Anyone thinking Unicum was Hungary's undisputed black demon would have been right - at least until Soproni's Fekete Démon beer mysteriously slunk onto supermarket shelves. Not only is the new black deamon dark in name and color, it also remains trapped in the shadows, marketing-wise. Like us, Hungarian beer blog Kontár Komlókutató ("Ameteur Hop Researcher") only accidentally discovered the new brew in its local CBA store, while the stuff is entirely absent from the product listings on the company website and is way under Google's radar. All very mysterious, particularly for one of Hungary's top brands.

Perhaps the thinking behind the invisible product launch was that in this lager-swilling age and land, a dark beer karamell malátával ("with caramalized malt") - something I have never seen on a bottle in any language - is for a niche market likely to be unmoved by slick marketing. Which is probably right. The beer, containing four types of malt and "fragrant aroma hops," certainly sounds like it is brewed with the connoisseur in mind. And the name (although a little crude) and elegant packaging certainly betray a certain character. Most importantly, it doesn't half taste bad.

Having recently received a special delivery of a dozen bottles of Aecht Schlenkerla, a quirky smoked beer from Bamberg, Germany, I was curious to see how this "caramalized" malt beer would match up - for smokiness and quirkiness. Although the BD is not nearly as füstölt as the famous Rauchbier, the comparison with the Schlenkerla is not entirely unjustified. The rich, dark brew smells and tastes heavily of smoke, while retaining a smooth sweet flavor reminiscent of Czech darks like Krusovice, one exotic foreign beer that has made it as far as Hungary. Closer to home, BD beats Hungary's other major dark beer, the much stronger and more bitter Dreher Bock, hands down.

The emphasis on the caramel makes the Black Demon perhaps a little too sweet for cracking open another one straight away, and it might well give you headache in the morning (my testing didn't extend that far). All the same, it represents an excellent brew for the one off occasion and is certainly is a welcome alternative to the endless flow of soulless foreign-branded lagers, most of which are brewed under licence in Hungary anyway.

And until the marketing guys at Soproni get their act together, it's a great way to impress your beer buddies with some local insider knowledge.