Down With Dunkel
Review Date 1/23/2025 By John Staradumsky
Welcome, friends, to a very special review here at Guruofbrew.com! We’re giving you three (count ‘em) three bonus features in today’s review, the first feature being none other than a run down of all the various and sundry Taco Mac locations I have visited in my days as a beer hunter. Truth be told, it may have been more than that because I cannot remember which location I visited the very first time I set foot on the red dirt of Georgia all the way back in 2000.
I did, though, because Taco mac was a legendary multitap beer bar I had heard mentioned in hushed tones when I attended Oldenberg’s Beer Camp several years earlier. There, beer legend Stan Hieronymus was giving a slide show on beer and Taco Mac was part of it. I vowed then to visit one.
Which of course I did, but never did I imagine I would be living a scant 2 miles from one as I have for the past 15 years. Yes indeed, Taco Mac’s Canton location is the one I visit most often, though I have been to many more than that, as well, starting with the very first location in Virginia Highlands. Taco Mac Virginia Highlands opened in 1979 and has been going strong ever since, and is a musts top for any Taco Mac aficionado.
I’ve also been to the Metropolis location downtown, at the time named for nearby Philips Arena, which is now State Farm Arena. I’ve been to the Decatur store, now sadly closed, and closer to home the Taco Mac in Woodstock. When I worked in an office on I-285 at Perimeter Center, The Perimeter location was right around the corner; when my employer relocated to Alpharetta, the Windward Taco mac was about a mile away.
I’ve had beer at Taco Mac Crabapple in Roswell, the one on Chastain Road in Kennesaw, and Old Milton Parkway in Alpharetta. I’ve also imbibed at the Prado location (including the top-secret Chapter Room there), and at Cumberland on Akers Mill Road. I lived right around the corner from that one when I first moved to Atlanta, but it had not opened yet.
That’s twelve Taco Macs in all, but I still have more to go, those being the locations in Cumming, John’s Creek, Duluth, Dawsonville, Marietta, Suwanee, Mall of Georgia, Hiram, Gainesville, Dawsonville, Conyers, McDonough, Peachtree City, Newnan, Macon, and Chattanooga, Tennessee. So many Taco Macs. So little time.
I recount all this here because I just added a new Taco Mac to my “visited” list, and that is the Lawrenceville location on Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road. Which brings us to the second bonus feature in today’s review: the one and only Beer Samurai Dave Cichon! You may know Dave from his beer show, The Lager Room Guys, which he does with the equally acclaimed beer savant Jersey Johnny. They do the show every Tuesday night, and it’s a lot of fun. I know, I have been on it a few times. At Taco Mac Lawrenceville, though, I met Dave for the first time in person, he passing through Georgia on a southern beer excursion at the time. He’s a lot of fun to have a beer with, this I can tell you.
That brings us to the third main event in this review, particularly, one of the beers I enjoyed here with Dave, and that was Monkey Wrench Down with Dunkel, a Dunkelweizen from the nearby Monkey Wrench brewery in Suwanee. This was my very first beer from Monkey Wrench, although somehow I do have a Monkey Wrench pint glass at home. They may be draft only, as I have never seen their beer in cans,
Being so local, I had to try this one and it didn’t hurt that I love Dunkelweizens. This was good one, too, listed on their website as 5.5% ABV and described as “Dark malty german (SIC) wheat bier.” I paid $7.51 for my 23-ounce mug, which is less per ounce than the $6.50 a pint they charge for it at the brewery. Amazing how Taco Mac does that, but I have seen this before.
My mug of Monkey Wrench Down with Dunkel arrived a dark brown color with a thick fluffy head and a nose of toasted nuts and crackery wheat. Taking a sip, I got just what I wanted, crackery wheat, toasted nuts, chocolate ship cookies, a tart finish and of course, a hint of banana. You just have to have banana in a Monkey Wrench beer.
I heartily enjoyed the beer and would love to drink it again. At another new Taco Mac perhaps. With the Beer Samurai. And next time Dave, bring Johnny with you.
Glad I tried it?
T
Would I rebuy it??
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled, Canned
(D)=Draft