Therese Dreaming of Dunkel: My Turn - Chopper by Lakefront Brewery

As I type, the latest in Lakefront's My Turn series is Chopper, a Munich-style Dunkel. Chopper is the brewery's controller which, if the bottle's label is to be believed, means he sits in an office with a picture of Amatino Manucci on the wall behind him as he calculates the brewery's finances on an old Texas Instruments calculator.

The My Turn series, which allows employees to brew a beer of their choice or have a beer of their choice brewed, has had some appealing brews as of late. The kellerbier was great but I didn't taste a Vienna lager, Berliner Weisse, and Dunkelweizen which all sound tasty and are most welcome as the brewery embraces the IPA ever more strongly. It's not that non-IPAs have all gone away, but Lakefront used to brew a nice variety of beers but it's gotten kind of less so.

Bitching about the ubiquity of IPAs is like shooting fish in a barrel. I get it. But I remember when Fixed Gear was a red ale, not an IPA. (I also remember when they brewed it too.) There was a witbier, a mild, an ESB...I adored their cherry lager. These days it's largely IPA this and barrel-aged that. Oh well.

One area they seem to be a pioneer in instead of a follower is with non-alcoholic beers. Just as they were on the bleeding edge of gluten-free brews, they now seem to be the leaders of NA beer brewing. I don't drink NA beers but good for Lakefront. While I miss the non-IPAs of yesteryear, I will find solace in the wonderful variety of the My Turn series.

Chopper ran the numbers and found a Munich-style Dunkel wouldn't break the bank. It's a close cousin to their Eastside Dark, which is described as a Bavarian dark lager. They have some malts in common but different hops. I presume the same yeast is used in both. A side-by-side comparison would be neat but, since I don't get paid to do this, you're stuck with just the one beer.

Chopper is a lovely bier. Dark copper and ruby-tinged, by right, it should have had a big, light tan head atop it but my pour only produced a modicum of foam and what was there disappeared rather quickly. No doubt my poor pouring skills on display once more. As is proper with Munich-style Dunkels, it was clear. The aroma had some prominent milk chocolate along with roasted grain and stone fruit smells.

Looking at the bier, I didn't see many bubbles but my tongue was greeted with a nice, medium dose of fizziness. Roasty grain, a little milk chocolate, and bit of bread gave the bier a full flavor despite having only a medium-light body. On the swallow, those malty flavors faded allowing a moderate bit of spicy-herbal hoppiness - think black tea but "greener" - to come through and deposit some bitterness and dryness which both lasted a while on my tongue.

I brought some of this over to a friend's house for a homebrew day and he, a professional brewer type, was delighted by this bier. And so was I. While I wish it was a bit breadier tasting, I really enjoyed how the hops kept the sweeter inclinations of the malts in check. Its light body made for some easy drinking and refreshment on a chilly winter day of sparging and stirring.

It has been a while since I've had an Eastside Dark so I am going from memory here. This is very similar to Lakefront's beloved annual. I think the chocolate is more prominent in Chopper and that it's a bit breadier than Eastside. Methinks I shall have to get some Eastside Dark to refresh my memory.

Junk food pairing: Pair your Chopper with a bag of steak flavored Cheetos. The faux beef flavor goes with the roasted grain flavors in the bier and cheese just goes with everything.