#the-french-dispatch

Everything but the haze

After the positive performance by Bådin's saisons  last month , I noticed there were seven other beers from the same brewery in the fridge at Craft Central. I took six of them, judiciously deciding that I didn't need their hazy IPA. First and lowest-strength is Nightshift , a Czech-style dark lager. There's rarely anything to dislike in these. It looks well: the appropriate shade of cola-brown or dark garnet with a decent off-white head. The aroma says rich and wholesome, with elements of malt loaf, burnt toast and dark, viscous treacle. That made it surprising that's it's relatively light of body at 5% ABV, and very drinkable. 440ml is too small a measure for this, which does a very good job, I thought, of replicating a sessionable sort of dark lager, designed for venues where a multiplicity of beer styles is not part of the offer. That said, it's also far from bland, delivering a beautiful combination of earthy, savoury umami, lighter caramel and a decent poke of Mitteleuro