Grimm Brothers Elevate Old World Brewing With Styles Like Munich Dunkel

The world is full of lesser known beer styles, and American craft brewers are introducing these styles to beer drinkers in cities and towns across the country. Sure, it's amazing to travel to the places in which historic beer styles originated, but such a trip isn't necessary to expand your beer knowledge and enhance your palate. The European beer culture, including Germany and the surrounding area, holds so much history and tradition going back centuries, and some craft breweries focus primarily on the many styles associated with this culture. One such brewery is Grimm Brothers Brewhouse in Loveland, Colorado, and one style they brew is a Munich Dunkel lager called The Fearless Youth.

Grimm Brothers, which was founded by avid homebrewers, appropriately melds the European beer styles they love so much with the folk storytelling of Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm. The famous Brothers Grimm were German academics who, throughout the first half of the 19th century, collected and published the many iconic folk tales that we're all familiar with today. The Grimm Brothers Brewhouse categorizes their beers into three different series, with the names Legends, Fairytales, and Fables. Each beer name or piece of label art ties into an element of Grimm storytelling, so the marketing theme runs cohesively throughout the entire beer lineup. Grimm Brothers Brewhouse isn't just a fun marketing gimmick though. Their beer is quite excellent, and has been recognized as such with several medals at the Great American Beer Festival in recent years.

The Fearless Youth, which falls into the brewery's Legends series, is an approachable and delicious dark lager. It's a Munich Dunkel, a style of brown lager that originated in Munich, Germany. Its rich, dark color and malty profile is most influenced by the toasted Munich malt used primarily in the grain bill. Fearless Youth features an aroma of Munich malt sweetness, bread, and toast. Flavors are rich and malty, like molasses, bread crusts, and biscuit. Hop bitterness is low, but prominent enough to keep the sweetness and rich character in check. It's a medium-bodied beer with a creamy mouthfeel and a clean lager finish. While Fearless Youth isn't considered a fall seasonal, it definitely pairs well with a cool, crisp fall afternoon.

Much like a related style, the Oktoberfest, a Munich Dunkel is an example of straightforward German lager brewing that highlights the complexities of German malt. Lagers take longer than ales to produce due to the time dedicated to cold conditioning, but great lagers like Fearless Youth are proof that some things are definitely worth the wait.