Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Dunkel Clarity

My recent dunkel weisse experience left me feeling a little hollow because the flavour just didn't meet with my expectations. I ended that post telling you about the other Weinhenstephaner Dunkel that I had yet to try. This one is labelled Tradition and I thought it was perhaps a rougher, fuller version of the other dunkel weisse, but a comment by Barry about dunkel being dark beer in general rather than the darker weisses that I thought them to be helped explain why this beer was filtered and not at all spicy when I got it into the glass. At first I thought it was a kristal dunkel weisse, an interesting notion, but in fact this appears to be a traditional dark German beer and a damn tasty one at that. It delivers on the rich dark malt aspect where the weisses failed, matched with an amazing clarity and rich colour. It is one of the tastiest looking beers I have seen in quite some time. Hopefully we'll see more of this type of beer arriving on Irish shores in the near future.

4 comments:

Tim said...

I too enjoyed the Tradition. Its a wierd beer as its not really a Dunkel in the true sense and its not a Bruin of a Bock either. Anyhow, you can read my report here.

Barry M said...

I'd class the Tradition as a Dunkel, no problem. The thing I've found about the Dunkel "style" is that it's wide open to all sorts of flavours. I even had one that tasted more like a porter than any German beer I've had, and yet others that were disticntly fruity, like figs, and others that were simply overly sweet malt bags.

I can almost hear Forrest Gump saying Life is like a Dunkel...

Thomas said...

I have no experience of this type of beer and was pleasantly surprised by the Tradition. I'd love to try more of it. Your blog seems awash with this sort of beer.

Barry M said...

I generally like Dunkels, but they can be misleading and end up disappointing. Sometimes way too sweet, sometimes with a blandness that belies the dark malty-looking colour. But often just nice and simple beers with a little more going on than the regular stuff (read pils or helles).

I'll see if I have room in my case when I come over next week, although I'll be bringing alot of homebrew over for a tasting night! :D