Brewery: Cervejaria Sul Brasileira, Brazil

Brewery Description: An opaque, full-bodied black lager with mild bitterness. Extravagant treacle and anise aromas. Rich and creamy, well balanced sweet notes and hints of tartness with exceptional mouthfeel, in two words: Black Silk.

Brew Style: Schwarzbier, 4.70% ABV

Recommended Glassware:Flute, Pilsner glass

The Ugly Truth: I picked this up at a Total Wine store down here, just looking for something different.  Xingu Black Beer is classified as a Schwarzbier, which is one of my favorite styles.  The beer poured fairly dark in color, as it should have, with some deep ruby highlights when held up to the light.  Strong dark tan head to it, with some fairly long retention to it leaving lace on the glass as it went down.  The aroma was good, with a faint rich Munich malt nose that gave it some sweetness, but otherwise the aroma wasn’t anything overbearing.  Overall, apart from the sweetness, it has a fairly neutral aroma with no hops aroma.  The taste was interesting.  It had a medium to medium light body to it, with some moderate carbonation to it.  The mouthfeel was almost creamy in texture.  The flavor was dominated by the malt taste, and had a slightly sweet character to it.  Its was pretty tasty stuff overall.  The flavor didn’t blow me away, and its not the best schwarzbier I’ve ever had, but its a solid beer in its own right.  Something I would definitely drink again.

Verdict: I’ll give Xingu a 7 out of 10 bottlecaps.