May the Schwartz Be With You Dark Lager

Review Date 4/15/2022 By John Staradumsky

  Style: Schwarzbier   Brewery: Long Beach Beer Lab   Country: USA   State: California   $ Per OZ: N/A

Well friends, here we go again! This is my third beer inspired by the movie Spaceballs. All of them have been German-style Schwarzbiers, or black lagers, in some form or another. The first of these I tasted was from Ohio, way back in 2013: The Brew Kettle Dark Helmet Imperial Schwarzbier. A year later along came Westbrook of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina with Dark Helmet Black Rye Lager. Now, I’m here to tell you about Long Beach Beer Lab May The Schwarz Be With You Dark Lager.

This is the second beer I have enjoyed from Long Beach, the first being their Pumqueen Pumpkin Spice Latte Ale. I’ll confess that it was the Spaceballs theme that enticed me to a can of May The Schwartz Be With You Dark Lager to my shopping cart on Craftshack.com.

I could not find any information on this beer on the brewery website but here’s what Craftshack had to say, likely quoted from Long Beach:

Our Dark Lager with a roasted backbone and a crispy body. Flavors of caramel and light cinnamon. Appearance of a darker beer, mouthfeel of your favorite lager. Clean and nutty! Still packing all the goodness you expect from a lager.

What is interesting here is that they describe this as something akin to a Munich Dunkel, but with “Schwarz” in the name, most people will think black lager. I know I did.

Long Beach Beer Lab May The Schwarz Be With You Dark Lager has an alcohol content of 5.4% by volume and I paid $5.39 for my can from Craftshack. That is the only pricing information I have.

Long Beach Beer Lab May The Schwarz Be With You Dark Lager pours to a jet-black color with a thick creamy tan head of foam and a nose of dark roasted malt and coffee. Taking a sip, the beer is medium in body, clean and roasty with chocolate pudding and minty grassy hop notes. It finishes roasty and hoppy bitter and begs you to take another sip.

I enjoyed this beer very much, and aside from the Spaceballs themed name, May The Schwarz Be With You Dark Lager stands on its own as a credible example of a German black lager. Would I buy it again? Is Barf his own best friend?