Okto Braü
Blue Hills Brewery

Okto BraüOkto Braü
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From:
Blue Hills Brewery
 
Massachusetts, United States
Style:
Märzen
ABV:
5.8%
Score:
76
Avg:
3.15 | pDev: 28.25%
Reviews:
20
Ratings:
35
Status:
Retired
Rated:
Apr 18, 2016
Added:
Sep 20, 2010
Wants:
  1
Gots:
  3
Also called Okto Brau.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by Jason:
Photo of Jason
Reviewed by Jason from Massachusetts

2.4/5  rDev -23.8%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 2.5
22oz brown bomber with no freshness date.

LOOK: Hazed orange amber

SMELL: Sweet-tart, toasted grain, very biscuity, bready, floral, fruity

TASTE: Smooth, slick, medium body, fermentation twang, toasty, biscuity, husky, dust malt, herbal, spicy, yeasty

A ridiculously narrow style (Marzen) when it comes to guidelines, first thing I always look for is if the beer is clean or not. Second is the malt profile and hops are last but not least. unfortunately for Blue Hills this is not clean, the malt profile is way out of whack and the hops are lost. Perhaps they meant to go down this road but it is not the road of a true Marzen.
Oct 11, 2011
More User Ratings:
 
Rated: 3 by Nichols33 from Massachusetts

Apr 18, 2016
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Rated by bshaw100 from Massachusetts

1.25/5  rDev -60.3%
Over malted and sweat, not a good fall beer
Sep 18, 2014
Photo of Brettanomaestro
Reviewed by Brettanomaestro

4.88/5  rDev +54.9%
look: 5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 5
Several years ago Blue Hills Brewery accidentally made a batch of Okto Brau that contained Brettanomyces. They called it a huge mistake a trashed the whole batch. A friend of a friend managed to get a few bottles of this "bad batch" and I still have dreams about this beer. It is honestly the best beer I have ever tasted in my life, containing both the subtle strength of an Octoberfest balanced against a delicate sourness. I beg and plead BHB to please make this again, as I'm confident it will make great profits and leave consumers happy and looking for more. Bring back the mistake!
Jul 24, 2014
 
Rated: 2 by Fettpopps from Massachusetts

Mar 16, 2014
 
Rated: 3 by ElIndio from Massachusetts

Jan 28, 2014
 
Rated: 2.5 by adjunctlager from Massachusetts

Nov 24, 2013
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Reviewed by VelvetExtract from Massachusetts

2.84/5  rDev -9.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.75
A-Pours a relatively clear, burnt orange color. Thin, sudsy head only manages to form a light outer ring around the edge.

S-Sweet and bread. Has mostly Marzen elements here but there is definitely an unattractive element to the aroma. Its almost tangy in the nose; not like a hoppy/ citrus tangy but more like a sourdough tanginess.

T-Flavor is a miss. It is nearing sickly sweet and that acrid portion found in the nose also appears. In its bones it's a Marzen but its covered in all sorts of blemishes. Caramel and bread and stewed beets?

M-Light side of medium bodied. A bit sugary and creamy. Moderate carbonation.

O/D-Not a fan of this or most any of Blue Hills' brews.
Nov 02, 2013
Photo of jlindros
Reviewed by jlindros from Massachusetts

2.06/5  rDev -34.6%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 2.25 | overall: 2
This is the brewery I was so excited about when they opened since they were only a few miles from where I grew up. Then I tried their beers and all of them were mediocre and not very good. I stopped trying them for a while because of that, hoping that someday they were get better as they only seemed to be in the brewing business for the sake of it and not for the beer. So it's been a while and finally decided to try one from them and hope it got better, and what better than to try a fresh Oktoberfest in fall.

No head starts to form on initial pour so I get more aggressive, and it still only gets a small bubbly head covering that's mostly from the air being stirred into the pour than actual carbonation head, disappears quickly like it's ashamed of the beer underneath, a bad sign. no real lacing either, as light bubbles stream up from the etch at the bottom of the SAM PP glass at least but not as much as should be there, and a hazy amber slight honey orange beer, too hazy for the style.

Nose continues the slide into sad pants-ness, it smells like a homebrewer's first attempt at a lager, not a commercial brewery, and this is what makes me sad about this brewery. A definite yeasty aroma, like the yeast is still fermenting in this, then into a mild sour note, sour mash kinda aroma maybe an unhappy yeast or bad water, or even worse infection; strangely some of the sour notes remind me of Allagash sours. As I go deeper I start to get a bit of a reddish malt character, a crystal or Munich malt but hard to really label it and hard to really get much of it, and just a touch of a toasty bready malt note. I'm almost afraid to sip this.

Taste, wait for it... just continues the terribleness from the aroma. This is not only like a homebrewers first beer, but a terrible one ripe with off flavors and nothing like the style. I don't even want to continue tasting or reviewing this, it should be stricken from the record of ever existing. Let's start with the OK portion, a bit of a Munich toasty reddish malt, bit of a crystal malt character comes through but barely. that's about it, then into the terrible... well where to start, again there is a slight sour flavor, like a mild infection or just terrible treatment of the yeast, if this was truely lagered the yeast was way to hot or somehow very unhappy, here are some sulfury notes too. A bit of a mineral salty character like the water was too hard or chlorine in it or something bad. There is no real lager character at all except a mild soft feel. The yeast is also bringing a yeasty flavor, bready doughy yeast like I'm chewing on fermenting bread, soured fermenting bread. Did they use baker's yeast in this POS or something?! Oh and bitterness? Yes there is a hint of bitterness, but it seems to come more from tannic acids left from bad grains or something, but doesn't seem to come from hops as there is no real detectable hop presence. Finish is a bit slimy even, sticky on the mouth, not crisp or clean by any means, even my saliva is unhappy it seems. More soured malts lingering, and a little metallic twinge, just bad.

Mouth is med to lighter bodied, at least a little softness, but also slimy sticky on the finish, and to really show how much they wanted to shit on this beer, it has very little carbonation.

Overall, I.... I don't even know what to say. Why would you make a beer like this and put it out on the market?! How this brewery still in business is beyond me. I'm sorry guys, I don't mean to be mean but your beers are terrible. If you read this please take it as criticism and try to improve... wait, there's no way you would be reading this because if you did you would have started improving your beers by now. You obviously don't give a rat's ass about your beer or you'd have started doing something about it by now.
Sep 29, 2013
 
Rated: 3.25 by DBosco from Massachusetts

May 18, 2013
 
Rated: 3 by MAbeerNE1 from Massachusetts

Mar 14, 2013
 
Rated: 4 by hockeyfighter19 from Pennsylvania

Nov 10, 2012
 
Rated: 3.75 by BanrionMAB

Nov 07, 2012
Photo of smcolw
Reviewed by smcolw from Massachusetts

3.4/5  rDev +7.9%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3.5
Starts with a large bubbled head. It settles into a single layer of minute bubbles. Some spots remain on the glass. The liquid is clear with a deep amber color

Some toastiness to the aroma. I also detect a beef stew aspect to the smell.

Malty with a touch of caramelized sugar. Thin bodied with a low level of carbonation--in a word, watery. Light hop finish.
Sep 30, 2012
 
Rated: 2.25 by Massbmx from Vermont

Sep 29, 2012
 
Rated: 3 by milkbone_underwear from Massachusetts

Sep 08, 2012
 
Rated: 2.5 by noyellowfizzbeer from Massachusetts

Dec 31, 2011
 
Rated: 3 by BillDon from Massachusetts

Dec 24, 2011
 
Rated: 4 by codon2004 from Massachusetts

Nov 29, 2011
 
Rated: 3 by ZacharyJ from Massachusetts

Nov 24, 2011
Okto Braü from Blue Hills Brewery
Beer rating: 76 out of 100 with 35 ratings