First Draught: Hacker-Pschorr Münchner Dunkel

If there’s one piece of German beer trivia that just about everyone knows, it’s the 500ish-year-old German Beer Purity Law that once limited the ingredients brewmasters in that country could use. The law is no longer legally in effect — ingredients other than the original barley, water and hops are fair game — but it still holds a lot of marketing sway. This is why you won’t see a cherry beer from a German brewery.

Still, drinkers of German beer in Ontario can now enjoy some variation in the form of a Munich dunkel (dark) lager from the very popular Hacker-Pschorr brewery.

Hacker-Pschorr’s brewmaster Martin Zuber keeps three beers in his house at all times: the pilsner, the weiss (his wife’s favorite) and this dark lager because of how well it goes with food. He shared this tidbit with guests at a recent Hacker-Pschorr dinner at The Monk’s Table near Yonge and St. Clair.

The beer pours a dark brown in the glass and tends to red-brown around the edges. It starts slightly sweet and shows some of the banana notes one expects from a dunkel. Munich malt gives it a distinct roasted flavour that just hints at coffee and chocolate.

Beer in general is an under-appreciated food partner, but these toasted flavours make it ideal for matching with those savory meat dishes that work so well on cool spring nights, when the cover comes off the barbecue for the first time.

Hacker-Pschorr's Münchner Dunkel is available on tap at the The Monk’s Table and will gradually be coming to other pubs and bars that pour Hacker.

When David isn't busy drinking beer for his articles here, he writes about food and drink for Toronto's online publications including his own site, Food With Legs. For more of his thoughts on beer and life in general follow him on Twitter.

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