, and an English style setting. 
Playing in green, white and red, Red Star are a small club based in Zurich, playing in the 1. Liga Classic, the fourth tier of the Swiss football league system. Founded in 1905 by Charles Seiler and Alfred Merk. The idea for the name they found in a newspaper article of that time, which reported on the steamship line “Red Star Line”, and nothing to do with communist ideology or socialist principles, they were in fact originally attached to the local Catholic youth club, later becoming an independent club. 
Even though the game was nil all, it was pretty entertaining. Both teams had chances to score, and the level of quality on show wasn’t too bad. 
Grasshoppers were founded on the 1st of September 1886 by Tom E. Griffith, an English student, who set up a team made up mostly of a group of students who were originally from Manchester and were studying in Zurich at the time.
In the 1950’s they won two more league titles and two more cups, but the 1956 win in the Swiss Championship was to be their last silverware for quite a while, 15 years in fact, winning nothing in the ’60s. The long wait was over in 1971 when they beat FC Basel in the last game of the championship, in extra time, to clinch their 16th title. The 17th came in 1978. 
The 90’s were good times too, winning the league five times in the decade which wasn’t a bad achievement, and the cup twice. But just the two titles the decade after, in the 2000/01 and 2002/03 season, 2003 proving to be their last Championship. Apart from a Cup win in 2013 , which ended a ten year trophy drought, the club has gone through a mostly barren period with little to show in many recent years of football.
The Letzigrund stadium is some stadium though, wide and expansive, at night with the floodlights on it is a sight to see. An athletics stadium first and foremost but owned by the city of Zurich (buying it off FC Zurich who were in debt at the time), with the popular IAAF Diamond League taking place here every year, it also has held some pretty big music concerts down through the years (both the old and updated version of the stadium) from U2, Bon Jovi, Madonna, Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Rihanna, Beyoncé, the Rolling Stones right up to today with Ed Sheeran playing booked to play this summer 2018. The current capacity is 25,000, for football events, 30,000, for athletics and 50,000, for concerts
That goal did eventually come, in the 68th minute when J. Suárez scored a nice goal, scoring from a loose ball just outside the box slotting it home with the goalkeeper no chance. A very well taken goal. By this stage Grasshoppers were piling on the pressure, and they got a second when M. Basic scored from a penalty after Pusic was taken down in the box. 
Acquisition of the brewery by Bernhard Füglistaller-Sprenger. The Warteck beer quickly gained a good name and so shortly afterwards the first depot was opened in Bern and the first “Pilsener” was brewed in Basel.
Bought it in a ten pack as I couldn’t get any singles in the shop. Clever marketing? 
Taste is nice enough, the initial mouthful feels good. Nice maltiness there. 
So wheat beer was well established in Bavaria, but it did go through a stage where it wasnt as popular as before. Bottom-fermented beers, such as lagers and “dark beers”, were proving very popular and wheat beers went so far out of fashion that many had thought it wasn’t worth even brewing anymore. Not so father and son combo, Georg I. Schneider and son Georg II. Schneider who set about revitalizing the once popular top fermented brew. They first needed to obtain the correct license with the Bavarian “Hofbräuamt” (the courtly administration for brewing) under King Ludwig II. of Bavaria (1856-1886), in order to obtain the “Weissbierregal“ , giving them the right to brew wheat beer, as the first commoners ever.
Massive amount of carbonation, wow, too much as it all came bubbling out like a fountain. What remained in the glass was a dark orange coloured beer with a white head that was pretty small all things considering, and died a death later. Also a bit cloudy. That’s what a top bottle conditioned beer does for ya!
Well if you haven’t guessed by now, the company name and logo were inspired by the faithful pet boxer of brewery founder and first director Mr. A. Hauser, on April the 6th, 1960. The new business was to have the start qualities of honesty, loyalty, independence and resilience, traits that he found in his beloved dog, Aramis.
Got it in a can, could not pass by and had to buy it what with the very eye catching logo of a Boxer dog on the can. Logo really is cool, love it, it really stands out. 
A little bit hoppy but not overpowering, nicely balanced and pleasant. 
Hacker was founded way, way back in 1417, and the Pschorr bit comes from when Joseph Pschorr, in the late 18th century, bought the Hacker brewery from his father-in-law, Peter-Paul Hacker. He subsequently founded a separate brewery called Pschorr, who would have guessed, eh? His two sons, Georg Pschorr and Matthias Pschorr Sr., divided his estate by each taking control of one of the two separate breweries. 
In Munich in 1810, the Crown Prince Ludwig I of Bavaria, decided he wanted the whole of Bavaria to join him in celebrating his wedding. He commissioned a collection of the top Munich brewers, including Josef Pschorr, then the brewmaster of the Hacker-Pschorr brewery, to develop special brews to commemorate this special occasion. Overtime this occasion has evolved into the world city of Munich’s Oktoberfest, which is attended by over six million people each year. By Munich law, only the six breweries within the city limits of Munich are invited to serve their beer at Oktoberfest. Hacker-Pschorr is one of the six and today’s event is held on land donated by Josef Pschorr, further highlighting the special relationship this brewery has with the city. 
On taste, got some really lovely mouthfuls, a very good start, very refreshing. Beery and lagery but in a nice way, sweet with some fruits and not too off putting.
I think we will beat Bohs, I think it will be tough, Bohs have had a poor start, they won during the week, in the league cup though, so they probably have a little more confidence though, and they have couple of players back, I know Anto Murphy is back for them, he is a strong player for them, I think it will be tight but I think Galway united will be good enough tonight
So my name is Thomas and I’m nineteen years of age and I’m a member of
