If You're Missing Shiner Dunkelweizen ...

... and you live in Austin, and that new peachy concoction just isn't appealing to you, may I suggest the dunkelweizen at North by Northwest? Really, it's even better than the Shiner product. I went there for lunch this afternoon with the parental units, and filled up my growler with it.

It has this brown-gold muddy look to it, but don't let that put you off if you're more accustomed to filtered beers. The wheat flavor is rich and bold, and just screams Germany to me. It has a strong banana note to it, both on the nose and the tongue. This is one of their better offerings, and that's really saying something for North by Northwest, which is pretty consistently great.

This dunkel has replaced the hefe on their menu, I'm assuming just for the winter, so get it while you can.

Another get-while-you can: Their fabulous holiday barleywine is also on tap, although I can testify it isn't quite as fabulous as the cask-conditioned version I had back in November. Sorry if you missed it. (Don't forget: cask-conditioned night is the last Monday of every month.) Also, their bourbon-barrel aged Blackjack Ale is also now on tap. It's been over a year since I've had that, so I'll have to refresh my memory on it soon.