Nimbus Oktoberfest
Nimbus Brewing Company

September 2004 Release, Bottle #3734, Sampled November 2004
Pours a lightly hazy amber-red color, it is topped by a frothy light tan head that is pretty thick. The aroma smells about right for a Double Pale Ale, it is redolent of malt, particularly of the crystal kind, with notes of biscuits and caramel. The hops are also here, witch combined with the malt form a sticky sweetish aroma of citrus fruit (grapefruit, and tangerine), and pine. The hop aromatics are not as strong as say the most aggressive Double IPAs, but I would not expect that in a beer billed as a Double Pale Ale, the hops are definitely here though.

Wow the hops are a bit more evident in the taste of this beer, though not enamel melting though. The beer is a little lighter (definitely a full mouth coating quality to it though) and not as sweet (though it has a definite sweet malt character to it) as I was expecting from the aroma either. The taste is thick with hoppy notes of ruby-grapefruit, tangerine, orange, an astringent herbal component, and pine. There is also some nice malty notes here, which mostly serve to pick up and accentuate the flavor hop additions in this beer, I get notes of sweet caramel, crackers, and biscuits. This has a nice low carbonation to it, which compliments the heft of this 9% alcohol beer nicely. The finish is solidly bitter, though not hugely so, but it strikes a good balance with the residual malty sweetness that is found in this beer.

This is quite a nice beer, certainly not something I could drink a lot of, but I highly recommend a 750ml bottle, especially if you can share.