Stella...Black?

Spotted Stella Black in a local pub on Friday night, and again couldn't stop myself from trying it. It has been knocking around for about a year now, and I wanted it to be good, I wanted it to be a legitimate attempt to make a better, premium beer (unlike Fosters Gold in my previous post), which was a cut above the standard Stella lager that supermarkets and pubs are a wash with.

So, if you don't already know about Stella Black, it's a 4.9% lager brewed exclusively at the Leuven brewery in Belgium and imported to the UK and elsewhere. It's brewed with Saaz hops, orange peel and coriander seeds. Interestingly, A-B InBev stated that it intended to keep it as a more exclusive beer and only distribute to a few hand-selected outlets. And most importantly, even though it is called Stella Black, it is a normal golden lager, and not black, as the name would suggest.

The glasses are sleek and stylish, as is pretty much everything to do with the presentation and advertising of the beer, unfortunately the beer itself does not follow suit. The best way I can describe it is empty, it lacked any sort of substance or body, it felt like there was the potential to be more but the taste was just out of reach. There was some very light citrusy flavours along with a mild spiciness but this never manages to materialise into anything more than a passing hint, while a bread-like maltiness hovered in the background throughout. It's cold, it's drinkable, and in the end it is just another run of the mill commercial lager but you have to appreciate that the intention to do something different was almost there. Would be interesting to see how it stands up to some spicy food though, it may compliment and bring out the flavours in the beer more but I don't think a curry house beer is the image that A-B InBev were shooting for here but then again I don't really think they knew what they wanted.

As I said before, I wanted it to be good, and although it wasn't horrific, it wasn't anything that I would buy again. In just over a year, as far as I can see, it hasn't managed to establish itself in an already overpopulated sector of the beer market, of which the Stella brand have two beers anyway, and no amount of marketing or fancy names is going to change that. The poor choice of target market and misleading name is discussed with much more elegance and depth in one of Pete Brown's old blogs here, and Melissa Cole's blog here.

I know it has been around for a while now but last Friday was the first time I've actually seen it at a pub or anywhere for that matter. Thankfully though, Moor's brilliant Northern Star was on as well as Camden's Inner City Green, so I managed to survive the evening.

I will endeavor to not bitch about crap beer in my next post, I promise.