13 beer blind Ofest Taster

Not sure too many use Saaz for an Okto. Hallertauer and maybe Spalt or Tettnang.

I have the feeling Summit uses Saaz for aroma more than flavor.

 

Something seems off on that Shiner ranking to me, but who knows? I always found most of their beer lacking in body & flavor...

 

Same here, so how did it land the Number 2 spot?

 

Had Lakefront's Oktoberfest last night and was very, very impressed. They nailed that beer. Easily one of my top US beers of the style.

 

Who says I haven't? And maybe it's why I'm asking how the Shiner scored so high? Other than plain, honest interest. I can certainly see a mix-up in the Schell and Shiner causing a discrepancy.

Märzen has been my favorite style for over 20 years and the season is always my favorite for finding and trying the different labels (I probably have 15 singles saved from all the brands I bought this year). I always have high hopes when I try the next one and never pour one with any preconceived notions (I so want to like the Leinie's and just can't). Shiner stands out to me because they've made a few other specialty beers that have been so good, the Okto disappointed.

And with 2 decades of Oktoberfests gone by, I've also proven that I can pick out quite a few of the different labels blind -- especially Spaten and Paulaner/H-P -- let alone Great Lakes and Sam Adams.

 

And I'm just the opposite -- I think the Burning River is a terrific Pale Ale. Different strokes, but I've also talked with a lot of people who enjoy good German lagers, as I do, and they agree when I say GL makes lagers for ale drinkers.

 

We'd have to qualify the drinkers, wouldn't we.

 

I never said they were all friends.

Just a matter of getting everyone around the same table, with the same bottles of beer, rather than trying to describe and define flavors over the internet.

 

A good basic idea right there, and when it comes to planning such a sampling it might also be helpful to keep it on the small side, out of concern for one or more reason: when it comes to time available (and even in terms of the total number of samples) not all of us can dedicate a full afternoon, much less possess certified expert judge palates with which to accurately discern hop and malt varieties in more than a dozen examples of a style.

This past weekend BA grantcty and I had a (non-blind) tasting with some of the same brands ZAP had in his blind tasting, and my list is about what I'd have guessed it would be*:

1. Hacker-Pschorr
2. Spaten
3. Paulaner
4. August Schell
5. Stevens Point
6. Summit
7. New Glarus
8. Licher
9. Ayinger
10. Paulaner Wiesn
11. Samuel Adams
12. Victory
13. Capital

* Ranking based upon objective/on the spot criteria vs. memory is a non-starter for me, here, since I was familiar with all but one of these, and brand / profile familiarity will always play a part (for me especially, see #2. )

When it comes to a tasting involving "more than a couple" brands of any style I've never known anyone to be 100% clear of palate fatigue. Even with a couple of short breaks (and water, and cheese, apples, crackers, summer sausage -- and black coffee!) in between all of these --and especially considering the fact that I don't drink the way I did in my Thirties-- I would've preferred five or six to rank-to-style. But again, time was limited.

 

That's interesting. My first real try of any Marzens - and I greatly enjoyed the Paulaner and Hacker much more in a mix a six than the Sam, the Short's Noble Chaos and I think a couple Ayingers just to round it out. That definitely jibes with the other rankings here posted here

 

Zap will be happy I'm calling someone else out here...

Sort'a surprised that Capital took up the caboose here, especially since I find Cap, Point, and Victory all pretty close in character.

Was it just a matter of points being so close that something had to take last?

Uh, Licher?