Zötler Bier Korbinian Dunkel

Zötler Bier Korbinian Dunkel:

From the bottle: "Classic Bavarian dark lager. From Germany's oldest family-owned brewery. Brewed in accordance with the Bavararian Reinheitsgebot of 1516."  This beer already wins for snazziest bottle label design, there is a orange checkered design, and eagle or hawk with some kind of a castle tower in the background in one logo, and then there is a secondary design with a Bavarian hiker with ledehosen pointing at something. There are pictures of hops and wheat.  This label is all over the place, and I like it.

At first whiff (smell), I am not particularly liking this beer.  It has a distinctive German lager funk to it. Maybe I do not particularly like German beers or maybe lagers as a style?  I am not sure. I really love Warsteiner Dunkel, and it makes me wonder what kind of beer that is.  Lager? Ale? Not sure. I will have to check that out.

At the first couple of sips, my initial reaction is confirmed. not my favorite beer.  Here are my initial presumptions. Since I grew up in the Middle Atlantic, when I think lager, I think Yuengling, which is a pretty nice, standard drinking beer.  I like Yuengling Lager and i like Yuengling Black and Tan, which is a mix of their lager and porter.  El Presidente did not give a very favorable review of their Bock Beer, so that is one set of preconceptions. The other is that German beers do not have very great range of variety, because of the purtiy laws (please feel free to write in and disagree). Don't get me wrong, this isn't a horrible beer, but I drank this beer right after I drank North Coast's Old Rasputin, so you can understand the disappointment. I chose this beer because it was a "dark" lager, hoping that it would have some qualities that I could sing the praises of, but this didn't happen.

Since I do not often drink lagers, my representation scores will be low, but I admit that my scores will be skewed, because I tend to favor dark ales, stouts, and porters.  Accessibility scores will also be medium to low. There is a definite weird taste going on in this dunkel, and I don't think a regular craft beer drinker would necessarily order a second. I know I wouldn't. Style? Personal preference? Again, low, but with the caveat that I don't like this style of beer. At 4.7% abv, I want this to be a session beer, but there is no chance, I just don't like the overall taste of it to buy it again or to recommend it.

Zötler Bier Korbinian Dunkel:

Representation: .70
Accessibility: .80
Style: .60
Personal : .50

Total: 2.6 Flags