What happened to Dunkelweizen?

I suspect that American craft brewers gravitated to their own take on wheat beers back in the day as opposed to making Hefeweissbier in the German tradition partially because the latter was comparatively a pain in the you know what. Once Widmer had a hit with their wheat ale, why would an American brewer look to something more German? Weizenbock and Dunkel Hefeweissbier are usually just going to be a fraction of the output of a producer who is already making German wheat beers, so they'd be even rarer.

 

Dark beers don't sell as much as light beers. What Harpoon beer are you referring to?

 

Do you not have a Total Wine available? In IPA centric Seattle they still have the major German dunkle offerings. I guess I agree though. Supposedly the mid-west is the hotspot.Texas has a heavy German population and they still appreciate the styles heavily.

 

I see quite a bit being made in MN.

 

I said the same thing just the other day. Dunkelweizens are almost nonexistent in the U.S., except for maybe some microbreweries. Literally the only one I can find here now is Weihenstephaner.

 

You could make the same post about dozens of styles. The consolidation of styles over the last few years in craft brewing, especially considering the explosion in the number of craft brewers, is shocking.

 

I just bought two (recently released) dunkelweizens in the last 10 days. One is very good (Sonder Brewing), the other (Great Lakes BC) is overly ambitious with non-traditional ingredients.

You can never go wrong with Weihenstephaner Dunkelweizen...just a fantastic beer.

 

Great Lakes just released Bierwolf, a Dunkelweizen with cold brew coffee, chocolate, and orange peel...so there's that. Maybe they will come back, even if they are Frankenstein versions.

 

I know you're just reporting what's out there (so I'm not aiming this at you), but to me that's not a Dunkelweizen. It's a spiced dark wheat beer. I know that runs counter to the way we usually think of things around here (and the way the industry works)... and it's not necessarily logical, but sometimes I feel like providing a little useless pushback for the sake of it.

 

I don't think the market for banana tasting beers is very big. If it was, you'd see more pastry stouts with the flavor combos of a Dunkel. The big question I would have if I were a commercial brewer is "how many glasses of these would a person drink in one sitting, in a week, and in a month?" One of the best beers I've ever had was a Dunkel, but no way in hell I'm drinking it more that a few time a year.

 

Maybe if the craft brewers emphasized that bananas were added to the beer as an add-junk along with lactose and tropical flavors of expensive, hard to acquire hops this would be a hit with the Haze Bros?

Cheers!

 

Definitely a lack of the style around these days - even imports are scarce. The last online tasting inspired me to search for some that I'd never had. Only found two in my area, both imports. The only U.S. brewed interpretation I can recall having was the long-retired Weyerbacher Slam Dunkel.
Here's the BA style list.

 

why would you only drink dunkels only a few times a year? If they were more readily available, I’d drink them all the time.

 

You dont get Erdinger?

 

No Erdinger. Weihenstephaner and, occasionally, Ayinger ur-weisse.

 

I've tried Bierwolf, and the additions to it aren't really strong at all and don't overpower the other aspects of the brew. I still thought it tasted mainly like a Dunkelweizen for what it's worth.

 

Damn that sucks, they have a solid dunkelweiss that's available all year long, some one needs to fix that out there.