German / Imported Märzens

US Brewers have been pushing freshness long before the "craft beer" era and the legalization of taprooms.
Beer Freshness and Date Coding

 

Interesting.

I had some Buffalo Trace last night before Weihenstephan Pils and the Pils tasted great.

Maybe it’s because I didn’t have them together.

 

What did you have in-between, bacon cheeseburger?

That'd clean your palate -- but that Pils probably lost all flavor.

You guys toying with these delicate beers, I tell ya.

 

The Bourbon really killed the finish on the Weihenstephsner, but with AALs there not much on a finish to begin with , just a pleasant carb hit with the whiskey. Could be the abv too, perhaps a simple bourbon might work, but I’m interested in extreme whiskey.

 

Isn't an AAL just acting as a chaser anyway? Just water to wash it down.

You want enhancement to a bourbon I'd think a stronger Stout would be best. They sort of compliment each other. A Pils or Pale Fest just get stomped.

I even tried a couple schnaaps offerings in Munich and they pretty much killed the Helles I was drinking.

 

Thanks for the heads up. That would have confused me in the store. Unfortunately, the Wiesn is so hard to get.

 

I just stopped in a distributor today to pick up a case of Weihenstephaner original and was pleasantly surprised that he also had the Festbier, which I bought.

 

Mine are date 8250. This year's Wiehenstaphaner is pretty good. It's lighter than the HB in both body & color. I'll take HB for a few beers over the course of a few hours; the Wiehenstaphaner for some serious all-day drinking.

 

I think it was the Marzen. Found the Spaten I bought at Total Wine.

 

One would think but I was surprised how much of the nuances I could pick up after the bourbon.

Bready pils malt and that spicy Noble hop finish were notable.

Because in MA we have to order food with our drinks I got a side of pickled veggies with a Czech pale lager. Totally nuked the lager. So typically it’s very easy to ruin my palate regarding subtle pale lagers.

 

I wonder what you could have tasted in the Fest without the bourbon? Just me, but my palate would be ruined to taste anything subtle after the bourbon.

 

I think any beer loses a bit of its finesse depending on the bourbon, there’s degrees of bourbons too. It doesn’t make the beer bad obviously, but there’s a point where you get a mismatch. So a simple Bud works with most things because of it’s utter simplicity and your not expecting it to do anything. But I am expecting that Festbier to tickle my tastebuds in a way far different than any AAL, and having one with a bourbon completely killed the finish, just made it a bit weird. You learn as you go, a nice BA stout might be a great fit too, I’ve got a few but it’s still 90 degrees too, I’m a seasonal stout drinker.

 

I think you might be mixing me and @nc41 up.

I had a Weihenstephan Pils. Also, unlike him I had the bourbon before the Pils, not together.

I would still normally expect it to screw my palate up enough to mute the subtleties of the Pils (and perhaps it did to a degree, which I think is your point), but for whatever reason the Pils still tasted great following the bourbon.

 

I think you may have mixed us up, but I agree with your post, a subtle lager with the bourbon was my fault, it really screwed up the finish. Operator error and not the fault of the beer or bourbon. A subtle Fest isn’t a match for a close to a barrel proof bourbon.

 

Sorry, just mixed up the Pils with the Fest -- even if you had the bourbon before instead of with the "light lager," your palate would be skewed. Unless you flushed with a quart of water or it was 2 hours before.

@nc41

 

I learned my lesson, imagine how skewed that Fest would have been with an Ardbeg 10. It’s why I keep AALs around they work with anything I can throw down my neck.

 

Something I noticed if any Spaten fans are interested:
Blue Point has a canned Oktoberfest called Zümfest that's a collaboration with Spaten (more of the usual collaborations between brands under the same ownership). Note that this is a Blue Point beer. Here's the description of the beer:

@steveh

 

Whoa, awful lot goin' on with the hops and barrel conditioning there. If I see it (and remember it) I might grab it, but it's not something I'm going hunting for.

 

And rye too. Sixers are packaged in a cardboard box style (like Sierra Nevada, etc.) I passed on it but would grab a single if I bumped into one.

 

I noticed that the other day and was confused since there was another Blue Point Oktoberfest also on the shelf. (Given the AB connection, I didn't pay much more attention to it). Just checked their website and they had me scratching my head - "WTF?" - with this statement for the non-Zümfest one...