More breweries are embracing malt-forward easy-drinking options as an essential part of a seasonal lineup, and the Schwarzbier may be one of the styles seeing the most taplists these days. For this show, we put five locally-made Schwarzbiers through a blind tasting to help us better understand the style and see how subtle variations can make all the difference for our arbitrary rankings. Also, we fit Chicagoland breweries into boy band archetypes; Craig's going hard on the Schwarz puns; and Ryan tries to assert himself as the young/cheeky one.

Schwarzbiers Reviewed (Blindly)

Soundgrowler Brewing Co. - No Ice

Skeleton Key Brewery - 7th Evil Ex

Half Acre Beer Company - Schwarzbier

Riggs Beer Company - Schwarzbier

Pipeworks Brewing Company - Select Schwarzbier