I usually have tried to stay away from anything turned out by the Stevens Point Brewery due to a label that has always seemed to look a little too homemade for me, and that most of their beer carried in Minnesota seems to be discounted (or labeled SALE!) often due to a lack of sales.

I was caught a little off guard by this beer simply due to their naming conventions. I assume when it is named something like Black Ale that is is going to be a dark beer with ale like properties… usually lighter in taste or something like that. But as a home brewer I also know that black implies that it is a dark beer and that ale means it’s a top fermenting beer revealing very very little about what is inside.

After cracking one of these open, I found out what they meant with the name. It was simply what they named it. It was a dark beer that after looking it up, it’s listed as a brown ale which fits quite closely with the tastes. It has what I would describe as an earthy taste with some of the chocolate/dark malt taste. It is a fairly smooth beer with out any real noticeable bite making it ideal if you don’t like hops. It’s dark enough that it’s more of a meal beer than a refreshing drink being just dark enough to make it so.

As far as dark beers go, this one is alright by me. There isn’t anything wrong with the taste or appearance with nothing that really could offend someone or make it undrinkable. Unfortunately, along with the low points there aren’t any high points that make this beer anything special which makes this a picnic grade beer. You won’t cry if they get warm, but you don’t want to have a fridge full of the stuff.