Favorite New England fall beer

Trillium's Deciduous ale is a great seasonal that I enjoy

 

Last year Mayflower ditched their fall seasonal, the dark Autumn Wheat, in favor of a new brown ale, Hometown. I liked Autumn Wheat but this new one constitutes an improvement. Darker brews are Mayflower's strongest suit, I think, as do many I guess considering the popularity of their Porter.

I've also been drinking lots of Jack's Abby Copper Legend over the past few autumns. It's their Oktoberfest beer and though it's not hugely true to style, it's a comfort brew to me.

I haven't been seeing any Slumbrew since I moved out of the big city back in the springtime, but next time I'm there I'm going to make a point of looking for a few bombers of their Attic and Eaves, a rich and toasty and somewhat imperialized brown ale. Really good.

 

How so?

 

Matt Steinberg, former brewer of Mayflower and current of Exhibit 'A', has the Briefcase Porter now with his new outfit and it tastes very similar to the Mayflower porter... I might even say it is slightly bigger in flavor.

I second that opinion on Attic and Eaves... that is the best brown ale I've ever had. Toasty and nutty.

 

I've always dug the old BBC Octoberfest myself, for what it is. Had the new Life on Marzen, or whatever it's called, and loved it too. I thought the same thing, drier, but still big. Good stuff.

The Otter Creek was more like a hoppy red ale, weird it would come out that way when it was a collab with a German brewer, though I also think "collabs" are more marketing than anything. I liked it a lot though.

Haven't seen Southern Tier Harvest Ale around, always look forward to that, although not technically allowed in this thread.

And I still yearn for Catamount Porter and OC Stovepipe, awesome beers to drink in fall...

 

I just picked up Zero Gravity's Oktoberfest and think its pretty tasty. It's a marzen rather than a festbier, but it avoids the overly thick/sweet thing that American versions sometimes seem to have. Very drinkable.

My Oktoberfest experience is fairly shallow, so for you German schooled folks take this for what it's worth. I'd love to hear what someone with more of a comparison base thinks though as Zero Gravity has been pretty spot on with everything else I've had from them.

 

Have you had any of the imports? That should give you a good base for what a proper amber Oktoberfest should taste like.

Their Pils and Kellerbier are good, not my favorite, but I wouldn't shy from either of them. The Kellerbier I'll have to give a few more shots though, I noticed it was dry hopped, and paid attention to that with my second can and it did seem too hoppy, but still a good drinker.

So, it seems their track record with German styles isn't too shabby. I'll seek out their Oktoberfest to make it a solid 19 different Oktoberfests in the last few weeks...might be 20 if I get to Nightshift's first.

 

In general I've sort of avoided imports because of getting burned with old beer back in the day. But I made a specific point to start sampling some in the past year or two (with generally good results!) but haven't really ventured into the Oktoberfest waters yet. Now that I'm writing this it occurs to me that I should rectify that given how well my other ventures have gone.

In the past I've had at least Paulener, Spaten, and Weihenstapher but they didn't make much of an impression at the time, likely because they were old and ill cared for. Any suggestion on the best place to start? I tend towards preferring festbiers or the crisper/less sweet side of Marzens.

 

Yup, start with Weihenstephan this year. Paulaner's Wies'n was excellent on draft, but I only had it once, and it was after a long day of drinking. Otherwise I've only seen it in that 1 liter can or 12 packs. That's a bit of a commitment if you've never had it.

Hofbrau's is the heftiest of all imports (amber or pale), at 6.3%, and I'd give that a shot too. But start with the Weihenstephan. It's the lightest (at least in color) of all three, and is exactly like an amped up Helles.

Just check dates on ANYTHING you buy, not because this year's aren't fresh, but because some retailers pull stock from last year. But this is the time of year you have your best shot at drinking fresh(ish) imports.

If you want to delve into the amber style, I'd start with Ayinger, it toes the line between the two styles. The one caveat is some members have been detecting diacetyl in Ayinger this year. I got it slightly in a draft I think, and I've tried the half liter and 0.33 L bottles as well. I didn't really care for any of them, mostly because they really lacked any depth in character, very bland and uninspiring, and very un-Ayinger like. If you want to go heavy handed, get some Spaten. Paulaner has been my favorite this year.

If you check the forums there should be plenty of info on how these companies date their bottles, except Ayinger, they suck and don't date bottles.

 

Thanks for all the useful info! I think I'm going to New Beer Sunday a couple of those this week. And I think I'm sensitive to diacetyl (I really don't like Pilsner Urquell) so that's a good tip about the Ayinger.

 

Just cracked a Banded Horn Oktoberfest, ridiculously delicious. A ton of malt complexity with a bone dry finish. Seek it out!

 

For the German one's (which I don't know why we're discussing in this thread ) @AlcahueteJ nailed it. Go straight for Weihenstephan and Hofbrau, although I'd put the latter first. Real nice festbier at an affordable price, $8.99 a six around here. I've gone back for seconds and thirds of that one, as opposed to Weihenstephan, which was $3.99 for 500ml, and festbiers are made to be consumed in quantity, so it can get expensive drinking that one. I've also had a ton of the NE Marzen's and while a lot were good, I think I'm done with them (and it's only 9/15!), except for BBC, I'll buy a couple more bombers.

 

Welcome to Late Response Theater.

I think Copper Legend is a nicely decocted, satisfying lager, and it's got the smoothness I associate with an amber Marzen, but not the soft pungency (for lack of a better term -- I don't write reviews so I lack vocabulary). I recall a few people here likening it to a Vienna lager, which sounds about right to me. This in regard to an effort at style categorization; as a beer, I dig it and keep buying it.

(I'm still buying up any lingering, just-out-of-season Sunny Ridge pils sixers I find, for that matter. While I wasn't looking, Jack's Abby seasonals quietly turned into my primary go-to brews. Roll on, Red Tape. Let's go, Saxony Lager.)

 

I believe Saxony Lager is a year round offering. If you found some fresh enough you could do a side by side with Copper Legend.

I find Saxony to be a fairly spot on Vienna lager, and I dig it. I didn't really care for this year's installment of Copper Legend (I liked it two years ago I think), so I'd be curious how the two compare.

 

JA Saxony Lager is seasonal (its their winter offering). You'll be able to compared some dated Copper Legend with it in probably 3-4 months.

FYI, Total Wine in Natick has Von Trapp Oktoberfest.

I just tried the Spaten Ur Marzen Oktoberfest and was unimpressed. Had a strange aroma that was almost Budweiser-esk. Finish wasn't nearly as smooth as JA Copper Legend. A little watery too. Not gonna go back to that beer.

Need to seek out Oxtoberfest that has been mentioned here a couple times.

 

Ah, it is seasonal, you're right. It's their late winter/spring seasonal. Red Tape Lager is up next for the winter. I really dig both, and I'm glad they're seasonal, gives me more reason to purchase them. I think I thought Saxony was year round because I still saw it kicking around stores.

That being said I feel as if Sunny Ridge steadily improved, but then this year was less memorable to me. Same with Copper Legend, falling off for me in the past two years.

Odd you found Spaten to be watery and Budweiser-like. It's by far the darkest amber Oktoberfest, at least out of the imports, and also the heftiest in terms of overall malt profile. Typically it's one of my favorites, but fell a bit short this year. Still, I didn't find it water or Budweiser-like.

Did you check the date on it if it was from the bottle? And also, they still come in green bottles so it's possible it was skunked and/or old.

Von Trapp is next on my list. I think I'm at over 20 different Oktoberfests this year, some of which I've had multiple cans/bottles of and drafts...I love this season.

Had Oxbow's last year in Portland, didn't particularly care for it, but I also couldn't tell you what I didn't like about it either. I like what Oxbow does in general though, cool tap room.

 

Ya, this time of year is great. I was a malt head before the NE region upped its IPA game and I'm glad to be revisiting/re-appreciating that side of beer.

I didn't check the date. I have another bottle and will do that. Here on BA, there are two different versions of Spaten Oktoberfest. You think we're talking about the same one? In any case, different genetics and experiences = different preferences. Ah well, more for others. I don't have the experience drinking more than two years back of Copper Legend but I'm pretty happy with this year and would have preferred that over this Spaten. I'm excited to try the Von Trapp and see how it compares to what I've had so far this year... picked up a couple singles last night.

Cheers.

 

The other one is their Oktoberfestbier (pale Oktoberfest) brewed for the actual Oktoberfest festival (although I think you can find it in bottle shops as well over there). That one doesn't get imported over here, and is a different beer style.

Have you tried other German imports? Paulaner's was the smoothest, with the richest malt profile so far this year of the imports. I honestly don't recall too many details about Copper Legend this year, other than that it missed the mark for me, likely due to a lack of robust dark bread/crust character I get from imports. At least visually Copper Legend is very light, as someone has mentioned, it looks like a Vienna lager.

 

That Paulaner sounds like my type of Octoberfest! They were sold out of singles tho when I went to Total Wine in Natick last night... and I think 6-packs too. Will add that to the list. Thanks!

 

The Von Trapp Oktoberfest is my biggest disappointment. I like the brewery a lot but find their Okto a bit too hoppy for what I'm looking for. Strange coming from a brewery that isn't known for that....maybe it was just me. Interested to hear your opinion on it once you have it.

Copper Legend has a come a long way. While I think it lies somewhere between pretty good and great these years, it was just plain bad the first year it was released.