Day 50, Feb 19 / Harpoon Oak Aged Dunkel

Day 50 / February 19

Harpoon Oak Aged Dunkel  (Session 34)

Harpoon Brewing Company  /  Boston MA

A

NG

P

G

VG

O

My friend Kevin brought this bottle over around Christmas as a hostess gift, before I had even conceived of my beer quest.  I cracked it open and shared a little bit with Linda on a lazy Saturday night.

This is part of Harpoon’s 100 Barrel Series, which is a “showcase” series for Harpoon’s brewers.  Every couple of months a different Harpoon brewer will choose a style, develop a recipe, and brew the beer — from selecting the ingredients to the final filtration.

The Oak Aged Dunkel is brewed using traditional German ingredients and aged on American Oak.  This was an excellent beer, not too heavy or bitter, with a toasty malt flavor.  This beer is not actually aged in oak barrels, but is fermented with oak spirals (pictured at left) in the tank, which achieves much the same taste in a much shorter period of time.

You can definitely taste the flavor of the wood in the beer – this would probably be great paired with a nice bourbon as well.

NOTE:  These 100 Barrel series don’t last long – if you see one in the store and it sounds interesting, buy it!  These bottles are not distributed as widely as the regular Harpoon beers, so it may be hard to find in your area.