Free State Downtown Dunkel

Growler picked up at the brewpub for me by Gregis. Pour is clear dark brown with ruby background highlights. Some pretty settling on the pour. Two inch of white head leaves behind nice lacing. Aroma of caramel and some roasted nuttiness. Taste is initially a bit roasty and smoky, though this gives way quickly to a nice caramel bitter sweetness and nuttiness. The flavors really meld and transition nicely. The aftertaste has a bit of wheat graininess. Palate is thin, but coating. Had the rare ability to both have serious flavor and be quite thirst quenching at the same time. This went down nicely while grilling, then eating brats. Nice one.

Growler courtesy of mreusch. Pours a translucent Dr. Pepper reddish-brown with a loose, creamy, off-white head unlike any other that I’ve seen. It has tiny pinhole pits at the surface and leaves behind significant, sticky lace; quite interesting for a lager. The nose is of Munich and toasty dark malt notes (almost like a mild pumpernickel) cocoa, light caramel and wet hay. Light-bodied and silky slick with a quick, mildly bitter/dry finish. The flavor is similar to Free State’s excellent Octoberfest, only more complex, with added notes of cocoa, deeper/toastier malt notes and a faint wheatiness added to the mix. This is a very nice quaffer. Thanks for picking it up for me, Matt.

Draught at the brewpub. Roasty-toasty malt aroma, hints of chocolate and black bread, along with some faint caramel sweetness and wheat malt. Clear dark brown in color with a very fine head but nice lacing. Flavor is likewise roasty and malty, full of bread, lightly sweet brown malts, toasty and grainy with touches of cocoa throughout. Some lingering wheaty grain and cola flavors. Finish is dry and lightly bitter with an earthy, herbal touch. Some very faint raisin late. Gentle acidity on the palate, body is medium. Certainly not a bad rendition.

Tap @ FS. Pours a clear cola brown with a minimal bright white head, nice sheets of lacing. Aroma is light chocolate, toffee, and toasted malts. Flavor adds some sweetness, more chocolate and toasted malts; hops presence is barely detectable. Very drinkable and pleasant, nice stuff!

From a growler provided by csbosox. Pours clear dark brown with some copper edges and a long lasting khaki head that leave full rings of lace. Strong Munich malt aroma with a touch of chocolate. Light noble hop character. Very big toasted Munich malt flavor with smooth chocolate. Pleasant bitterness and very clean. Fuller bodied with balanced carbonation and a dry finish. Very easy to drink. Very fresh. Pretty outstanding. Easily one of the top lager beers that I’ve had.

Had on tap at the brewpup and this rating is from a growler I picked up. Amber colored with a light white head. Lots of melanoidins in the nose along with a nice toastiness and light chocolate aroma. The flavor is malty with lots of melanoidins, biscut, toastiness, very faint dark chocolate, and some earthy & herbal hops lurking in the background. The nice thing about this beer is the wonderful maltiness combined with the drinkability. It would be (is) easy to drink pint after pint of this.