Ah, the Dark Lager. Truly this is a wonderful style of beer. Typically these styles are light in body, easy-to-smash-into-your-face and with a clean, crisp finish. They have, however, heavy doses of dark roasted malts that lend the beer both its deep colour and also imbue it with a richness of flavour not found in a standard Lager.

Waterloo’s Original Dark is a mediocre take on this style of beer. Nothing offensive, to be sure, and it definitely has the characteristic toasted dark bread and raisin-ish taste. But there’s just no Wow! factor. The flavour of the malt isn’t strong enough to excite the palate, so it just kinda sits there, like, “meh.” And where I’d like a bit of sweetness to linger, I find this beer quickly turns to a bit of a metallic, bitter finish that isn’t entirely pleasing.

Not exactly a fail. More of a shoulder shrug.