Over the 16 years or so that the Boston Beer Company, makers of Samuel Adams beers, has been around, they have brewed just about every style imaginable. One of the styles they reproduced most authentically was a German style Dunkel Weizen, called Samuel Adams Dark Wheat. I recall with fondness this fine beer, which was always an occupant of my beer fridge back in the early nineties. Sadly, the beer was discontinued around the mid nineties, but I still have a bottle sitting on my wall as part of my beer bottle collection. The neck label read:

"Our dark wheat beer is one of the very few authentic wheat beers brewed in the U.S. We use a classic yeast from the world's oldest brewery, the Weihenstephan in Bavaria. This traditional wheat beer yeast imparts a distinctive, spicy taste that appeals to adventurous beer drinkers. We brew this special beer in a single batch once a year to celebrate the beginning of summer".

I always regretted not taking tasting notes on this beer. It was highly regarded among many beer enthusiasts, and I've always missed it. You will imagine my sheer excitement then, when I walked into the Great Lost Bear, a multi-tap beer bar in Portland Maine, and saw this beer listed on the draft menu yesterday. Surely there was a mistake. I rubbed my eyes and re-read the listing of wheat beers. It was still there, plain as day: Samuel Adams Dark Wheat.

I ordered a pint and hestitantly took a sip. Would this taste the same as my tastebuds remembered it tasting? It did! Cloudy yellow-brown in color with a generous head formation, Samuel Adams Dark Wheat has a spicy clove nose with a hint of smoke. There's a cracker-like wheat body, a touch of chocolate, heavy clove notes, banana, and a tart refreshing finish. Loaded with hearty yeast character, this is a very authentic dunkelweizen. This was a test batch from the brewery in Jamaica Plain with limited distribution, so don't look for it in bottled just yet. Could this mean Dunkel Weizen is returning however? We can only hope. Still, Boston Beer will be bringing back Cranberry Lambic and Old Fezziwig in its holiday samplers this year. Perhaps we'll see Dark Wheat return in bottles soon too.