Name: Xingu Black Beer

Product of: Cervejaria Sul Brasileira, Santa Maria, Brazil

Serving Size: 12 fluid ounces

Serving Style: Glass pint (Preferably a flute glass, but don’t drink this one out of the bottle!)

Xingu is a relatively cheap and refreshing change of pace for the dark beer drinker stuck in the European section of the craft beer aisle. I’d highly recommend it to fans of stouts or porters that would enjoy letting roasted malt flavors take the backseat to dark fruits and bitter sweetness.

Smell: Delicate yet refined aromas of dark fruit, coffee, molasses, and chocolate meet your nose as you lift your glass to your mouth. The fruit component is mysterious, as if it might include tropical fruits whose names you’ve never heard. 4.9/5

Appearance: True to its namesake, it pours black and smooth as obsidian into the glass with a two inch beige head that quickly fizzles away. Up to the light it has a bit of a ruddy color opaque and the thin viscosity is more pronounced. The carbonation bubbles on the glass lacing are minuscule yet dense, and quickly slide down the glass leaving no trace behind. 4.7/5

Taste: Citrus highlights seem to sparkle and sizzle down the middle grove of the tongue initially, darker and sweeter fruits spread wider across the middle grove, and it finishes with roasted malts and a light bitterness coating the mouth. Somehow even after the fruit has predominantly faded, it’s still there and just barely detectable, like mist or an echo.  4.6/5

Xingu really surprised me with its exotic take on a Schwarzbier, and I couldn’t be happier that a six pack costs what one bottle of beers on the shelf beside it does. I’ve read beers of this style aren’t normally known for fruitiness, but they’re definitely utilizing it to achieve a more refreshing taste than more roasted beers in the category. 14.2/15