Nick Carr on January 26, 2015 2 Comments Quick Characteristics Brewery: Erdinger Weissbräu Location: Erding, Germany Style: Dunkelweizen ABV: 5.3% IBU: ? Appearance: Deep, Rich Brown with Ruby Highlights; Thick Off-White Head Aroma: Yeast & Grains Intermingling With Roasted Malts; Hints of Caramel & Chocolate Flavor: Wheat Characteristics With Deeper Dark Fruitiness; Hints of Chocolate & Caramel Sweetness Availability: Year-Round Pairs With: Bratwurst, Cheesesteak, Guacamole, Roasted Chicken or Pork, Colby Cheese, Waffles One year. I just realized that the 20th of this month marks one year of writing beer reviews for Kegerator.com. Pretty cool stuff. I wonder what the coming year will bring, both for myself and for my glass. Writing these reviews is a blast, not always easy, with the other work I do, but hey, it’s hard to complain about having to sit down and drink a beer, even if it is with an analyzing eye. And since I’ve also started writing the beer style profiles I have hunted the beer aisles with an inclination toward exploring less popular styles. Though I have not yet written the style profile for the dunkelweizen, I happened to come across while trolling for new stuff, I recognized the brewery from other research, and because I’m a sucker for anything I haven’t tried before, I picked it up. Besides if anyone is going to make a wheat beer worth drinking it would be a 128 year old brewery that exclusively brews wheat beers, right? Right, so let’s delve in and find out. Erdinger Weissbräu has a long and colorful history, too long to work into this short review, so I will share a few of the highlights, and if you would like a more complete rundown I encourage you to visit their website. The brewery was founded in 1886 in Erding, Germany. In 1935 it was bought by Franz Brombach and has remained in the family since. Running strong and continually growing it became the first Bavarian brewery to export outside Bavaria. As with all breweries it went through several upgrades, even leaving behind their first brewhouse in 1983, for a larger newly constructed one at the edge of town. In 1990 the brewery’s output reached 1-million hectoliters for the first time, that’s over 800,000 barrels of beer, or to put it another way, 1 hectoliter equals around 282 twelve ounce bottles. That’s a lot of beer they were producing, especially for the time period. One more pretty cool note, especially for anyone seeking beer-centered travel ideas; in 2008 they reopened the building that had first housed the operation, turning it into the brewery’s headquarters, a pub, and a four-star hotel. Sounds like it might be time for a getaway. A dunkelweizen is a dark wheat beer, dunkel meaning dark in German. To really appreciate any wheat beer, with their mountainesque, long-lasting heads, and usually very clear depths a weizen glass really needs to be used. And on that note in pours my Erdinger Dunkelweizen…. Pour and Aroma This dunkelwiezen pours a deep rich brown edged and shot through with ruby highlights when held to strong light. An open, thick matrix of bubbles forms the off-white head, which piles on as the liquid drops into the glass, creating the signature tall mountain of foam hefeweizens are known for. It stays relatively flat, not billowing up, but leveling as it rises. It drops relatively fast, but the dark surface remains active with rising carbonation. Aroma leads with the yeast notes and graininess of any good hefeweizen. But, there are also roasted malts intermingling with, and piggybacking the mealy grain smell; hints of caramel and maybe a little chocolate. Dark fruit esters, vinous grapes, a little spiciness, and Coca Cola-like tones come through; most of these probably remnants of the yeast’s work. Little sense of hops, though some part of the spiciness could be from the hops. Mouthfeel and Taste Low to medium carbonation gives it that softer European cask conditioned mouthfeel. It brings Medium body with a pleasantly satiating character. Taste lacks all the citrus and coriander of lighter hefeweizens, tastes I don’t particularly miss here. It still has the “wheat” character of a style, but this one brings a deeper dark fruitiness, instead of the brightness of citrus. Caramel sweetness and hints of chocolate carry the more complex fruit profile well. There is some spiciness on the back-burner before dropping away to a grape and dark fruit aftertaste that lingers pleasantly. Finishing the Impression This is another beer that I’d happily revisit. With the added dark malt characteristics going on, it is a little more complex and robust then the light hefeweizens, so it fits well into that cooler time of year when we all have a tendency to seek heavier more sink-your-teeth-in beers. This one is also a great crossover for those looking to expand their beer palate without straying too far from a comfort zone of wheat beers and lagers. Give it a try it’s pleasantly smooth and drinkable with no jagged edges to its “darkness.”
Mike palmieri says October 23, 2017 at 7:40 am Right in the middle for me..would lie darker Katy heft…but a good crossover ah guess Reply
Wayne Thompson says October 14, 2018 at 2:50 pm Your review is right on. Been drinking Erdinger Dunkel for 8 years since I first found it back in NJ. Dunkelweizen is my favorite style and Erdinger is as dark and roasty as it gets. It was really hard to find on the East coast, but now that I am retired in CA, it is easy to find. In fact, it is the only dunkelweizen my local beer store has been able to supply in the keg on a regular basis. Since it is bottle conditioned the bottles are as good as the draft. Reply
