Lakefront Brewery Week: Eastside Dark

Lakefront Brewery WeekLakefront’s Eastside Dark, a dark lager (Dunkel Lager), is the type of beer I imagine the nineteenth-century German brewers were producing in America—and in Milwaukee in particular—prior to the introduction of the Pilsner.

Their own description of this beer:

The rich, coffee-like aroma and flavor of this fine, dark, Bavarian style lager is derived from a precise blending of three different specialty barley malts. Unlike many other dark beers, East Side Dark doesn’t have a bitter aftertaste. Instead, your palate is greeted with the rich body and balanced flavor that only this beer can deliver. Art in brewed form.

Eastside DarkI don’t honestly know about "art in brewed form"—I can think of a few beers that I would apply that to—but it’s still a fine beer. 5.52% alcohol by volume.

I originally reviewed this beer back in 2006; read that here. I wasn’t originally very impressed, but this time around was much more positive.

Appearance: Dark brown in color—mostly opaque but with red-orange edges. Tan, putty-colored head.

Smell: Bready and grainy—almost a rye and molasses character. Grassy hop notes, kind of like green wheat.

Taste: Lots of grain and malt notes… rye/pumpernickel. Some chocolate, some light coffee, rich brothy notes. Clean with a bit of a tang.

Mouthfeel: Clean, medium-bodied, a tad astringent from darker malts.

Overall: Enjoyable, drinkable.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores a grade of B. On RateBeer, it scores 3.24 out of 5, and is in their 65th percentile.