Michelob Dunkel Weisse

Brewed by Anheuser-Busch InBev
Style: Dunkelweizen
St. Louis, Missouri USA

Bottle: I couldn’t believe that this was an AB product- it actually has yeast character! A brown effervescent beer with creamy light tan head. Clovey phenolics with a touch of brown sugar as well. Creamy body. Sweet brown sugar notes in the fore flavor- then it dries out to a phenolic, evident clovey note and dryish cocoa malt. Again, a mediocre example of a Dunkelweiss, but great for an AB product.

Pours a hazy burnt sienna with a thin white head that fades fairly quickly to a ring. Aroma is dark fruit, wheat, sweet wheat bread, banana nut bread, some anise, lots of caramel, hints of pepper and some lemondrop candy. Flavor is fluffy and sweet whate bread, dark fruits, banana bread - heavy on spice, poppy seed, maybe too much clove (to the point where I wonder if the put some clove extract in this), a suprising smoky tone, caramel and a hint of sweet corn. Finish is wheat bread, coves, banana oil and caramel. Palate is thin to medium thin body, way over carbonated and too dry throughout. It seems like an odd beer because it has many of the flavor and aroma characteristics of a dunkel but the body seems way off. Still I enjoyed it and it may be the best Michelob (or A-B for that matter) beer I have had.

Hey I wasn’t expecting this from Michelob! I didn’t think they were actually capable of producing beers with flavor, but it has appeared that I was mistaken. Though this was by no means a great beer, it was decent and I wouldn’t mind having another. Had a pleasant creamy texture with some caramel flavor.

Amber in color with a small off white head. Aroma is sweet notes of grain and clove. Flavor is caramel and fruity, very slight biterness. Finish is light and slightly metalllic. Not bad, but I must admit that I’ve never been a huge fan of beers so dominated with cloves.

Bottle Code 08331 VA24; Sampled April 2009
This beer pours into my 25cl tulip glass with a frothy, almost three-finger thick, light tan colored head. The beer is a murky, amber-plum color that shows lots of haziness and an opaque, amber color with gold around the edges when held up to the light. The aroma has notes of banana up front and has a backdrop of whole grain bread like notes, some lightly toasty notes and a slight nuttiness even. The nose is on the clean side for a Hefeweizen, but the characteristic components are all here (the clove is here, though a bit subtle), but the chewy malt character is really quite nice.

The beer is lightly sweet tasting with sweet grain notes, it has a tartness to it in the middle and finish and has a lingering, hearty, bread-like maltiness to it. This has a nice body that is not too heavy, but has a certain viscous heft to it that can almost be creamy at times. Fruity esters contribute notes of plum that are accentuated by clove notes that boost the perception of sweetness. This has a light spiciness to it in the finish that is contributed by a mix of phenols, clove notes, a touch of pepper and some higher alcohol notes that also contribute a smidgeon of warming. This has a touch of yeast-like flavors to it that tie in with the nutty malt notes. As the beer warms the clove flavors become a bit more prominent.

This is a very good example of a Dunkel Weizen, it is a touch tame on the fermentation-derived flavors for my particular tastes, but it is well within style and does have all the characteristic notes that are required. I really like the maltiness that is in this brew, it is complex and interesting and I think that this is way under-appreciated by the craft beer world.

Pours a muddy brown with orange and red hues. Head is off white and retains well. It smells like white glue mainly. Banana, clove, and dark fruit. Tastes much better than it smells. Banana is the dominant flavor with chocolate, biscuit, cinnamon, clove, dark fruit, and wheat. Soft, creamy mouth feel. I’m impressed by this beer, an InBev AB product that has taste and tastes decent??? Weird. But still not the best dunkel.

Well rampmaster beat me to it, this is THE best Michelob product out there. I have tried all of the current offerings thanks to the Myrtle beach beerfest and the Craft a Case promo they had in April and can tell you that this is a great beer. Look just below for a breakdown, and really note the complexity of this non craft beer. If the big companies can put brews like this out for the non-beer-crazed public then this world might be OK after all. Don’t be a snob and just try it, Dunkel Weisse will not disappoint. RAR