Lemp Jurassic Dark
O'Fallon Brewery

I knew this was an old beer when I bought it but wow, most of the ratings are from 2005-06. Well here it goes. Poured a 12oz bottle into my Smokestack goblet. Pours a dark brown with ruby highlights and lots of sedimentation. By lots, I mean a whole lot. Aroma is chocolaty, with a slightly buttery finish. Taste is big up front on the chocolate but cherries and butterscotch are prevalent. Mouthfeel is fuller then I though for the pour and still pretty carbonated. After 3 years, it's still a pretty drinkable brew.

The T-rex brew pours deep mahogany brown, capped off with a ivory head, some sticky laces appear randomly. Subtle notes of malt and wheat appear, much more as a brown ale than weizen. Lots of yeasties critters contour the bottle bottom.

Solid, tasty brew – but more on the line of a bock lager than dunkel weizen, and I’m rating it as such. An easy drinking brew, I did enjoy it quite a bit, and glad I have a sixer of them.

Poured the caramel color similar to some barleywines with a very light head that fades quickly.

The smell is quite shy and indistinguishable.

The mouth feel is medium bodied, but slighty under carbonated.

The flavor is lightly malty, but otherwise uninspiring.

Couldn't bring myself to finish it. Maybe this one has been sitting or packaged/handled improperly.

A - Poured out a very dark brown color with a small, short-lived, tan head. Not much lace.

S - It smelled very sweet. Noticed a wheat and fruit aroma.

T - It tasted of wheat and malt. Also, some chocolate and fruit (cherry?).

M - It was soft and smooth. A light to medium-bodied beer.

D - This was unusual. It didn't really seem like a dunkel. Actually, it kind of tasted like their Cherry Chocolate Ale.

12oz bottle obtained via trade with CRJMellor. Thanks for the opportunity...

It's a foamer. Poured into an imperial pint glass, formed 4" tan head over 2" of clear reddish brown brew. Head fades down slowly, with average lacing. Aroma is with slight tartness, reminds me of a wit perhaps. Taste also exhibits light wheat, with some fruit tartness in the middle, which lingers in the mouth. Mouthfeel and drinkability are okay, with nothing much pushing to the good or bad sides. Nothing I would go out of my way for. And a dunkelweizen this is not.

All over the board on the ratings, and that's strictly due to the style claim of this being a dunkelweizen. I'm not at all convinced that is what this is supposed to be. It comes across as a really, really good and easy drinking brown ale. I get no dunkelweizen character out of this at all. Take the total score with a grain of salt.

The beer pours a nice, deep brown, with ruby red tints at the edges of the glass. A small thin head forms quickly, and dissipates just as quickly, leaving zero head in the glass. May just be my glass affecting the head.

The smell is quite bready, toasty, and warm. There's a good aroma of dark malt, and no detectable hops. It's a very inviting aroma, to say the least.

The taste... again, if this is a dunkelweizen, then something is horribly wrong somewhere. This has a great taste of a cross between an American Brown and English brown ale. Clean yeast profile with no esters, highly carbonated -- almost to soda levels, good kilned and dark malt taste, a little hoppiness, but not too much. Definitely malt-centered. This is an extremely easy drinking beer. Had it not been labeled a dunkelweizen, I'd have it a "4" on taste. But it's nowhere near what a dunkelweizen should taste like. I hate to makr down a beer that is actually quite good, but since I did the same thing to Pride and Joy by Three Floyds, I feel I have to be consistent. Of course, I've also seen this listed other places as a brown ale. That makes much more sense.

The mouthfeel is a little on the thin side, mostly due to the high carbonation levels, I presume. There's almost a carbonic bite to this, the levels are so high. The thin body, high carbonation, and dark malts give it a bit of a cola aspect that, while not bad, isn't what you'd expect from a beer.

However, all things taken into account, this is a good beer. It's not difficult to drink, it tastes fine, it looks beautiful, it smells good... it just isn't what we're being told it is. That has to count for something, and in my opinion, it counts for the score I'm giving this otherwise quite enjoyable brew. Feel free to grab one and drink it. You'll probably like it. Just don't prepare your taste buds for a dunkelweizen.

Poured from a brown bottle with a Tyranousaur on the label.

A: Poured with 1/2 a finger of frothy tan head. Cloudy stained cherry in color.

S: Bright nose initially. Sweet. Some esters coming off. Toasty. Yeasty. A sourness builds over time.

T: Starts toasted caramel sweet. A sourness reminiscent of English porters. Some faint touches of chocolate and coffee. Fades into a bananna. Finishes a bit smoky. Aftertaste is certainly moderately sour and lingers quite a while.

M: Very watery. Much thinner body than I would have expected from the volume of the flavor. Carbonation seems unusually low, almost flat.

Overall: Not a bad beer, but I can't help but think it would benefit from more carbonation. I keep thinking that this would be a "light" verson of a porter and I can't shake that opinion. Not bad, but nothing that sticks out in my mind.

If this is a dunkelweizen then I'm an Olympic gymnast ! (For of those that have met me you'll see th joke.) This review will not be based on style because if it was it would get a zero.


Pours an opaque brown with some read and black swirls Tan head and tons of sediment had to the mix.
Aroma of chocolate and some caramel with a hint of nuttiness.
Flavors of chocolate, roasted barley and some nuttines intermingle well and produce a decent base for a very smooth sweet finish.
Mouthfeel is smooth and creamy with low carbonation which helps it glide down the gullet.
Drinkability, again if this is a Dunkel then it sucks because this beer turned out as a Dark Mild in my opinion and those 2 styles are like oil and water. Solid beer but if they missed the style they were shooting for by that much then heaven help them.

Appearance: Pours a medium brown color with a small light colored head that quickly fades. The body is easily penetrated by light.

Smell: Fairly clean in the nose; a bit of Marzen odor mixed with musty scents. Smells like a very clean cave.

Taste/Mouthfeel: A very rich flavor. It begins rather lager flavored but ends up to be nutty, chocolately rich flavored beer. Amazingly this flavor is caried across the tongue in a fairly thin body. The aftertaste is pretty lengthy considering the refreshingly thin mouth.

Drinkability: This beer is pretty drinkable. I'd say that I could polish off a 6 pack quickly, but that doesn't mean much these days (as I often seem to). The luxurious description on the packaging is a bit more exciting than the actual beer can live up to, but then, what can you do when your beer has the name Jurassic in it!

A classic Dunkelweiss brewewed and bottleded for Lemp Brewing Co., St. Louis, Mo by O'Fallon Brewery O'Fallon Missouri.

Pours a murky brown with a small quick light tan head and lots of floaties.
Moderate chocolate and mild spice (faint clove) in aroma.Yeast very much in background. Rich malt flavor with a substantial body for the style. Medium mouthfeel. A tart taste prevails. Finishes clean with mild bitterness.

Takes its name from the prehistoric caves formed from rocks "dating back to the dinosaurs" that are actually Missippian era and much younger than Jurassic but close enough in the world of advertizing. Hyped as a full bodied taste that is as big as a dinosaur. Using extravagant amounts of the worlds's finest ingredients. Matured slowly. A tribute to the time when St. Louis' natural caves helped establish it as one of the world's great brewing centers. ( and you though it was A.Bush LOL!) For a great read about the importance of these cave to early St. Louis brewers - look for "Lost Caves of St. Louis by local author Hubert Rother.

One of our brewclub members toured the caves an some photos are
at Yahoo Group: mashbrewers

Drinkable but not outstanding.