Calumet Dark

Brewed by Rowlands Calumet Brewery
Style: Dunkel
Chilton, Wisconsin USA

Date: 06/24/2007
Mode: Draft
Source: Brewpub

dark amber, fine beige head, faint dark caramel aroma, light malt flavor, touch of caramel, quite dry, clean finish,

Aroma: 4/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 4/10; Palate: 5/10; Overall: 8/20
Rating: 2.2/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: *4

Dark molasses brown. Big aroma of toffee, raisins, toasted malts. Slightly wet palate. Toffee and brown sugar sweetness offset toasty, slightly woody notes. Hint of peat. Interesting beer, with more assertive roastiness than you'd expect in a dunkel.

Cola body with small beige head. Aroma is big malty, toffee/caramel, fairly sweet. Taste is malty, toffee, roasty, caramel. Finishes roasty sweet, no bitterness. Not very complex, but still a very tasty treat.

Growler... RBSG2003... I’ve been waiting forever to try this beer! It used to be a fixture in the top ten. Very dark with a clear, ruby hue when held up to light. Creamy, lightly-tanned head. The aroma does not smell like a dunkel. Buttery and chocolatey and very imperial stout-like. The flavor is well-balanced and chocolatey... milk chocolate and buttermilk. Full-bodied with a syrupy mouthfeel and soft carbonation. Short, semi-dry, chocolatey finish. Very nice, almost-world-class brew!

I made a special point of traveling to this brewery. Before this website, I had never even heard of the Calumet Brewery and its only 80 miles away. Now I know why. The place is one of the best kept secrets in Wisconsin. It's hardly even a brewery in the conventional sense. It's a beer-bar with one wall of brewing equipment and the whole place only has seats for about twenty people. There is a pool table, a dart board, and a bowling game. They also have a jukebox and one TV and the only beer they serve is what they've made themselves. It's tucked away in the small town of Chilton on main street and the brewers have never entered any of their beers into any competitions, nor do they care to. Bob and Bonita Rowland seem quite happy with their establishment. They have a 3 barrel brewing system at the bar and another 7 barrel system in a building down the street. A sign above the bar marks the total number of barrels brewed by the Rowlands. It read 3378 when I was there and they've been in business since 1990. You do the math, there's no wonder the only place to get this beer is in Calumet County. If you get a chance to go there, take it. The best way to try this beer is out of the tap, plus Bonita said they're not too fond of going through the hassles of shipping growlers. In a way it's almost unfair to compare this microbrewed beer to its larger companions, since its obvious the smaller the brewery, the better. (At least for the most part.) Anyways, back to the rating...The dark was exactly that in color, with a smooth frothy tan head with a sweet malty aroma. The first sip was initially sweet and then grew sour before finishing up on a hoppy note. The body was very complex and full of malty character. This is definitely some of the best and most drinkable beer I have had, and I will be making the trip back to this brewery many times.

Thanks to <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/ViewUser.asp?UserID=4 for sharing from his growler.
Nice pour, a reddish chestnut body with a slender off-white head. The aroma is rich with warm caramel balanced by an herbal and hard nut bitterness. The balance is well maintained in the flavor, just enough to keep that malty sweetness in check.
A decent Dunkel, and a fine beer for Wisconsin rating #300 (out of 4171).

<font size=-4><a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/events-detail.asp?eve Lord Gathering 2008 at Flossmoor Station, IL, 4/25/2008.<font size=-1>

At first it seemed a bit sour then after the initial carbonation left the full mall flavors kicked in. My kind of dunkel. A dark brown color with a fairly light head. Hopped only to distract from the malt sweetness. An excellent domestic.

On tap at the brewery, on a late Saturday afternoon when I was the sole patron! Most of the recent posters are spending more time talking about Bob and Bonita than the beer; perhaps that’s appropriate. Anyway, it was a good experience, its certainly a unique brewpub, but I do think this beer needs some moderation in the ratings. It’s a very good, chocolaty, relatively complex dark lager; but I don’t find the finish all that exceptional, it is a bit on the thinnish side, and it is rather lacking in hops. Bob’s much more interested in the malt than the hop, and it shows in all of his beers. A good, solid dunkel, I’m very glad I made it to the brewery, but for me it is not world-class.