Kaputte Stuhle Means Broken Chairs, and the Label Shows Them

A Schwarzbier named after broken furniture, brewed with a homebrewer the brewery calls family. Dehusked Carafa III for color without the bite, spunded on its own carbon dioxide, and left horizontal for as long as it took.

• Style: Schwarzbier
• Release Date: 2026-09-18
• ABV: 5%
• Twin Elephant Brewing Company (Chatham, NJ)

Kaputte Stuhle is German for broken chairs. The label is covered in them, tumbling across a pale blue background behind the beer's name.

The Schwarzbier arrives Friday, September 18, at 5 percent ABV in one-pint cans. Four-packs are listed in Twin Elephant's online shop at $15.01, and the beer appears on the taproom's on-site menu. The brewery brewed it with @analogbrewer, a homebrewer it describes as an extended member of the Twin Elephant family and a Schwarz aficionado, and closes the announcement by thanking him by first name.

The recipe is German pilsner malt, dark Munich, and Carafa III.

Carafa III is the ingredient that makes the style possible. It is a dehusked dark malt, roasted to near-black and then stripped of the husk that would otherwise bring the harsh, astringent edge of a heavily roasted grain. That is how a beer this dark stays in lager territory instead of drifting toward stout. The color arrives without the bite, which is the entire proposition of a Schwarzbier: something that looks like a serious commitment and drinks like a session beer.

Two process details follow from the same instinct. The brewery says the beer was spunded, its phrase being "properly spunded for dat natural carb." Spunding means sealing the tank while fermentation is still active and letting the beer carbonate on the carbon dioxide it is generating, rather than force-carbonating it afterward. It then went into horizontal tanks to lager and fully condition, for a stretch the brewery declines to quantify beyond saying it takes as long as it takes.

The tasting notes Twin Elephant supplies are unusually specific. Chocolate babka left in the oven for a moment too long. Hazelnut. Pumpernickel. The brewery's summary is liquid bread in its finest form, built to fill a dimpled mug. The label's side panel lists lager yeast, Hallertau Mittelfruh, and pilsner and Munich malt.

Kaputte Stuhle is the third of Friday's lager releases, alongside the Oktoberfestbier Hannelore and the Marzen Otto. All three land ahead of the brewery's Wenig (Little) Oktoberfest on Saturday, September 19, running 2 to 7 p.m. in Chatham with fest beer releases, a food pairing and a steinholding competition.