Schadenfruede

I don’t know how to pronounce it, it’s not a style I’d expect to come out of Surly and it’s a beer I expected not to like. Don’t let that fool you into thinking that I wasn’t going to try it out if I had the chance though.

About a week ago I heard that Café 28 had tapped a keg of it and then yesterday afternoon I found out that it was going on tap at Senor Wong’s. With that knowledge, our initial evening plans of heading to Great Waters for dinner and drinks got derailed. And after some major downtown detours due to all the wonderful road construction we finally arrived, got a parking space right out front, and bellied up to the bar.

When we inquired about the Schadenfreude we found out it wasn’t on tap yet and might not be tapped until around 7:00. Slightly disappointed, but able to find other liquid refreshments to tide us over, we ordered the first round. It didn’t take our attentive bartender long to get the full scoop and before we were even halfway through our pints, the Schadenfreude was ready.

Wary of the style (oak-aged German dunkel lager), I left it up to Mag to order it first and try his. On first taste I was quite surprised at the overall mildness of the beer, nothing too lager-y, nothing too dunkel-ish about it at all. In fact, once I’d finished my beer I ordered my own pint, and more after that.