Oktoberfest Lager
Medicine Hat Brewing Company

The can talks a great fight, as they say, boasting of "a copious amount of Vienna malt, with Munich malt in a supporting role," and even name-drops Noble hop character. Sounds extremely promising. The dark copper amber colour was a pleasant surprise when I poured it, though in retrospect it does befit those alleged Vienna malts. More of a Märzen than a Festbier, then - right on. Looks very nice with its two finger tan head. The aroma is a bit weak, but what is there is promising: toasted bread and caramel. The taste is duly malty, with huge toasted bread and caramel. I can't taste any hops character, noble or otherwise, but I do get a slightly bitter sensation on the finish, which could be hops, but could also be roasted malt I guess. Either way a bit more distinct hops presence would he nice. What's great about this beer is you absolutely can not detect the 6.4% ABV, and it goes down dangerously smooth. Overall a surprisingly decent imitation of the style from a local craft brewer.

 

 

650ml bottle - nice to see more Oktoberfest style lagers coming out of some of the newer Alberta craft breweries!

This beer pours a clear, medium bronzed amber colour, with a teeming tower of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves some decent layered bike chain lace around the glass as it slowly seeps out of sight.

It smells of bready and doughy caramel malt, a bit of biscuity toffee, some free-range toastiness, and very subtle earthy, leafy, and floral noble hop bitters. The taste is grainy and bready caramel malt, wet toasty breakfast cereal, a hint of pome fruitiness, and more understated leafy, weedy, and musky floral verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly laid-back in its lackadaisical frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and generally smooth, just a suggestion of toast crumbs maybe taking things down a notch or so here. It finishes trending dry, the complex malt pushing strongly for a repeat performance.

Overall - this is a pretty bang-on version of the seasonal style, all nice and malty with a gentle, but capable hop offset. Quite drinkable, and no sign of the elevated ABV. Another example of the cultural divide, where Oktoberfest is done and done for another year in its homeland, but in North America, these releases are timed for the whole month of October, it seems - not that I'm complaining.