OkTOOBERfest
New Braunfels Brewing Company

 

BOTTLE: 750ml. Brown glass. Unbranded pry-off pressure cap. Uninteresting label art & design.

5.3% ABV. Reviewed live as a Marzen per the label. Served cold into a pilsner glass at low altitude in Austin, TX. Expectations are above average; this brewery has put out some interesting work.

No bubble show forms as it's poured.

HEAD: 3 fingers wide. Plump, with a supple even consistency. Retention is excellent - easily 8+ minutes. Nice complexion. Fairly soft-looking. Leaves no lacing as it recedes.

BODY: Colour is that classic Marzen copper-amber with gold hues; I know this well from my time at the Bergkirchweih festival. Spot on, with good vibrance and a healthy bubble quantity indicative of good carbonation. Clean, with no visible yeast or hop sediment. Quasitransparent. Translucent.

In short, it's to style. There're no stand-out characteristics, but my would this look good in a classic halbe-krug.

AROMA: Sourdough on the fringe. German Munich malts provide the bulk of the aroma, which (to style) is rather simplistic. Some might even call it plain. Bready, with ester-free German lager yeast showcased nicely (but hardly noticeably). A hint of toastiness. Hopping is minimal, but floral in character.

Aromatic intensity is low - abnormally so even for a Marzen.

No off-notes or overt booze is detectable.

Overall, it's largely to style but does leave something to be desired. I'm relieved it's not overly sweet like many beers in the style, but it doesn't offer much in comparison to the best Marzenbiere. Still, malts are rightfully the stars of the show and I'm impressed with the near perfect attenuation.

TASTE: Malt-forward with an apt sweetness, but unfortunately this build suffers from a bit of buttery diacetyl off-character, which really throws off the balance. It's easier to hide imbalance in an ale - wherein the complex esters give you some leeway - but in a lager like this it stands out like a sore thumb. Still, it's not too egregious. I do notice a bit of tryptamine-y bitterness suggestive of some kind of chemical or perhaps slight overhopping (the latter being the most common mistake in American-brewed Marzenbiere).

No, it's not complex or intricate, but Marzenbiere shouldn't be. What it does lack that it needs is subtlety; the faint toastiness from the aroma never manifests in the taste to the detriment of the beer. Average depth, duration, and intensity of flavour. Nice flavour amplitude. It's not too well balanced, but it does have cohesion (though it never quite feels like a gestalt whole).

While there's ample room for improvement and it could certainly use fine-tuning to bring it closer to traditional German examples of the style, I do like it and it's very approachable - which is the big thing in a festbier of any variety.

TEXTURE: The finish should be much more dry, but it captures the cleanliness and medium body of traditional Marzenbiere. It's overcarbonated and only somewhat refreshing, but has apt smoothness and wetness that make this quite a quaffable brew. Thickness and weight on the palate are apt, lending this a decent overall presence on the palate. This texture doesn't elevate the beer, nor does it really accentuate any specific notes in the profile, but it gets the job done and doesn't distract.

Not oily, gushed, hot, boozy, astringent, harsh, rough, or scratchy.

OVERALL: The faint chemical bitterness coupled with the sum total of all the little mistakes added together makes this Marzen admittedly imperfect, but it's a better American stab at the style than most I've tried. I'll be sticking to traditional offerings for my Marzen fix, but this is quite passable. I do wish the price point were better, and come to think of it - why is this in bomber format anyway? I wouldn't recommend it to friends or trade partners, and it's far from New Braunfels' best brew, but you could do far worse - especially in the U.S.

Low C