My latest article that hit the stands yesterday is on a style and a beer that I wouldn’t have expected to see from the like of Bend’s Boneyard Beer: Dunkelweizen! And their Creepy Dunkel.

For whatever reason, dunkelweizen is somewhat rare among American brewers, so I reached out to Boneyard to find out more. According to Liz Mario, the company’s communication and events manager, the beer was the creation of brewer Dana Robles, who brewed it at the original facility. “At Brew One, our Lake Place location, we’ve just been rotating our shift brewers over there,” Mario said. “And they’re able to come up with their own idea for a recipe, and brew that up on the 20 barrel system.”

Robles started brewing at Oakshire Brewing in Eugene in 2009, followed by three years at Ninkasi Brewing before joining Boneyard in 2015.

“Dunkelweizens are one of my favorite styles, so naturally I brewed one,” said Robles via email. “My beer obsession really took off while working at the Bier Stein in Eugene around 2007. I grew an appreciation for most styles of beer working there. Swirling the yeast around in a dunkelweizen or hefeweizen before serving was part of my everyday experience.”

I was pleased to learn that Boneyard is rotating their brewers to the “experimental” brewery and will look forward to other unusual offerings.