With the sad fact that Oktoberfest season was officially over, I was having a hard time deciding what to brew next. I'm not a big fan of Pumpkin beers, and it is still way too early for the big stouts, Scottish Wee-Heavies, Belgian Dubbels, or other winter styles. That's when I came across this article in Craft Beer & Brewing magazine about the much overlooked Munich Dunkel style.
At just 5.5%, this sounded like the perfect beer to ween myself off of the fest lagers I had been downing for the past couple of months!
Per the article:
Munich dunkel is one of my favorite beers, and I’m frankly shocked that we don’t see more of them on tap in bars, in homes, and on the shelves! It’s a fantastic fall-to-winter beer, and—well-brewed—it is one of the best expressions of malt that you’ll ever taste. It’s a beer with a pitfall, though: it requires some restraint, which isn’t exactly our strong suit as homebrewers.
I tried to stay as close as possible to the recipe and methods described in the article with a few small exceptions. First, I used the low dissolved oxygen method for the strike water (2g/gal sugar and yeast left at RT overnight). Not sure if this matters, but it certainly doesn't seem to hurt! Second, I used Brulosophy-style "short and shoddy" methods (https://brulosophy.com/projects/short-shoddy/) including a 45 min mash and just 30 min boil. Most significant change is that I use my new favorite quick lager yeast, the Lallemond Novalager. See details of my recipe and methods below:
I first tasted this beer about 14 days after brewing and it was just fantastic already! My brother was coming to town in a few weeks, so I showed some rare restraint and let the beer cold-condition until his arrival. While the beer was great right out of the gates, the cold-conditioning made it absolutely outstanding! Very clean, crisp, toasty (without being roasty or coffee-like). Hints of toffee and caramel but very restrained and well balanced. I liked this beer so much that I am going to brew another batch right away to transition from late fall into early winter!
Let me know if you give it a try and like it as much as I do! Prost!
This really was a delicious dunkel and I was surprised how refreshing it drank as a darker beer - very well attenuated and dry yet packed with interesting malt flavors. Nice job!