Let's Give Lagers Some Love (2025)

I just found out about this place last fall (after it closed for the season) but I’m not in Portage very often anymore. I need to visit when I’m back in town, thanks for the reminder!

 

Check their social media if it's an iffy weather day. They're good about forecasting and posting whether they will be closed on those days.

 

Jack, it was a rare instance of not seeing a canning date as Burial is usually stellar unlike some breweries which i am not sure what happens on the canning line to cause blurred or misfiring on printing on the bottom of the can (the streak of ink on the side-bottom of the can).

 

Oh, it was a situation of a failed dating vs. choosing not to date the cans. I did not realize that.

I have been to Burial multiple times but I solely drank draft beer there.

Cheers!

 

My wife and I had dinner at one of our local breweries, Handmap Brewing, where we are mug club members. Consequently you can't see much of the beers, but we had a Czech Dark Lager and a Lime Gose along with our pizza. Both were very good.

 

Missed my train and a 40 minute wait for the next one. Let’s see how many Schilling Nordertor, their homage to Flensburger Pils, I can fit in.

 

11° Czech Dark Lager - Frequentem

Nice mild roasted malt with rich roasted coffee beans in the aroma. Toss in some pumpernickel rye and mixed nuts. Flavor is similar. A great drinking beer on its own, would be elevated with a sampling of salami or summer sausage.



And life is good. Maybe not quite Steve McQueen good, but good indeed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osl6EJGwFyM

 

Enjoying the Kombine collaboration, not a traditional "Helles", just a nice easy drinking lager.
Cheers!
Tom

 

Moonlight's Pale Dry Lager(Helles-Style) is an absolute banger!

 

@JackHorzempa

Just to give an update... This year so far we have tasted/enjoyed 31 different Oktoberfest. This year, as always, we change it up with how we do our 'research'.

This year, we filled out score cards of each beer as we enjoyed them, not blind, out of 25 points. Then on different days we have done some blinds of 3 examples we have had already, or thrown in a newcomer, and re-rated based on those (surprisingly, our scores were quite close on different days). Sometimes, just due to palate differences day-to-day, scores went up or down. Also, just overall "experience" for the season as we had more and more examples, we revisited some earlier ones to confirm scores and this was all factored into our top choices of the year, split between Festbier and Marzen.

That being said, we still have more "work" to do... Some stragglers of local and imports we still need to pick up and review/rate before doing our final tastings.

The final tastings will make up our top 5 Festbier and top 5 Marzen (different days) to pick our favorite of each side of Oktoberfest spectrum. This will be done blind and our final scores will be averaged between the two of us on those. We will know the beers obviously, but not the order, same glass, blindfolded, etc...

That being said, here are the top 5 from each (right now... subject to change. Some beers are just outside of the top 5 and will be re-tested/compared before the final lineup is selected):

Festbier

1. Fat Head's Oktoberfest
2. Hofbrau Oktoberfestbier
3. Sierra Nevada
4. Benedikter
5. Weihenstephaner

Marzen

1. Ayinger
2. Paulaner
3. Bell's
4. Ellicotville
5. Toppling Goliath


Some things to note...

Marzen has dominated this year compared to Festbier. Out of the 31, only 11 have been Festbier and the other 20 have been on the Marzen style of the spectrum. Note, some of these beers advertise themselves as "Oktoberfest" in which we expect them to fall somewhere in the middle between sides.

How about the best of the worst? Our lowest few examples include Half Acre, Wolf's Ridge, Northern Row, Fair State and Three Floyds.

Will do a final update in a few weeks with our final picks of 2025!

 

Still working on my stash of Maibocks. This one was way to the back and has a canned-on date of March '24. It's still a pretty good beer though.

 

Great input as always.

I look forwards to the next post (s).

Prost

 

I was in Denver last weekend for work - visited Bierstadt Lagerhaus and met with a college buddy for dinner. The Slow Pour Pils, Helles, and Dunkel were all excellent, and the currywurst was tasty too!

 

I was also impressed with Cohesion Brewing in Denver as well. All Czech style lagers. I enjoyed the Cohesion 12° and the Tmave 14°.

 

The Oktoberfest Season has begun (for me)!

Since it is now post Labor Day (Sept. 1st this year) and in my area (Philly area) there is now a nice cool(er) crispness in the air (early mornings and evenings) it is now perfect weather for Oktoberfest beers, as I posted in another thread in a reply to “cool nights”:

“FWIW that is the time of the day I most enjoy drinking fall style beers (e.g., Oktoberfest beers).”

So, last evening I drank my first Oktoberfest beer: Weihenstephaner Festbier.

I already have in my cellar: Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest, Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest Märzen, Von Trapp Oktoberfest along with the aforementioned Weihenstephaner Festbier.

The Weihenstephaner Festbier is a very tasty Pale Oktoberfest beer!



Prost!

 

It's getting close to October, so why not. Miskatonic Oktoberfest Festbier, Darien Illinois, solid beer.