Day 16 of the Advent-ure Calendar
Day 16: Muskoka Brewery Winterweiss
This is the last beer from our Ithaca beer stop. It’s a dunkelweizen which is new to this calendar so we’re pretty excited about it. We honestly haven’t had many dunkels, and this is the first beer we’ve ever had from this brewery, so there’s a lot riding on this. Let’s hope for a Christmas miracle! Per Muskoka’s website, “This Dunkelweizen is deep brown with notes of clove and banana. Muskoka Winterweiss partners the yeast and wheat character of a Hefeweizen with the malty richness of a Munich Dunkel.”
REFLECTIONS
Beard & Broad
Beard: I was excited for this from the beginning because it’s a different style for our little Advent-ure. The aroma is sweet and matly and the initial taste is carmelized banana. The dark malts balance nicley with the fruity and spicy esters from the yeast, just a great drinkability to this. This beer makes me wish I purchased more dunkels because I really enjoy them, it’s just not a style I normally think about. Hats off to Muskoka for choosing this as their winter brew since the market is so saturated around this time with many a spiced ale. The move paid off though as I’m excited to discover another tasty treat from them the next time I’m in NY.
Broad: I haven’t met a dunkel I haven’t liked, but I also haven’t tried that many. This one is delicious. Its smooth, malty but light, I don’t taste a lot of hops. It tastes like malty hefeweizen, which I think is the point of a dunkel. I love hefeweizens so adding this amount of malt makes for a delicious beer. I wouldn’t classify this as a Christmas or winter beer, but I would drink this all year round.
Adam & Alex
Adam: This is not a Christmas beer. Calling something a winterweiss is cheating. It’s a dark wheat beer. It smells malty and tastes like banana and is a little flat. Reminds me a badly Brewer heff-dunkel
Alex: Let me preface this with this fact: I have a cold and my tastebuds aren’t 100% at the moment. I think I liked it enough to try it again – it reminds me of a dark wheat beer. It’s not a Christmas beer at all but I would like to try it again when I’m not an incubus of viral plague.
Mez & Sam
Mez: I really found this to be a treat. I didn’t think of Christmas with this though, but if that’s what it takes to get them to brew this beer, let it be Christmas 24/7. This is one of my favorite beers from the tour part because it’s tasty but also part because its been so different than everything else we’ve had.
Sam: The muskoka winterweiss is so good. Its a beer I can drink all the time. I dont think it tastes like a holiday beer that much though.
