Märzen
Alpine Brewing Company

 

Served at Local Myth Pizza in Chelan

A - Served a cloudy dark orange with a foamy light brown-tan head with great lacing leaving solid lacing on the glass.

S - Sweet bready malts with a touch of fall-like spice.

T - Sweet bready malt again, mild spice, finishes with a slight vitamin or medicinal flavor.

D - Good carbonation with a medium body.

O - Nothing bad, but nothing special. Malty and mineral water.

Alpine Amber Lager

Amber with an off-white head, some retention & lace.

Aroma is quite malty (very bready) with some earthy mineral.

The earthy mineral really comes through in the flavour, which is backed by a serious bitterness. There's some nice malty flavour, but the bitterness is a little overbearing. Especially for a Marzen. I thought seemed more like an Alt. Certainly some nice flavour, but it just doesn't have the right balance for a Marzen.

Smooth malty body has an off-dry finish.

An interesting brew, but not really to style, or my taste.

Poured with less than 1/2 inch of head in a straight pint glass. Minimal lacing. A wonderfully beautiful orangish-amber color. A subdued but full aroma. Flavor has a nicely balanced malt foundation, with just a little hop tang on the finish. The body is Full, well-rounded and pleasant. An extremely drinkable beer, you could easily spend an afternoon or evening with this beer and not be the least bit disappointed. This is an excellent choice for serving to someone who's interested in trying craft beer but is hesitant to try overly big flavors. It would be well accepted by all but the most ardent of the hop addicted. Job well done.

Until Alpine gets around to reopening its brewpub, the best we can do is keep an eye open for their beers where they occur throughout the state. I asked the brewer what my best option was for a fresh pint in Oroville and he directed me to a place a just around the corner called Yo-Yo’s. Yo-Yo’s didn’t give me much cause for optimism. They’re just not a beer bar and the place looked pretty depressing. But they did have one sequestered tap of Alpine Marzen flowing so I sat down for pint.

This is an astonishingly good beer. It begins with a flawless auburn color polished to great depth. Carbonation is relaxed and the smart white cap it arrived with soon faded to a thin film leaving splashes of cobweb lace. The taste is immediate and abundantly fresh. It washes across the palate like honey-water with a gentle measure of toasted bread and a slight noble hop bite. The aroma is distantly sweet.

Drink this and you get a sense of what all the other guys are imitating.

Note: not sure if this is the same beer as the Munich Marzen listed above. Alpine simply calls it Marzen.