Chocolate Dunkel
No-Li Brewhouse

 

 

 

Served in Imperial pint glass. Poured a very dark brown/light black color with no head or retention.

There was a faint chocolate aroma with a nicely faint roasty scent just noticeable. The flavor is not as chocolatey as the aroma leads you to expect, but does have a nice wheat presence.

The body was very nice, perhaps a little on the thin side. Drinkability was very good, I could have several of these. Overall, worth trying if you see it.

As with all beers at this pub, it is served in a standard pint.

The beer is dark brown with garnet highlights.

Toasted grains, caramel and raisins on the nose.

The first taste is very sweet. It reminds me of a slow poke with caramel and nugget. There is just a hint of smoke that disappears as quickly as it came. A bit of butterscotch (dirty line type funk) in the finish that was off-putting,

The mouth is silky smooth. Get rid of the butterscotch in the finish and you have a real nice example.

I really enjoyed this beer. I usually check out a few different brews when I try a place I've never been to before. I had 3 pints of the dunkel and didn't feel that I was missing anything by not trying any of the the other beers on tap. (ok I did ask for and try samples of the winter ale and the 14th anniversary IPA but I didn't find them nearly as drinkable as the dunkel)
Back to the dunkel. A very dark ruby color and a decent veil was evident on the glass as I enjoyed each pint. The aroma was subtle, just a bit of sweet chocolate was evident. Flavor, malt is the name of the game here. Chocolate, yeah but also maybe just a hint of vanilla. Hops are well in the background but seem to balance this complex brew. Fairly light in mouthfeel. Like I said 3 pints went down oh so well. I just wish I could find this brew back east.

Chocolate Dunkel is a beer with an identity crisis. Here’s what it isn’t: it isn’t a dunkel weizen, it isn’t a dunkel bock, and it isn’t a lager. I wouldn’t call it a dunkel wheat so much as a dunkel “what?” Its closest relative would be a southern English brown ale but with a distant German cousin perched somewhere on a remote branch of the family tree. It’s an anomaly. But here’s how it shapes up:

Deep maroon-brown with persistent carbonation, a sugary smell, and a similarly sugary flavor stung with corkscrew bittering. It is built on Crystal, Munich, and Chocolate malts and tastes a bit like root beer candy. A complex beer to be certain, and defiant of categorization. Also, too sweet for my tastes. I admire experimentation in brewing but Chocolate Dunkel leaves me wondering what exactly it aspires to be.

This one was on-tap at an area watering hole. Served in a pint glass.

Pours a black walnut color and is opaque. A small beige head forms, and is foamy and sticky. Nice lacing on the glass.

The smell is very faint. A little smoky grain aroma perhaps.

The taste is a lot about roasted grain. There is a dark and charcoal like flavor. A little dunkel (chocolate) sweetness perhaps and a mild hop finish.

Mouth feel is smooth perhaps a little watery.

A very drinkable but non-traditional "Americanized" dunkel. And reasonably priced at $3.25 a pint. I'd have it again.

Had this on-tap at Northern Light's brewpub in Spokane for $3.25.

Color was a dark brown with a medium sized off-white head. Minimal lacing.

Smell was fairly bland. There was a faint roasted malt smell that reminded me of chocolate. I was sniffing the crap out of this, and I could only pick up that much chocolate. Pretty sad when you consider chocolate was part of the name of this beer.

Taste was only slightly more chocolatey than the smell. I don't know if this was an ale or a lager (and the service was so bad, I couldn't find out from the server), but this was bland either way. There was an ever-so-slight bitterness and a very slight chocolate sweetness. Besides that, there was nothing.


The mouthfeel of this beer was like the taste and smell - bland. It wasn't thick at all, but it wasn't thin either, so I guess it belongs in some sort of mouthfeel limbo.

This wasn't a particularly impressive or memorable beer, but I think it was the darkest Northern Lights makes. The more exposure I have to this brewery, the less impressed I am. The crying shame of it is that it is currently the only Spokane microbrewery. I have to expand local to pretty much all of Eastern Washington if I want a decent beer, it seems.