Monteith's Black
Crafted from a blend of five premium malts to create a complex depth of flavours with dominant coffee notes. Crisper than sweet darks and smoother than harsh stouts. Perfect for the moment when you step in from the cold.
3.2
317 reviews
Greymouth, New Zealand
Community reviews
Looks like Coca Cola in the glass, thankfully doesn’t taste like it. Dark toffee flavour, incredibly moreish, top beer
For a dark lager this isn't bad, the aroma is pleasing and the taste and body of this is full and pleasant. There is a lot of carbonation in this that bring prickliness without substance. Not bad for a quaffer.
Appearance: deep jet but no head (contrary to other reviews?). Aroma: great aroma of roast malts, toffee and coffee. Palate: medium light mouthfeel. medium carbomation. Taste: great taste of coffee, roast malts. Hint of chocolate. light bitterness. Overall: Really liked this beer but would have scored it higher I think if it was more robust on the palate
From bottle in porter glass. Pours an opaque brownish black with thick head and choc malt aroma. Easy drinking with bittersweet choc finish. A nice after dinner beer, especially on Halloween
Bottle in Auckland. Backlog rating from bottle collection and historic scoring. No tasting notes kept, just rating.
Ohh I like this beer! Pours black as, with nice foamy head. Easy on the palate (maybe a bit thin), but those malts!!! Nice smooth chocolate, toffee, vanilla and toast and zero or little bitterness to finish. This is a very easy drinking black beer with lots of taste - and smooooth!
Bottle in Seattle. My brother found this somewhere out East. Gray-tan head, nice dark malty body. Looks good. Nose is a touch sweet, but with some nice roast. Body is a bit creamy, some coffee, some dark bread. Body is muted, a bit waxy. Flavors are fine but a bit underwhelming. Some burnt licorice. Fairly nice.
Nice drinkable black beer. Good dose of chocolate, coffee, caramel and biscuit. A lighter dark beer, less creamy and more carbonation. Almost like a session dark beer.
330ml bottle. Coffee, plums, smoke, toast. Little creamy as it warms. Over carbonated. Not bad.
Dark colour, white creamy head, pleasant roasted malt aroma. Similar taste, smooth. Very enjoyable.
330ml bottle. Almost black colour with a one finger creamy tan head, good retention. Aroma: light roasted malts, notes of dark fruits, coffee, chocolate. Taste: same as aroma. Texture is quite thin, as is the body. Not a bad beer but not outstanding in any way.
Poured a lively solid but fizzy black with good tan head that stayed well. Aroma dry and of faint espresso. Flavour initially mild espresso but then moves into simple dusty cocoa / dark chocolate notes. After a while than secondary flavour seems chalky. Watery on palate, yet medium body due to lively carbonation, long finish. Overall ok, something to quaff rather than savour. Perhaps a good introduction to dark brews.
330ml bottle
Roasted malt aroma.
Poured black with slight tan head.
Mild bitterness with sweet roasted malt finish.
OK.
Poured from a tap. Smells like a less salty marmite. As a mainstream beer this is quite enjoyable. Nothing fantastic but has more flavour to it than a lot of other standard monteiths. Smooth finish.
Bottle @ home
Clear dark brown, brown head
Hint of ash, cream, coffe, cacao, ovomaltina, amaretti
Easy drinkable with complex aftertaste
Had it from bottle. Nice beer, easy drinkability. Not as strong as it thought it would be, but still nice.
Coarse sustained light brown foam covers a limited aroma of hard roasted malt. The flavor is excellent and contains lots of rich roasted malt tones with a little bit English licorice in the background. It is certainly very tasty and can certainly be equated with many of the best German schwarzbier. Only a slight hoppy bitterness contributes to the long after taste where malt is used to continuously maintain the taste buds. It is certainly worth recommending.
On holiday dark brown black colored body with an off white head with a roasted malt hops aroma a hop malt coffee sweet taste with a slight bitter finish
Bottle to pint glass. Lovely dark mahogany, medium head. Some coffee, soy sauce and milk chocolate. A little on the thin side, but flavours were pleasant.
Coming from a warm country, I tend to drink cold beer. This Schwarzbier version has enough flavour to still provide plenty of taste straight from a cold fridge, without making you feel you are drinking a heavy beer. Because it is a lager and not an ale, it still has quite a crisp and clean finish (unlike the dark ales fruity finishes) which means the flavour doesn’t linger as long, but it is more consistent in it’s chocolately / coffee flavour. Good mouthfeel with nice carbonation which provides a nice frothy head if you give it an active pour. Will come down at a moderate pace and leave nice lacing on the glass.
Because of the lack of lingering finish, you do keep going back for more quickly making this quite the session beer - so on the colder nights (only around 12 to 15 degrees Celsius) this is a great beer to polish off with mates, Goes well with chocolate brownies.
12oz bottle pours a dark brown color with a bit of head. Mild hop flavors and nice roasted malt.
330ml bottle into glass. Strong coffee nose. Mahogony dark with big tan head. Looks and smells great. Quite weak watery taste. Ends with iced coffee. It’s all up front with this one.
On tap in Haast. Black but not pitch black, hints of brown. Little soft head. Roasty nose, but not extreme. Hints of liquorice in the taste, but altogether surprisingly light and refreshing. As others have mentioned, definitely sessionable.
good session beer pours solid dark with fine lacing a malty chocolate roasted coffee aroma a thin body & a clean refreshing sweet malty taste
Pours near black with a reasonable tan head that fades. Pleasant aroma of malts and coffee. Fairly smooth in the mouth, perhaps a little too much carbonation when first poured. Great taste with malts, biscuit, coffee, caramel and chocolate flavours well balanced. Flavours could be a little stronger but the beer leaves a pleasant, slightly bitter aftertaste and left me wanting another.
decent dark beer. bitter with roasted notes. sessionable. bottle somewhere in east sydney
One of my first dark craft beers and was quite enjoyable. Poured very dark, but was very viscous at the same time. Was met by less than an inch of head that disappeared quite quickly. No carbonation. Aroma was probably the best thing about the beer, with initial smells of dark chocolate. Taste was different from other dark beers, very rich chocolate cake which downed to the classic dark beer taste and finally to a coffee aftertaste. Not my favourite type of beer but as far as the genre goes, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
330 ml bottle bought at Great Food hall in Pacific Place, Admiralty during the ‘New Zealand food festival’ promotion.
Clear deep blackish brown colour; Less than one-quarter finger head and soapy beige foam which fades in 20 seconds; Good sticky lacing and near zero carbonation; Sweet aroma of dark malt, with strong roastyness, nuts, caramel, toffee, cream, sugar, coffee, soy sauce, very light chocolate, biscuits and strawy grass; Mid to light sweet taste of strongly roasted dark malt, with light smoked meat, light caramel, toast, Cola, cream crackers, lemon, light lime, moderate bitter hops and grass; Light body. Thin and slightly slick palate; Mouth feel is thick, very malty, thoroughly roasted with light smokiness with flashes of smoked salmon and bacon. Beyond that, taste is a little short: mostly light caramel and Cola background, yeast, cream crackers and hops. Not much coffee, choco or cream. The fat black malt and light smoke somehow make up the deficit. Okay… Hoppiness is strawy nose. Good lemon, light lime and moderate hoppy grassy taste; Bitterness is moderate for an abrupt, very light bitter finish; Fairly dry after taste, Light smoky and malty to mouth.
Comments: This one moved away from the usual low malt-coffee-chocolate formula, in comes the strongly-roasted dark malts with fair touch of light smokes to complement the rich aroma, but otherwise the taste is a little bare. Still, you don’t come across a fulfilling Schwarz very often. A decent one!
Very malty aroma. Jet black colour with excellent head. Nice toffee malt flavour with smooth coffee finish. Heavy body with medium carbonation.
Tastes like a okay black beer, nothing inoffensive but nothing struck me as exciting, I haven’t drank enough of this type to really offer much more, will revisit this review when I am more experienced with this type