The fifth and final entry in The Week of Flying Dog is the one that makes the least amount of sense. No, adding mint to a chocolate stout isn’t a leap, not when you consider that one of Flying Dog’s in-state rivals makes a chocolate raspberry stout, chocolate habanero stout and a choco-peanut butter porter. Old Bay sounds like a weird beer seasoning, but probably not any stranger than Dogfish Head’s well-herbed saison.

No, it’s when you veer into herbal tea that I raise my eyebrow and stare at the bottle a little longer. I used to be a dedicated tea drinker, preferring Tazo’s Awake above all else (though I wouldn’t say no to Berryblossom White). Awake is the bran’s English breakfast tea with a full body and caffeinated punch. Earl Grey is not my favorite flavor as I find it a little too flowery for my liking as a tea.

In my beer? Yeah, it was a little different. Flying Dog’s Earl Grey Black Wheat is classified as a dunkelweizen, a German beer style related to the hefeweizen. It’s supposed to have all the characteristics of the wheat beer, but made dark by caramelized malt. This is not what I would think of when picturing a dunkelweizen, which I will admit is not my favorite style of beer. This is more like a black lager with a lot of floral flavor. The toasty malts add a little creaminess, but this beer is otherwise medium-to-light bodied.

I’m not sure I could drink more than one of these in a sitting, simply because this is a complex beer with a flavor profile that doesn’t speak to repetition. This is the type of beer you open up on a cold autumn or winter evening before settling into a book or television show. It’s a sipping beer, not a session beer. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Beer Bottle Philosophy:

Brewer: Flying Dog Brewery

Beer: Earl Grey Black Wheat

Style: Dunkelweizen

ABV: 6.3% IBU: 10

Container: 12 oz. bottle

To The Eye: Dark and thin with a beige head that hangs around.

To The Nose: Malt and tea, and they each hit your nose separately.

To The Palate: Complex. It hits your mouth with a tang from the roasted malt, bringing bitter chocolate and sweetness, with a little herbal flavor. It spreads out into a more noticeable tea flavor before fading away on a sweet note.

Aftertaste: Malty sweetness that disappears into faint tea flavors.

Boozy Factor: It’s a little more powerful than anything I’ve consumed from them, but still manageable.

On a Scale of 1 to 10, with 10 as highest: 7

NOTE: Flying Dog Brewery provided the beverage for this review. No other compensation was received.