Alpine Fest Lager
Snake River Brewing Company & Brewpub

 

 

 

On draught at the local Old Chicago.

It poured a gorgeous red colour with about a half inch of foam. There would probably have been more but the bartender is pretty meticulous about beer vs foam and I appreciated that.

The smell was malty, toasty, and there was a smidgeon of some hop action going on.

The taste was damn good. What I expected from a well made sample of the style. Caramel malt with a good but not overdone side order of bread, a bit of a graininess, and a light sprinkling of hop bitterness. Well done brew and I found it very easy to drink; very good tasting and very good mouthfeel. I'll be drinking more during OC's Oktoberfest mini tour!

a: served in a brewery logo glass, the beer is a deep ruby amber in color, an initial coating of white carbonation receding to a thin layer

s: big caramel and toasty German lager malts, sweet and malty but not excessively so, leafy autumnal aromas, nicely fruity

m: carbonation moderate, body medium-full, rich and slick with malt

t: big malty Oktoberfest flavor, lots of caramel, toasted lager malts, and fruit, sweet and strong in flavor, quickly balancing with a crisp noble hop flavor and nice bitterness, nice progression from start to finish

d: easy drinkability, a tasty and and highly satisfying lager

pint at the brewpub, great drink after a long hike in the Paintbrush and Cascade canyons

Pours a beautiful copper color that says "I am fest bier." Decent does of malts.

Fills out over the tongue with generous sweet malts with noble hop presence. The malts are to style and quite rich. Nice snappy hop bittering in back, but not so much as to take away the residual sweetness of the malts.

The flavors are pretty straightforward - doughy bread sweetness, a spicy hint, a touch of hop flavors.

Not a huge beer, not an overly complex beer, just spot-on to style and delicious.

Another Snake River winner.

This 12 oz Bottle of Snake River Alpinefest poured copper to red with the slightest haze. It formed a thick off-white head which dissipated slowly, and left thinner version of it self throughout. Alpinefest laces moderately and fine bubbles evolved quickly and constantly from the bottom and sides of the glass.

The aroma of this beer was deliciously malty, with notes of sweet malt, toasted malt and fresh bread. Hop aromas were low and barely detectable.

Like the aroma the flavor was dominated by malt; deliciously sweet and toasty. Hop bitterness is relatively low and well balanced. A slight flavor of kettle hop is evident but not pronounced. Alpinefest finishes on the dry side of sweet and has an altogether clean and well balanced flavor which is accented by the slightest carbon dioxide “bite”.

Alpinefest has a medium body and has a pleasant mouthcoat with fine carbonation.

The Brewers at Snake River have done it again! Alpinefest is a fine beer and a great example of a Märzen Bier. Alpinefest was difficult to find, even in Jackson Hole. Six bottles bound together at the neck by a non-descript brown cardboard holder; had the bottle not been faced to exhibit the label featuring the Teton Range and Bavarian checked background, I might have missed out on this great beer. Should you be lucky enough to find some I recommend it… if not it is in good company among the other fine beers produced by this brewery, most similarly the Viennese style Snake River Lager.