As we finally roll into proper winter weather were dropping Shadow of the Dog a German-style Dunkelweizen. This is a beer style we’ve long loved but had previously never brewed… and all the hard work researching the style has paid off, as we couldn’t be much happier with the result. Pouring a dark mahogany, with a creamy tan head, the beer invites you in with a delicate medley of autumnal fruit and spice. Plum, cherry, and fig all come to mind from the complex malt bill and are pulled together with the classic banana and clove of the German wheat beer yeast. The beer is effervescent and, for one so dark, surprisingly refreshing. Darker bready malts give way to the lightness of the wheat, which lends an almost tart note to the flavour, and this softness allows the fruit notes interplay perfectly with the light roast notes in the cleansing finish. A juxtaposition of dark decadent notes in what is a very refreshingly clean beer. Winter ales don’t get more sessionable than Shadow of the Dog.