Oktoberfest Lager
Brauerei Fahr

500ml (I think, since no where is it stated on the otherwise cool-looking label) bottle. You can only buy these at the Wine & Beyond chain of liquor stores here in Edmonton, which I always find more than a bit wanting. Anyways.

This beer pours a clear, medium copper amber colour, with three zaftig fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves some decent spooky forest profile lace around the glass as it lazily subsides.

It smells of bready and doughy caramel malt, a touch of biscuity toffee, baked red apples, a faint lager yeastiness, and rather laid-back earthy, herbal, and floral noble hop bitters. The taste is grainy and bready cereal malt, saltwater taffee, some indistinct pome fruitiness, a bit of slightly burnt toast, and more well-understated leafy, floral, and musty hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its palate-coating frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and generally smooth, with a nice airy creaminess evolving as things warm up a tad at this particular juncture. It finishes off-dry, the gentle malt easing us on out of the beer garden.

Overall - yup, this comes across as the real deal, good and malty, without becoming cloying or too sweet. Balanced, and easy enough to throw back, especially given that the extra point and change of ABV is virtually undetectable. Worth checking out, as the weather is starting to seem more like mid-to-late September right now.