Oktoberfest
Barn Door Beverage Co.

500ml bottle
6.50% ABV
Royal Bank Plaza LCBO Outlet (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
September19, 2014
$5.95
The beer pours a translucent golden orange colour with a thin white ring for a head. The aroma is grains, hops, and some off metallic notes. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with average carbonation. The flavour is slightly sweet, grainy, and a spicy bitter finish.

500 ml bottle served cold into a Innis & Gunn glass. Purchased for about $3.50 CDN.

Appearance - rich dark golden and copper color. Pours a finger or so of off white head with brilliant clarity.

Smell - rich earthy aroma, sweet caramel and corn grain.

Taste - a bit too sweet for an Oktoberfest, lots of caramel and a shortage of bitter hops.a bit too much of a creamed corn flavor for my liking as well. Big malt flavours especially caramel throughout.

Mouthfeel - smooth moderately carbonated, good with a slightly slick feel.

Overall - pretty solid Oktoberfest from this upstart brewery, if you like a corn grain flavor in your beer, then you're sure to enjoy this.

Nice clear copper amber colour with one inch of white head. Some fine carabonation. Bit of lacing with good retnetion.

A wonderful malty aroma. Like caremel icing on white cake.

Very malt forward flavour but not quite as delicious as the aroma. Light noble hops. Resolves to a carboard taste.

Feel is on the heavy side of medium. Small bite of carbonation.

A very nice Oktoberfest. Wonderfully malty.

 

Hold Barn Door's Oktoberfest up to the light and it looks like morning sun pushing through autumn foliage. Accuse me of being cheesy if you like, but that's a fair analogy for this clouded orange lager and the crisp golden highlights that burst through it. No head, but otherwise looks great.

I've no idea how much grain went into this batch but one thing's for sure: it was a lot. Oktoberfest (aka Märzen) beers are distinguished as having rich, clean, top-notch maltiness and you can quickly pick up on this upon smelling it. Toasted and nutty aromatics are incredibly lucid.

German beers are just like German cars: excellently made, to the highest standards, in a traditional manner. No need to mess with the classics! And this recipe does just that - it lets the malts simply do their thing, which is to produce a big, hearty, rich, delicious flavour on their own.

The taste produced may easily remind one of marzipan or toffee except that it lacks sweetness. Instead, this is dry and somewhat grainy, its nutty toast notwithstanding. Hops do lend a great deal of crispness but won't be noted outright; they work behind the scenes.

Barn Door is going places. I was very impressed with their first few offerings and found this to be among my favourite Oktoberfest beers this season. It's refreshing to find an Ontario craft brewer with a true knack for lager styles; it's an area sorrowfully lacking in the province... until now.

 

 

 

 

 

Clear amber honey colour. Pours a big head that settles to a substantial head of 1/4" or so. No lace however. Nicely balanced nose of hops and malt, slightly sweet.

Not so yummy though. Very sweet and slightly doughy. Quite malty. Kind of sticky mouthfeel. Just a hint of bitter hops to finish. Not very appetizing, not something I'd be drinking very much of.

Overall just too much sugar to enjoy. It overwhelms any other kind of beery goodness here.

500 mL bottle picked up at the LCBO; no freshness info apparent. This one flew off the shelves locally, so I'm glad I managed to grab two bottles before stock ran out. Maybe they should take the hint and stock a few more märzens, instead of their current selection of 8 billion pumpkin beers, but I digress. Served well-chilled.

Pours a bright, clear golden-amber colour, generating one finger of soapy white froth at the surface. Very effervescent, at least initially. Not much retention; it fizzles away over the next minute or two, leaving behind a filmy cap and thin collar. The aroma is dominated by grainy sweetness, with some bready malts and brown sugar to complement. Grassy, somewhat herbal notes can also be detected, no doubt due to the usage of Saaz hops. Smells like a pretty good lager to me, but it's the next part that really counts.

This beer's profile is enjoyable, but leans a little too heavily on the sweet side for my tastes. The backbone is full of bready malts and grain flavours, with some fruity notes akin to golden raisin mid-sip. The Saaz hops come through in full force at the tail end of the profile, providing some herbal, grassy bitterness and a mild, rapidly-fading spice notes at the finish. Some metallicity. The aftertaste is mildly sweet and bready, lingering on the palate for a few seconds following each sip. On the heartier side of light-bodied, with moderate carbonation levels appropriate for a strong lager, and a smooth, somewhat slick feel in the mouth. A full-flavoured lager if there ever was one, though as I said before, it's not completely up my alley.

Final Grade: 3.76, a B+. Barn Door Brewing's Oktober Fest Bier is the second German-style lager from this upstart operation that I've tried in the past few months, and both have been well worth trying. Märzen enthusiasts will definitely want to give this one a shot or two, as will fans of amber lagers, or German lagers in general. Well-made, and a welcome addition to the relatively poor oktoberfestbier selection in this market. Great work, BDBC!