Dos Hermanos Dunkel Weizen
Barrio Brewing Company

Scottish Red- Had this one on draft at the brewery. It poured a nice walnut brown with some reddish tones. It smelled like tobacco, hint of sweet malts, hint of exhaust and quite smoky. It tasted like sweet malts, a hint of cherry and definitely reminiscent of cherry cola. It was a bit more malty than I would have expected, but oddly enough I did like it. But I do have a thing for Cherry Cola.

Sampled on tap at Barrio Brewing; March 2010
The beer arrives from the tap in a frozen pint glass with a half-finger thick, lightly browned, tan colored head. The beer is an opaque brown color that shows some amber around the edges. When held up to the light it reveals a deeply hazed hue that remains quite opaque. Upfront the nose smells of smooth clove, banana, rich toasted malt, sharp carbonic acid and maybe a touch of fusel alcohols. As the beer warms up it becomes much more generally fruity; this helps to balance things out in the aroma.

As the expected, the beer is quite cold and really numbs my tongue to the flavors here; I get a light sweetness along with a touch of banana in the finish. Clove flavors tend to accentuate the perceived sweetness of this beer, but it is actually not all that sweet. The body is pretty light, definitely refreshing, but it has a bit of viscousness to it and even lingers on the palate after the beer has left my mouth. Subtle toasted grain notes distinguish this from a pale Hefeweizen; as does a touch of caramelized malt character that becomes more prominent as the beer warms up.

This is a nice example of the style, and I am a sucker for Hefeweizens in general; this certainly hits the spot right now. I could certainly wish for a bit more malt complexity, especially as this is a Dunkel.