Fall Beer Sightings? (2021)

If I had to pick a QB for my team, it’s Brett Favre. Coming from a Bears fan, respect!

 

This seems highly unlikely - the early marzens are just starting to hit stores - and no Founders here in Ohio yet....my guess is they put out 2020 left over stock, and that is gone - not 2021 - doubt the distributors even have gotten it yet from Founders

 

I typically always see ST's Pumking and Warlock the last week of July around here - nothing unusual about this - but have not seen them yet this year

 

Funny, those are the only 2 I have seen around Philly. My main stop has their seasonal aisle almost cleared out I'm assuming in anticipation of the pumpkin/Oktoberfest releases.

 

Just spotted New Holland’s Ichabod at a local store in my neck of the woods, along with an Oktoberfest, can’t recall the brewery. They weren’t prominently displayed however.

 

Crushed a six of Bells Oktoberfest and tasted fantastic. I never complain about seasonal creep and just enjoy the fresh beer!

 

Already have been enjoying a bunch of Oktoberfest and the collection keeps growing... We are up to a respectable dozen already this year that we have enjoyed, with a few new additions to buy this afternoon when we stop by the bottle shop who posted a few more new ones that arrived in. The beer fridge is looking good these days.

 

I am looking forward to reading your 2021 version of Oktoberfest tastings.

Cheers!

 

@JackHorzempa

We have decided to the skip the (big) blind tasting bracket this year, but that won’t stop us from at least picking our favorites of course!

So far, Fat Head’s has really impressed us this year and is likely our #1 thus far. Much better than the past few years, for sure. Warsteiner on the other hand, is not very good this year (it was the winner last year for us). Tastes already old/oxidized, doesn’t stand a chance. Spaten has been quite nice, as is the pair of Paulaner options. Still waiting on Hofbrau and Weihenstephaner to arrive as the final ‘big’ import options.

But so far this year, local/domestic options are winning. Hofbrau is usually a top dog each year, so I will be curious how that will be when it arrives in.

 

I just can't understand why German breweries bottle/can beers like Oktoberfest in the spring when these beers are intended for the fall season. Just stupid IMO.

The majority of Oktoberfest beers I consume are domestically brewed. For this beer style (and most beer styles for that matter) fresh is best.

Cheers!

P.S. I will miss reading about your big blind tasting brackets. I have always really enjoyed them in the past. But I get that this is a lot of effort to do. Maybe you will miss doing this enough that a it will return in 2022?

 

Not all are bottled in spring, some are summer, like most domestic ones it seems as well. I will say to play devils advocate (on beeradvocate ) Ayinger is almost always the oldest when it gets here and yet it still is rated the highest of them. Last I checked at least.

edit: I think it is more bizarre that domestic breweries are bottling theirs in July when they don’t even need to make the voyage to get here.

 

Correct but it sure sounds like the Warsteiner beer discussed above was bottled in the spring (or just 'beat up' on the long boat ride across the Atlantic?).

Cheers!

P.S. A few years ago I purchased three big bottles of Ayinger and those three beers were bad. I have not purchased Ayinger Oktoberfest beers since.

 

Ayinger had some quality issues in the 2017-18 timeframe where the beer had noticeable diacetyl buttered popcorn flavor but they seemed to have fixed whatever was going wrong for their exports these past couple years.

As for sightings, Altstadt's Oktoberfest finally made it out of the Hill Country to DFW. Still have yet to see Shiner, Southern Star or any of the other lower tier options from Texas.

 

I suppose that is good news. But sending over bad product in the recent past and pricing those bottles expensively is a bad move. Those bottles should have been removed from retailers' shelves vs. selling bad stuff to consumers.

Cheers!

 

Just got back from the store... Picked up a sixer of our favorite Pumpkin Ale (Whole Hog) that just arrived in off the truck while in the store... As well as two bottles of Ellicottville Pumpkin Latte which was awesome last year. We will try one of each today probably, but the rest head into my lagering fridge at 30F until late Sept/Oct. Problem is of course, the good ones are gone by the time you want to buy and drink them, so we buy early and store as best we can until the season has arrived. Def plan to buy more Whole Hog if it's as good as it was the previous years!

Also bought some more Oktoberfest of course (2x bottles of Thirsty Dog Barktoberfest, 2x Bells and a Yuengling). Still no sign of Hofbrau, Ayinger or Weihenstephaner this week.

 

I saw a stack of Pumking last week (Long Island, NY) I’ll wait for some Warlock to appear.

 

I will be interested in hearing what you think of this beer.

Cheers!

 

I have not had that one in a very long time. Perhaps it is time for a revisit.

 

Perhaps long enough that this would count as a 'new' beer for NBW?

Cheers!