Munich-Style Dunkel
| Location: | European |
|---|---|
| Category: | Lager |
| BJCP Comparable Category: | 8A - Munich Dunkel |
Beer Style Description
This is the description of how the Munich-Style Dunkel style of beer should taste, feel and look. However, there may be perfectly fine beers in this style that fall outside of these ranges and descriptions. This information is just to show the most commonly accepted ranges for the Munich-Style Dunkel beer style.
Dunkels do not offer an overly sweet impression, but rather a balance between malt and dark malt sweetness and hop character.
- Color: Light brown to brown
- Body: Low to medium-low
- Malt Flavors & Aromas: Malt character is low to medium, with chocolate, roast, bread or biscuit aromas and flavors contributed by using dark Munich malt or other specialty malts.
- Hop Flavors & Aromas: Very low to low, with attributes typical of noble-type hops.
- IBUs/Bitterness: Medium-low to medium
- Fermentation Characteristics: Fruity esters and diacetyl should not be present
- Common Ingredients: Grist is traditionally made up of German Munich malt (up to 100% in some cases) with the remainder German Pilsner malt. Small amounts of crystal malt can add dextrins and color but should not introduce excessive residual sweetness. Slight additions of roasted malts (such as Carafa or chocolate) may be used to improve color but should not add strong flavors. Traditional German hop varieties and German lager yeast strains should be used. Often decoction mashed (up to a triple decoction) to enhance the malt flavors and create the depth of color.
- Commercial Examples: Ayinger Altbairisch Dunkel, Chuckanut Dunkel Lager, Ettaler Kloster Dunkel, Hacker-Pschorr Alt Munich Dark, Weltenburger Kloster Barock-Dunkel
Brewing Properties of Munich-Style Dunkel
These are the functional brewing properties of Munich-Style Dunkel beers, as descided by the Brewers Association. These guidelines reflect, as accurately as possible, the historical significance, authenticity or a common profile in the current commercial beer market.
| ABV The alcohol by volume is shows the amount of alcohol this style of beer should have. |
4.8 - 5.3% |
|---|---|
| Bitterness The International Bittering Units (IBU) scale is used to approximately quantify the actual (not perceived) bitterness of beer. |
16 - 25 IBUs | SRM SRM is a scale for measuring the color intensity of a beer. Low SRM grains impart a pale straw color while higher values mean it will add a darker color to the wort. Learn more » |
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15 - 17 SRM(30 - 33 EBC) |
| Original Gravity Original Gravity (OG) is a measure of the sugar content in the wort before alcoholic fermentation has started to produce the beer. |
1.048 - 1.056 |
| Final Gravity The Final Gravity (FG) is how much sugar is left over in the beer when fermentation is complete. |
1.014 - 1.018 |
If you see an error in our data, please let us know!
Based on Brewers Association 2020 Beer Style Guidelines with changes. Used with permission of Brewer's Association.