Who's Ready for Fall Beers?

Haven’t read all the responses and I’m sure this has been said before.

But a curse on anyone who wishes away summer. Give me 90s year round in return for no winter. I can drink an imperial stout at any point in the year. Doesn’t have to be 5F outside to be enjoyable

 

It's early august and there's already a chill in the air before noon where I live. I'm definitely looking forward to fall beers and Oktoberfest beers especially. The monopoly has a set launch date of september first for their Otoberfest beers. This year Brooklyn Oktoberfest will make an appearance and I look forward to trying it alongside the old Munich favorites. Weihenstephaner (dry and balanced) also made the cut this year along with Karmeliten Festbier (similar to Löwenbräu but drier). I'll be picking up plenty of Löwenbräu (richly malty sweet and hop aromatic) and Spaten Oktoberfestbier (lightly sweet yet balanced and malt aromatic) and I hope we get a couple of different batches of each this year as well.

 

Picked up my first of the season today

 

Trying to improve on beer patience. Difficult to say the least

 

I really enjoy Marzens but it's too early to crave them. It's 90 degrees and humid. Talk to me after Labor Day!

 

Rules???? Who needs stinking rules???

 

Pssshhh...look at these people from the north complaining about the heat!
I, for one, fucking hate the cold and hate winter. Snow, blizzards, freezing rain, sleet, hail, and frostbite are all terrible. I hate every second of the winter here in New York. In fact, I hate the cold so much that I am actually planning on moving to Florida in the next 1-2 years. I am still quite content with this summer, and even when it gets slightly uncomfortably hot some days, it's still infinitely better than slipping on the ice, shoveling snow, driving in the freezing rain and shivering all day. I hate winter. The only good thing about it is beer, but I go crazy with cabin fever being housebound all winter.

Okay, now that I got that rant out of the way, I will confess that I do look forward to all the hop harvest beers in the fall. I don't care for pumpkin beers, though. Way too overspiced. I'm not a fan of most Octoberfest beer, either, although I do like Sierra Nevada's and prefer Festbier over Marzen.

Hear, hear.

 

Re: seasonal creep.

In part, we (beer consumers) are to blame for that since we stop buying seasonals immediately when the "season" is over.

How many "Oktoberfest" beers sell after Halloween?
How many pumpkin beers sell after Thanksgiving?
How many Christmas beers sell after Christmas?

The brewers can sell these beers early, but not late.

Hence, seasonal creep.

 

I've been drinking maltier beers, so maybe I'm ready for fall beers. I'm not ready for fall weather though, bring on the seasonal creep I guess.

 

Do you drink porter or stout (or similar) when it's hot out? If so, why are Marzen's any different?

I never got the seasonality of Festbier/Marzen to some people. You can easily enjoy those year-round! I wish more breweries would do year-round of the "Oktoberfest" styles... They are delicious anytime, especially when hot/warm out in summer. Then of course, delicious in cooler months as well

 

To me what makes a Marzen special is that it's a quintessential seasonal beer that I associate with autumn and autumn activities. I don't buy it in July or August for the same reason I don't put up Christmas decorations in October. It's just a personal opinion. I love this style of beer but I wouldn't want to drink it year-round. That would detract from what makes it unique and something I look forward to.

 

I'm a bit surprised how few pumpkin beers are out compared to the past two years. The last couple of years, they started showing up in late May or early June, and most of them were out by early August. I've only seen a couple. Perhaps brewers are more cautious this year for some reason? Or maybe there are fewer coming out?

 

I was just thinking this. I haven’t seen any seasonal beers in my neck of the woods in CT and could have sworn they would have started to come out by now. It’s gonna be in the upper 80’s to 90’s this week so I’m fully enjoying some Summer Shandys and Goose Islands 312 in this heat. Mid August is when I Brew my yearly pumpkin ale and I’m usually enjoying a few bottles of Southern Tier’s Harvest Ale. That beer is usually the beginning of my fall Imbibing!

 

I've only seen a few Oktoberfests, and maybe a harvest ale. So much better if they're still fresh in late September through late November when I'm craving some toasty/grainy/pumpkiny fall beers. Then on to Christmas/Winter beers, particularly stouts.

 

I'm always ready for fall beers. I know the early (anything before late September) release of fall seasonals grinds the gears of some BAs but it just means another go around for beers I'd happily drink year around. I just picked up the SA fall pack and I'm pretty happy w/it. Oktoberfest, pumpkin ale, spruce lager, black lager, and coffee pale ale--its a great pack.

 

I wanna know why there's no, "it's complicated" in the poll, c'mon man what the fuck?

 

Over a month out from my comment, I’m still not ready.

However, my main store told me over the weekend that they had a bunch of Fall beers in the back but aren’t putting them out yet until the summer supply on the floor further dwindles.

I don’t know if this is common, but if so, a problem in my mind with the “seasonal creep” depending on how long they hold them back for.

Despite my disagreement with drinking Fall beers in July, I’d much rather prefer they’re put on the floor as fresh as possible giving me the option to buy them sooner than later.

 

Looking forward to cooler temps and brews that go with it. Summer is highly overrated.

Bring on the beers my wallet hates me for: Old Jubilation, Hibernation, Winter Warlock, Celebration, OSA, etc. Anxious to see what Bruery's 11 Pipers Piping is gonna be..