KCCO Black Lager Review

Name: KCCO Black Lager
Brewed By: Red Hook Brewing for Resignation Brewing
Style: Schwarzbier
ABV: 5.1%

When I first saw the letters KCCO in big, bold white letters on the bottle, I literally had to do a double take. Sure enough, The Chive has it's very own beer courtesy of Resignation Brewing and Red Hook Brewing: KCCO Black Lager, which is a Schwarzbier-style beer.

According to the Resignation Brewery website, it is one of four beers planned and each one is based on a homebrew recipe from one of the staffers at The Chive. In fact, it seems like Resignation Brewery at this time is the brainchild of the people working at The Chive as they appear to lack a physical location, which explains why it's being brewed at Red Hook.

For those of you not familiar with The Chive, it's a humor/eye-candy/random subject matter website that is quite popular on the internet. It's kind of like Buzzfeed except funny. Even if you never heard of The Chive, you probably have seen their merchandise. Those green t-shirts with the words ”Keep Calm and Chive On” (Which is where the name of the beer comes from) on the front? The black t-shirt with Bill Murray on the front staring at you? Yup, it's from there!

KCCO Black Lager pours a dark brown color with a crimson red tinge. A foamy head tops off the beer and there is some pretty good lacing here as well.

The nose is fairly roasted malt forward, providing a solid base for some chocolate notes, mild smokiness, coffee ground and a light yeasty touch.

The flavor is more cocoa/coffee forward with roasted malts and some mild smokiness. The aftertaste has a fairly dry, but has a mild roasty flavor. The palate is pretty light and is pretty mild in carbonation.

I'll be honest, I didn't exactly have high expectations for this beer, but I found this to be surprisingly good! Novelty (and brand name) value aside, this is a solid and fairly well put-together beer. Check it out if you're able to get it in your area.

KCCO Black Lager - 8/10