When you walk into a beer garden in Bavaria there’s a good chance you will only have one brewery to choose from and only five options. It’ll all be brewed in house and listed simply as Helles, Dunkles, Weiß, Pilsner and Radler. When you walk into a brewpub in the United States you may have other breweries represented (depending on how restauranty it is) and every beer will have its own name. Hoppy Hooligan, Summer Beach Fest, Boozehound Bruce, etc… So when Berghoff Brewery in Stevens Point, Wisconsin decided to mix up a standard dunkel, it just couldn’t resist nameifying it into Sir Dunkle. They even reversed the e and the l. Lets see if their Americanisation stops at the name or if it permeates the beer itself.
 |
| Dark indeed. |
Very lagery. Lots of malt notes but the delivery is light and crisp. That jives with the high clarity of the beer when held up to light. If feels like a standard American lager with a bit of the same aftertaste to boot. The sweetness from the darker malts does a very good job presenting itself without the smooth or creamy mouthfeel it often accompanies. It lingers quite a bit and even thinly coats the mouth. While not reminiscent of a South German Bräuhaus, I think I will remember Sir Dunkle if I’m headed somewhere with lots of American lager fans.
The label declares this to be a dark lager but Berghoff claims this beer as an altbier, which uses top fermenting yeast. I just don’t know what to believe. My mouth says lager, which means either it’s not an altbier at all or they really didn’t utilize the yeast strain to its full potential. Not sure which would be worse. It’s like taking an IPA and aging it or making it into an eisbier! Damn you Americans and your twist top bottles! I feel so betrayed, bemused, bewildered… Good thing none of those B words affect the beer itself.
No comments:
Post a Comment