Dunkel Lager
Chuckanut Brewery

Stunner. Chewy. Complex. Quenching. Satiating. Insane brewing talent. Fastidious attention to detail in producing their take on this passionately traditional dunkel lager. Best in class. Truly superb.

Poured into a Celebrator pokal. Pours a medium to dark coppery amber with a fine two finger aged ivory head with great retention and solid lacing. Aroma of lightly toasted bready malt, brown bread, a little caramel, lightly nutty. Flavor is dry caramel and dark bready malt, brown bread, nuts, malt; light grassy hops in the finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. A fine dunkel lager with the basic Munich dunkel flavors spot-on, but light, fleeting fruit and nut notes. Delicious, light caramel character in the malt. Flavor is deeper and more complex than expected for the ABV. Chuckanut is known in this area for their German style lagers and this is one of them. Well done.

 

 

 

Single can from Elizabeth Station in Bellingham, Washington - had on tap at Burlington taproom also. Listed at 5.2% ABV on the can.
Pours a clear mahogany colour with a limited fine bubbly tan head.
Nose is bready/toasty with toffee, caramel and chocolate malt - a touch of roastiness and perhaps just a hint of nuttiness.
Sweet bready malt on the palate - toffee, chocolate, a touch of molasses, with a soft earthy bitterness at the finish.
Smooth and very gulp-able medium mouthfeel with creamy carbonation adding to the body - satisfyingly delicious.

 

draught
IBU: 22
Good amount of off-white head. Clear, light caramel and amber look, with auburn overtones, to the look. Nearly sweet, caramel tinged, medium roast malt aroma, with a touch of an allspice type note. A teeny bit of a sweet note. Medium toast caramel malt note, with a tiny wood bite and a separate caramel flavor note.

Dark amber, plenty of carbonation, nice malty / toast aroma. First sip reveals a highly malt- forward brew, which has a hint of sweetness before ending with a dry aftertaste. Lots going on in this one. Let it warm slightly and you'll be amply rewarded with a depth of flavor not usually found in a simple Dunkel.

Bottle from P.Nut

Clear mahogany with a thin beige head with good retention. The nose is a magnificent nutty, creamy, bready, light brown sugar, dark toasted nuts, a hint of honey, a little hop character. The palate opens sweeter than most Chuckanut beers with a deep, nutty sweetness, bready and with brown sugar. Light hazelnut nuttiness. Mild hop bitterness, balancing the delicate Munich malt, toasty and rich. Drying, sweet finish. Excellent.

2020-08-02
500ml bottle, bought it in March just before Covid19 shut everything down. Intended as a gift for a coworker, but since I haven't seen her and I didn't want it to go stale, I put it in my fridge. Dear Mrs. snaotheus picked it out as a mystery beer for me today. Without any clue to what I was drinking, here are my notes....

It's dark but not hazy. Small head. Smell is maybe scotch ale or Porter. Toffee, nuts. Taste is not the same. Tastes like a dark lager. More toffee and a hint of nut. Yeast. Wonder if it's the Chuckanut Dunkel that was in the fridge. Mouthfeel's fairly light. Overall, enjoying.

 

 

With a lime, this is a very refreshing beer!

 

Quite good. First beer from this brewery. Well done. Easy drinking. Good choice.

It's brown. It's red. It's a perfect looking Munich Dunkel. A lightly tanned head sits above and burms itself on the coast, then leaves it's Mark sup after sip.

A perfect balance of caramel and toasted bread. The faintest hint of spicy hops tingle and intoxicate.

A truly malty beverage, this one.
Toasted biscuit up front and center, honey, caramel, grass, earth.

A full bodied lager, that's for sure. The way a Munich Dunkel should be in my opinion. A meal in a glass. Sweet, hearty, delicious. Just enough carbonation to lift it along so it doesn't drop like a tank in the gut.

This is an awesome Dunkel lager. It's as close to a real German lager I've had. It's beautiful from start to finish. Chuckanut...thank you. I may have just shed a tear. Prost.

 

 

even almost a year old in the bottle, this is one of the best american made dunkel types i have ever had, so rich and complex, but dry and crushable, really amazing stuff here. its mostly clear, but quite dense, with a nut brown body and lots of bubbles amassing into a creamy tan head over an inch high and relatively permanent. it smells like old german lager yeast, andesch quality stuff, with a slightly caramelized malt base, but still more earthy than sweet and quite layered with notes of dried date and prune, almond, brown sugar, and even high starch wild rice, its got a whole lot going on for an old world style. big creamy body, i like that the most, but the malt flavors and this vibrant lager yeast really interweave well, and its sort of a mosaic of classic flavors, robust and mellow at the same time, roasty and elegant, warming but dry, soft but hearty, a lot of juxtaposition but it all seems to make perfect sense. this is my first beer from these guys, and it has me positively inspired to seek out more. world class dunkel here, somehow takes the style to the next level. brilliant beer.