Beer Review

Dunkel, or Dunkles, is a dark beer in German, but there are two different types and several sub-types, so it can be a disorienting term. Dunkel beers typically range in colour from amber to dark reddish brown. They are distinguished by their smooth malty flavour. What's more, this tasty beer can generally be divided into dark wheat beers and dark lagers.

All Lagers were dark (Dunkel/SchwarzBier) until the 1840s, when breweries in Pilsen (in what is now the Czech republic) started brewing golden lagers. Dark lagers are brewed with a darker roasted malt than pale lagers and have a distinctive taste. Dark lagers gradually gave way to pale lagers from the 1890s throughout the 20th century, though many Bavarian breweries still include a Dunkel Lagerbier in their range.

There are 3 main types of dark lager:
Franconian Dunkles - a very heavily hopped, bitter dark beer that also has dark malt flavours. It's only really brewed in Franconia and, probably, there is no similar beer from elsewhere. Confusingly, in Germany it usually is called Dunkles Export, just like the Munich style.

Münchner - a malty, lightly-hopped beer that used to be the standard beer of Munich. This was the type of lager that was the first to be brewed outrside Bavaria. Gammel Carlsberg is a (very modest) example of a foreign imitation. It's still brewed in various countries around Europe, almost always poorly.

Schwarzbier - a very dark, opaque beer that is mostly brewed in Saxony and Thuringia. It can have burnt and liquorice notes that resemble flavours found in a stout. This style is becoming increasingly well-liked and some formerly West German breweries have started brewing it.

Dunkel, along with helles, is a traditional style brewed in Munich and popular throughout Bavaria. With alcohol concentrations of 4.5% to 6% by volume, dunkels are weaker than Doppelbocks, another traditional dark Bavarian beer. Dunkels are produced using Munich malts which give the Dunkel its colour. Other malts or flavours may also be added.

Dunkels were the original style of the Bavarian villages and countryside. Lighter-coloured lagers were not common until the later part of the 19th century when technological advances made them easier to produce. Dunkels have a distinctive malty flavour that comes from a special brewing technique called triple decoction. In some parts of Germany, such as North Rhine-Westphalia, Dunkelbier (also Kinderbier) refers to a sweet malt beer containing no alcohol (0%).

As already mentioned, usually, dunkel beers are dark lagers, but the term is also used to refer to dark wheat beers such as Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Dunkel and Erdinger Weissbier Dunkel. Schneider Weisse is half way between an ordinary Weiss and a Dunkel. These include a yeast sediment that should be swirled in the last part of the bottle and poured into the glass. The tastes often include toffee, chocolate, nuts, spicy hops, and sometimes a little coffee.

Nowadays Dunkel is still made primarily in Bavaria, but a few breweries outside Bavaria make Dunkel beers, too. Among the most well-known Dunkel beers imported to the United States are Alt-Bayerisch Dunkel from the Ayinger Brewery, König Ludwig Dunkel from the Kaltenberg Brewery, and the Warsteiner Dunkel from Westfalia.