Massive Oktoberfest Taste Test

This is the most extensive Oktoberfest tasting I have done. It involved 30 beers and took place over two months. The goal this year was to evaluate the beers holding the German standards as the benchmark. Beers with too much hops, too much sweet caramel, toffee, etc were downgraded. Personally I don’t mind drinking those beers but I wanted to see how this field stacked up when graded to the highest standards of Oktoberfest lagers.

In the past I did large tastings with 10 -12 beers in one taste test.. I wanted to avoid palate fatigue in this one and structured it so there would never be any more than six beers in a tasting and usually it was limited to five.

Each beer was tasted blindly at least twice. Some were tasted as many as five times. The initial tasting of each beer was random. All 30 were in the fridge and my wife randomly selected five, poured them out, kept the key and I rated them. We did six flights like this over about two weeks. Only then did I look at the scores, and notes I had and learn which beers scored where.

The next step was to separate closely bunched beers in the first round of ratings so subsequent blind tasting included tiers of beers close to each other after the initial round. These tasting rounds including up to six beers and this time I did know what beers were included in each grouping, but I did not know what groupings we were doing each time. I did it this way so I didn’t know if I was tasting a highly rated group or a low rated group.

After the second round of tasting scores were averaged and beers within a couple points of each other went into a third round of tasting. This was often just two or three beers at a time and this time I did know which beers were in the field, just not which were in the glasses.

After this third round of tastings, scores were averaged again and the top ten rated beers overall were split into two groups of five. On different days I scored these two groups of beers.

Scores were averaged out again for these top ten beers and a final group of five was established.

The final tasting was conducted and scored and those scores were averaged into the final scores. The final list is the average score of beers. It just so happens

The top rated beer was also the one that finished first in the final tasting.

Beers were rated 1-100 on a grading scale as if I was grading a term paper.

59 and less=F

60=D-

65=D

70=C-

75=C

80=B-

85=B

90=A-

95=A


*A special thanks to my wife for pouring out all these tastings and keeping the keys for me….and for not asking questions about all the money I spent on these Oktoberfest beers.

30. Old Style Oktoberfest (50 points ): I expected this to me more along the lines of Point or Leine’s version but it was much worse. Not a bad beer but drinks more like a hoppy amber ale. Lacks pretty much any characteristics you’d expect for an Oktoberfest.

29. Fargo (60 points): I was not expecting this to be near the top but didn’t think it would finish this low based on my experience with it last year. This version has some toasty maltiness to it but also much too heavy handed with the hops which lend a citrus flavor and a sharp finish.

28. Odell (62): Light caramel, fruity hops, hint of spoiled eggs. Another one more like an amber ale.

27. Shiner (63): Lacks flavor, some sharpness of alcohol present, some malt sweetness emerges late but not an acceptable version.

26. Great Lakes (64): Sweet candy flavor…too sweet and sugary…muddled looking in glass…light spoiled eggs on aroma…a touch of caramel apple sourness. Not very good.

25. Left Hand (68): Looks the part with nice clarity and an amber color. Candy caramel aroma, a bit thin, finishes with too much bitterness for style.

23. (tie): Millstream (70):Sweeter with caramel like malt flavor…a little musty…not to style but ok.

23. (tie): Point (70): Light caramel flavor, thinnish…ok

21. (tie): Sam Adams (71): Unique toasted caramel candy. Pretty gooey and muddled. Sweet flavor. It’s ok.

21. (tie): Victory (71): Very disappointed with how this fared. Based on the info on its brewing process and the reputation of this brewery I expected this to give the German’s a run. Toasty malt, light spoiled eggs on aroma, not clean tasting but ok A little dirty and thin. Nice burnt orange color.

19. (tie): Goose Island (72): Sticky sweet, sugary caramel flavor, over sweet.

19. (tie): Sprecher (72): Another one I expected to make a run that fell short and finished the second lowest ranked out of the six Wisconsin offerings. Sweet, sugary caramel flavor. Caramel bomb. Not to style but not a bad beer.

18. Sierra Nevada (73): Light grainy, bready aroma…light bread grains on the taste…herbal hops, but too much bitterness on the finish..some lemony notes..decent enough

17. Leinekugel’s (74): Weakly flavored and a bit adjuncty tasting. Not too sweet, some toasty malts but nothing distinguishing either.

15. (tie) Capitol (77): Nice toasty malt flavor. Caramel notes not noticeable. Malty and almost a little sticky.

15. (tie) Lakefront (77): A bity too much carbonation and has a fizzy feel at points. Mild malt sweetness. A quality German style malt feel to this. Too bad the carbonation and fizzy feel brings it down a little. Flavor wise this is an 83-to-85.

13. (tie) Brooklyn (78): Light toasted malts, along with a toffee like flavor. Good flavor. A bit thin.

13. (tie) Summit (78): I’ve always found this a bit boozy and sticky but it showed up well in the tastings. Munich malt notes evident on aroma and taste. Slightly boozy with too much alcohol bite but nice Munich maltyness.

12. Spaten (79): Basic German malt feel, dry finish, slight skunkiness..pretty solid overall. Probably an 85ish beer without the slight skunk…

11. Bell’s (80): Bready, toasty malts…nice. Grassy hops. This is legit.

10. Central Waters (82): Nice toasted malts with a light caramel breadiness which is acceptable per style. I liked it and the tasting notes on all the tastings were remarkably similar.

8. (tie) Schells (83):The highest scoring US Oktoberfest and I am not surprised. I noted toasty, bready malts…a couple of the tastings I noted German like malt backing. I’ve never found this boozy before but one of the notes mentioned it being slightly boozy on the finish.

8. (tie) Weihenstphener (83):Lighter bodied. Grainy sweet, pretty good wiesn style…pretty flavorful pils like malt with light grassy hops but lighter style….slight skunk

7. Hacker-Pschorr (85):Nice basic German style malt backing with a spicy, dry finish….

4. (tie) Becks (86):Surprise, surprise. Never expected Beck’s to top Spaten. Might have had to do with freshness but there was no question in the scores or the comments. Nice grainy toasty maltiness with a slight dry finish..some bready notes..great looking beer with a clear burnt orange color…rich, impressive grainy malt aroma…slightly sharp on the finish.

4. (tie) Dinkelacker (86): Never heard of this brewery but this Oktoberfest was unique and scored well. Aroma was noted as cola like in all the tasting notes. Flavor described as big and bready with grapenuts like notes and hard water mineral characteristics.

4. (tie) Ayinger (86): Clean malt with a rich impression probably from decoction. Rich malty aroma…grainy flavor that keeps getting better. Very good.

3. Warsteiner (87): I’ve never been huge fan of Warsteiner but this showed up in the taste testing’s. Multiple comments on tasty, toasty Munich like malts…bready….upper level…

2. Hoffbrau (88): The initial tasting scored it 81 but it was from a bottle and some off notes were present. Decided to buy two of the mini-kegs for the future tastings. Scores jumped up considerably. Clean yet pleasantly sweet with a grainy wiesn style. Excellent clarity. Sweet pils like malt with a touch of grapenuts. Grassy hops but not overdone…other comments…”great beer”…”good light sweetness’….

1.Paulaner (92): I’ve always thought Hacker and Paulaner Oktoberfests were the same beer but in this tasting Paulaner came out on top each and every tasting. Maybe it was the bottle conditioning. I don’t know but the comments were relatively the same for both beers. This one had notes of nice rich German malt flavor with light spicy hop notes. Lightly toasty…top notch.

****I did not review Paulaner Wiesn.

****The initial round tasting were easier to score with a wider range of beers. The final ten were a bitch to separate for the most part. The final scores are what I came up with but the final ten are all really top notch...even the next few after that could belong in the top ten

 

Yeah I almost pulled Hoffbrau from the tasting after the bottle tasting as it was clearly not 100% but still scored low b- range...made me decide to pull the trigger on a couple of the mini kegs. One of which sat for five days after the tasting and I finished it at that point (no taste testing with it at this point)...let me just say those mini kegs are not designed to last five days after they are opened. I drank it but very flat...

 

Penn is one I assumed would be good but have no access to so yeah I'd be up for that. I'll message you and can send some Schells out your way if you do not get that.

 

Can't wait to see...hope you have Staghorn which I could not get easy access to and would have loved to have included..

 

Thanks for the info on the spoiled eggs...I'm not a brewer so I have no idea really what gives that off but now I know...thanks...

 

Good idea splitting them up. It was so clear when tasting I just rated them for the style but it would be a better tasting to split them up....

 

The Hoffbrau I had in bottles was not 100% but your method for purchasing makes a lot of sense....the minikegs really let the beer shine through but they do not last long...