River Brew Review: Pug Ryan’s Brewing Company Dead Eye Dunkel

I was in the liquor store a few weeks ago looking for a new beer to review and noticed a can of beer with the label Pug Ryan’s Dead Eye Dunkel. Sold. It was in a can and I hadn’t ever heard of a Dunkel before so I decided to try it. The six pack lasted me a couple of weeks and it went on some dang good trips. I had a couple fishing solo on the Taylor, crushing trout on dry flies in October. I had one while George and I watched Aimee slay trout on the East.

And then I had one on the day I got skunked and fell in the river. Yup, you read that right, both an epic skunkage and a dunking on the same day. It was rough. We started out driving to Gunnison in near blizzard conditions and 34 degree weather. We got to Gunnison and the wind was blowing at 25+ mph and it was 37 degrees. We got to the parking lot and the wind stopped, the sun came out and it was 39 degrees. We put George in a several layers of fleece and a down suit and headed out. Turned out to be beautiful, but for some crazy reason I decided to only huck streamers (It could have been because Aimee did well on white streamers the day before). Regardless, the fish were not eating streamers. Bummer.

After a while Aimee and George went back to the truck to have a snack and I stubbornly moved on to the next run, even though I was hungry and ready for a Dunkel. That’s when it all went bad. I just had to take that last step out into the current to try to get a couple of strips in the soft water on the other side. I didn’t get those strips, instead I got to do a pushup off the bottom of the river, at least it was almost 45 degrees out at that point.

After that I beelined it back to the truck for some leftover pizza and a well deserved beer.

Appearance: Dark caramel brown. Small sand colored head. Good retention and lots of lacing as you drink.

Smell: A nutty start followed by sweet caramel, not really much else.

Taste/Mouthfeel: Very smooth, not a ton of carbonation. Sweet with a bit of underlying bitterness. Really well balanced for my taste, nutty and sweet, but not overpowering.

Overall: Good. I like this beer a bunch, its right up my alley. Not too sweet, but not too bitter and smooth easy drinking. If you are looking for an easy drinker that’s not your typical lager give this beer a try. Out of the beers I tried this fall this is my favorite so far. Besides the can says that it pairs well with anything containing bacon, and bacon is awesome.

5 out of a Six Pack Scale ©