Dinkelacker Dark

Not long ago, I enjoyed a tall, foaming stein of Dinkelacker Dark at Vreny’s Biergarten, a metro Atlanta German restaurant. The beer was absolutely delicious, so smooth and creamy with rich dark chocolaty notes that I soon began to look for it in bottles. Not that I hadn’t enjoyed this in the past, mind you, I just hadn’t had any recently. It wasn’t hard to find. Several area stores carried it, as I’m sure they did all along, I just hadn’t been actively seeking it in the past.

Dinkelacker Dark is brewed in Stuttgart, Germany, by the Dinkelacker-Schwabenbrau brewing concern. Stylistically, it’s a Munich Dunkles, a style known for its slightly nutty, smooth chocolate notes. Dinkelacker Dark has these flavors in abundance. If you feel you don’t like the taste of beer, this is a beer you definitely need to try. The rich chocolate flavors may remind you more of a malted milk than a beer.

The Dinkelacker brewery was founded in 1888 by Carl Dinkelacker, and the company’s beers have been available in the United States for decades. Besides the dark, a hoppy CD Pils and a malty Oktoberfest can also be seen gracing American beer store shelves. All are (unfortunately) packaged in green glass bottles; the CD Pils is also available in mini-keg cans.

Dinkelacker has begun a promotion, at least in its home market of Germany, advertising the beer’s “Geburtstagsdatum” (Birthday Date). Just like Anheuser-Busch’s “Born On Date”, Dinkelacker labels will now be imprinted with a “Geboren Am” (Born On) tag and date, as well as a “Mindestens Haltbar Bis” date. The latter translates to a “Best By” date, and beer enthusiasts will appreciate having both sets of information to make better informed purchasing decisions. And who knows? You may even find a bottle born on the same day (though not year) you were.

Other German brewers include a “Mindestens Haltbar Bis” date, so if you see those words on a German beer label, you now know what they mean. Of course, this does not mean that the beer will self-destruct on the indicated date, but it does give you some idea how old the beer is. My bottles of Dinkelacker dark were not dated. They were delicious, though, and not at all oxidized or skunked.

In the bottle, Dinkelacker Dark pours to a dark chestnut brown color with a thick creamy head formation and a sweet nutty malt nose. The palate is smooth and creamy with a big sweet malt body, rich mouthfeel, and notes of nutty chocolate, molasses, caramel, and fresh sweet wort (unfermented beer). A light toastiness emerges too amongst all the other flavors going on. Definitely some decoction and/or Munich malt melanoidins going on here. The finish is gently hopped but leans to the slightly sweet side.

On draft, I found the beer to be much the same, though a little creamier. This is a beer I prefer before or after dinner rather than with it, though it was tasty with a smoked pork chop at Vreny’s. On draft, this was a five star beer; in the bottle I give it four for an overall rating of four and one half.

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