Weltenburger Kloster Barock Dunkel

(500 ml bottle: $2.29 at Holiday Wine Cellar in Escondido, CA) This can’t be right. I just bought this bottle recently, and I see the date on the bottle is 11-Feb-2001. Wow, it sure seems like dunkels handle aging extremely well because this is another example of a beer that is supposedly well past its prime that still tastes great. Well, maybe it’s not a great tasting beer, but it’s solid enough and doesn’t seem negatively impacted by the age. It has that familiar and very welcomed dark, toasty, slightly chocolaty maltiness that seems common in German dunkels. This one seems slightly sweeter than the others I’ve tried, but that doesn’t make it less enjoyable. Light bitterness tags along for the ride nearly unnoticed. Oddly enough, despite being quite flavorful, this isn’t a very aromatic beer, showing only a modest amount of toasty and earthy maltiness. This gently carbonated beer has a medium body. Medium brown in color and quite clear in appearance, the crown is light tan, creamy and well over an inch in height on the pour. As it slowly settles to a thin, complete layer, it leaves only a few small patches of lace on the glass. Well, this is the last of the nine Weltenburger beers I’ve sampled that is imported into the U.S., and I think I’ve saved one of the best for last. A solid dunkel packing lots of flavor and enjoyment. Although the age may have something to do with that as it seems to me that with dunkels, aging intensifies the malt flavors.

500 ml bottle, bought in Bier Spezi Hamburg. Clear brown to copper coloured, large light tan head. Pleasant aroma of lightly roasted malts, caramel, chocolate and bakery (including rye bread and Danish pastry). Lightly roasted malty flavour, fairly mellow, bready notes, some caramel but not really sweet, decent hops for a dunkel. Mouthfeel could have been fuller. Moderate but pleasant aftertaste. Okay.

(Bottle at Fynske Øldage) Malty and burnt sugar. Clear dark amber color. Thin mouthfeel. Bready, malty flavor. Like malt candy. Same goes for the palate.

As dunkels go, this was on the heavier end. Notes of coffee and cocoa, more sweet than dry, with nuttiness and bitter nut astringency and grassiness in the finish. Large slowly receding head. Some roastiness (mild). I like my dunkels a little drier, but this was nice.

Rich, dark syrup aroma. Moderately sweet, roasty, almost like a Baltic porter. Nice label and bottle, mahagony beer, slightly off-white head. Molasses richness. This was pretty well-balanced, but roasty and flavorful. Not bad. A turn of metal and astringency dings the palate slightly.

Bottled. Clear red coloured with a small off white head. Aroma of malts, dark bread and caramel. Sweet flavour of malts, caramel and dark bread with notes of dried fruits. Tastes more like a bock than a dunkel. Good dunkel !

Poured a dark brown, with good size light-brown head. Not a lot of lacing, but the head was mostly lasting. Body was clear, with no particles. This beer smelled and tasted of molasses through and through. Some dough, maybe sweat on the aroma. Light sweetness on the palate, not too acidic - well balanced, with average finish. Medium body, slightly creamy texture, soft carbonation, with a touch of tannin on the finish. Very easy to drink, like most German brews, gone before you want to finish. From a bottle I brought to the US from the brewery. Drank a few months after freshness date, whcih was 4-15-05.

Amber with a nice offwhite head. Milky vanilla aroma with nuts and some fruity notes. Malty, fruity flavor with some raisins. Maybe it lacks some body.