A chestnut-red body under a head the colour of old ivory: Weltenburger Kloster Barock Dunkel certainly looks the part as it pours. At a trifling 4.7% ABV it seems designed for some hearty beerhall chugging, perhaps in the company of something hacked off a dead animal and swimming in gravy. I can only think about Germany for a couple of sentences before meat enters the picture.The pitfall to avoid with beers like this is a saccharine tang which the poorer ones often exhibit, and I get a hint of that in the aroma: so sweet as to be bordering on sour. Thankfully it's entirely absent from the taste. The main feature is a crisp graininess infused with grass-bitter noble hops. Not all that different from a hoppy helles or pale bock, in fact. But just as these settle down, the dark malts swing in providing a pleasant dusting of cocoa, caramel and nuts. A drinkable Snickers bar? Yeah, sort of.
Best of all, the texture is smooth and full-bodied and the carbonation light, meaning it is indeed ideal for keller-based quaffing or as a food accompaniment. Here piggy piggy...
