Best American-brewed Oktoberfest beers in 2019

Your not alone there.

 

No, it’s not psychosocial. I enjoy Bitburger, having drank it both here and in Europe. I don’t think it has the same malt character of past years, or in general what makes O’fest enjoyable for me.

 

From what I've had so far this year SN is my top fav. But do they really count as an American Oktoberfest being it a collab with a German brewery?

 

Just had Cape May Ofest, really good beer.

 

Let me add I liked the last few collabs better, but this most certainly isn’t a bad beer. I’d just never guess it to be a Festbier, on one hand it doesn’t have that smooth malty mouthfeel, and imo it’s just not clean like pale fests, it’s a bit grainy and it’s a bit sharp on the finish. Very drinkable though.

 

I think @eppCOS is on to something.

 

Yeah, definitely not a bad beer but I feel like they've set the bar fairly high for themselves since they started doing the collabs

 

I’d agree with that.

 

So far this year I have enjoyed Bell's Oktoberfest, Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest and from a local brewery here in Tallahassee, Proof's Prooftoberfest the most so far.

I typically am a big fan of Left Hand Oktoberfest but it is only available in cans here this year and frankly I found it an undrinkable mess. I'm hoping that was just a fluke with the six-pack I bought.

 

Sam Adams Octoberfest for me, and it's not really close.

 

Here’s a contribution to the thread from two guys who like beer.

These are the American Oktoberfests/Marzens that @SomethingClever and I acquired to sample. Obviously we would love to have added Old Mecklenburg (especially based on every beer I’ve had from them), New Glarus Staghorn, and @herrburgess ‘s Bierkeller based on feedback from the masses, but we aren’t that powerful.

We marked everything on the bottom and poured and mixed them accordingly. Then we randomly started drinking them with water and pretzels in between and started assembling them from left to right in order of our overall preference for an Oktoberfest. We did take some notes along the way. Especially after our final lineup, but only what we thought were significant aspects, and tried to stick to what we basically decided was the one I would want to drink 6 of.



I will let @SomethingClever chime in, but I think the biggest takeaway for both of us was that the bottom 3 of the 8 were pretty solid bottom 3. In fact, neither of us finished those. Also, the top 3-4 were pretty interchangeable. I know I switched my top 3 around a few times before settling.

Here were my top 2 and overall rankings:


Here were Dave’s:


So we definitely agreed on the top 2. And Sam Adams and Fat Heads were both in our bottom 3. In defense of Fat Heads, we both noted a distinct skunky aroma and taste which I didn’t experience on draft, nor did he in his bottles, so maybe a bad bottle. We would like to have another Goose Island to drink solo though based on our differences.
In other interesting results, both of us were shocked to flip over a Bell’s cup, we both noted a distinct hop profile (he said “too hoppy”) in the Three Floyds, yet I liked it more than him, we both bet a 6 pack on the Sam Adams out of the pack and were both right, and I noted that the Sierra Nevada seemed liked a hybrid (Marzen/Festbier) and it fell in the middle for both of us.
In closing, among the most intriguing observations was him saying (about the Sam Adams) “this has the best nose and the most flavor (right or wrong to style), but I don’t know if I would want an entire glass”. I agreed. Or this...


Prost!

 

I can get behind this. Von Trapp is awesome this year (as it was last year and probably the year before that....)

 

I’ve really enjoyed their Helles, and Vienna too, and their Dunkel is probably my second favorite behind Ayinger, and ahead of Hofbrau.m
Also, I saw you really liked Copper Legend. Based on everything I had tried from Jacks Abby I expected it to be great, but both @SomethingClever and I were disappointed with it. Do you think this year’s batch was better than past?

 

Ok good. I don’t feel as bad saying this might be better than the imported amber Oktoberfests.

Although the Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest I had on draft today was delicious.

 

Thanks for sharing. Nice taster there. Well done

 

For what its worth I've struggled this year to find an elite American made ofest. I started today with Ayinger and it was all down hill from there with Beaver Isand and Summit. Neither are bad but that's a high bar with Ayinger

 

I'm just hoping that I can get some more. This one wasn't too easy for me to track down. Then I can give it the real test and have a liter or two.

I really do like the idea of starting with a Vienna malt base, and wish that there were more American brewers taking a similar approach. Sly Fox is another one doing that. Somehow these beers seem to straddle the amber and pale Oktoberfest styles perfectly.

 

Red Oak Oktoberfest is coming out soon, it won’t be bottled I’m guessing, but it’ll be available in Growlers. I’m betting it’s a damn good beer too, but we’ll see. I want me some Mecktoberfest most Riki Tic.

 

Good call. We noticed that we were starting to move the paler ones toward the front and started to understand why they are leaning Festbier in the mainland now. That’s why I would like to have the version of Fat Heads that I had at the brew pub because it really straddled that line and was quite enjoyable.