BeerAdvocate Oktoberfest Tasting! (Sep 17-Oct 3, 2022)

It's better late than never to join in the fun.

I have only tried three German's so far this year, all in 11.2oz bottle format.

Ayinger Oktober Fest-Märzen L2138
Beautifully bready, dried fruits, fine carbonated, clean, slightly spicy, more toasted bread, finishing with nicely nuanced hops, delicious. This never disappoints.

Weihenstephaner Festbier 9202
Fresh bread with touch of spice and herbs, the palate is the star here, impeccably refined, malt and hops in harmony, pure liquid gold, off the chart crushability (is this a word?). I have easily gone through a 6-pack already, not in a day but you could. Festbier or not, I'd love to purchase this all year, simply excellent.

Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest Märzen 05.23
Darkest of all three, also the most malt forward, with mixed nuts, built for Autumn.

Overall, I like the Weihenstephan and Aying the most. That said, Hacker-Pschorr is still very solid to me.

The only domestic version I have tried was Notch Festbier on draft, really well made.

Hopefully I'll get to taste more next year!

 

Ludwig Festbier - Shared Brewing, Maplewood, MO



4.08/5 rDev -6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Brassy amber gold, bright clarity, huge puffy head after a slow pour. Toasty grains in the aroma, malt forward, clean and dry. Mellow and malty, toasty and grainy flavors, flavorful but the grainy character is maybe a touch too "raw". Light enough to put down easily, it paired well with the excellent margherita pizza from Pizza Champ at Shared Brewing.

 

Short answer: No.

But I do have both Ayinger and H-P on hand. The following is not a side-by-side evaluation but my assessment of the differences of the two beers is that Ayinger has a richer malt profile while in comparison H-P has a more 'dry' malt profile. For my palate the H-P has a more süffig (i.e., drinkability) quality while Ayinger is more of a 'one and done' sort of beer. If I were looking to conduct a session of Oktoberfest (Märzen) beer drinking, H-P would be my beer of choice between the two. In contrast if I was looking to drink just one beer to 'savor' then Ayinger would be my beer of choice. Coincidentally last evening I was in a 'savor' mood so I drank a bottle of Ayinger.

Since we are somewhat discussing the topic of better/prefer, the Oktoberfest beer that I prefer (and drink the most of) is Sly Fox Oktoberfest. For my palate Sly Fox Oktoberfest is the epitome of balance. I was grocery shopping earlier today and I strolled through the beer section and it took all my willpower to walk past the area where there were 12-packs of Sly Fox Oktoberfest beers.

Cheers!

@thebeers

 

Second Last Call for Oktoberfest, jk
Needa review...

 

Oktoberfest Festbier - Analytical Brewing, Lexington, IL


4.02/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Crowler from the source. Light amber, good clarity, a finger of foam and ring of drippy lacing. Aromas of toasted malt and mild apple sweetness. Mellow malty flavor, assertive with some toastiness and minor earthiness in the aftertaste. Medium bodied, smooth feel, carb is soft and easygoing. Subtle noble hop character without the bitterness. Overall this is a nice rendition.

 

Well, make sure you have a sufficient stock of Sly Fox Oktoberfest for the remainder of the season.

Cheers!

P.S. I almost, sorta bought more Sly Fox (12-pack) earlier today. I did have some Von Trapp Oktoberfest beers in my hand but it was a 12-pack and I really only wanted 6 of this beer.

 

Big Mac & Pistol Pete, really? you played against them? (sorry, didn't know Bristow).

 

So I made the sacrifice and managed to try all the above beers by today's deadline, my notes below. I wanted to have them all side by side, for comparison (and a great photo op), but I really couldn't commit to opening all at the same time. I'm just writing quick notes as I remember them, as I didn't try them side by side, and I'm going to try my hand at posting pictures so you can make your own decisions.

I'm trying to be as neutral as possible, because what I like is surely different than what others are going to like. All beers had solid Oktoberfest flavor, some more traditional than others, so my notes will be succinct.

Blue Heron Brewery - Octoberfest: This was the 'maltiest' of the bunch, but not overly so.

Brew Kettle (The) - Oktofest: Traditional flavor, just a hair lighter than the Great Lakes.

Great Lakes Brewing Company - Oktoberfest: Traditional flavor. Just a hair darker than the Oktofest, but very similar.

Maumee Bay Brewing Co. - Oktoberfest: Some historic notes, little bit of hop flavor, almost like a PBR back in the day but darker.

North High Brewing Co. - Oktoberfest: The 'hoppiest' and lightest of the bunch.

R. Shea Brewing - Oktoberfest: Some traditional flavor, some new notes, definitely a unique taste sensation.

 

Hello Advocates, onto the last round!
I did not mean to confuse anybody last night. That was just my last entry for the weekend. Luckily we still have a day

Captain Lawrence MärzenBier, courtesy of @sulldaddy
Aber color with a big foamy head that settles to dense finger thick layer, great retention.
Notes of caramel malts on the nose.
Taste follows suit with a fine hop note and just a hint of bittersweet.
Light body with good carbonation, easy to drink, I like it!

Prost!

 

Amazing. Absolutely amazing!

Amazing. Absolutely amazing!

Amazing. Absolutely amazing!

 

Got it in under the wire. Luckily we had the extension day for O-fest this year. Does it really matter? Yes, for us compulsive types. In the background, some German Tilsit and Hungarian smoked salami. Finally cracked open one of this years Ayengers. Good, but feel like something's missing. Much more enjoyed a Hacker-Pschorr a few weeks back. But hey, have more of both in the cellar. These Ayengers will provide great company to my brats and mashed dinners in the coming weeks.
Actually, the taste is improving as I type this out. Till next year...

 

Third Last Call for Oktoberfest

 

Today's final Festbier for me in our wonderful thread here started by our Grand Poo-Bah, Chief, Head Honcho, Chef and Tribe leader @Todd will be Hofbrauhaus Freising Festbier. It has lovely pale ripe fruit tastes, a med-bodied subtle earthy feel and finishes dry. Hofbrauhaus seit 1160 means beware of cheap imitations. Prost friends!!

4.88/5 rDev +26.8%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.75
11.2oz bottle into a 0.3L mug.
L: Pours soft caramel candy color w a 1' eggshell white standard head w excellent retention, very good & fine carbo, random light lacing and banding.
S: Caramel, bread, ripe juicy fruits, very light alcohol as the beer warms as well as more malty breadiness.
T: Light ripe fruits, sweet flowery hops, caramel malts, lightly nutty, a hint of citrus zest, earthy grains in the finish. It has a very inviting hop zing and is gently pale.
F: Fairly clean med-bodied w a fast, med-dry finish.
O: A very well balanced Festbier with good carbo and feel. Lightly rich, earthy and easy drinking, it is world-class in it's style.

 

Crosstown rivalry!
Lost Nation hands down for the win!!
Cheers!!!

 

With the extra game and what I’m hoping will be a deep postseason run, I probably do need more.

 

New Trail Oktoberfest

Today's first beer is one that picked up on a whim at my local distributor. I have never tried anything from New Trail before. I figured why not?

Well I shouldn't have. This beer is far too hoppy for my preferences, both for an Okto and for a beer in general. The aroma was dominated by hops as was the taste. I had trouble finding other scents and flavors. In the end, I didn't finish this one, sadly.



16 oz Can
Glassware: 0.5 L Festmug
Temp at Pour: 53.1 F
ABV: 6%


Look:
Clear copper with gold hilights. The cream-colored head is 1-finger high initially and is very fizzy. The head dissolves to nothing quite quickly, leaving no lacing.

Smell:
Sharp, zesty, and fruity hops. I can pick out some malt notes if I try, but barely. There is an "off" note in the aroma, which seems to come from the hops.

Taste:
An immediate spicy hop bite that is quite bitter for the style. Some sweet caramel malts peek through the bitterness but then fade into the background. The sip dries considerably as time progresses and finishes spicy, zesty, and moderately bitter.

Feel:
Crisp and astringent. The body is a medium-light.

Overall:
This beer is too bitter for what I look for in a Märzen. And just about too bitter for me to enjoy otherwise.

 

I prefer their darker Oktoberfest, but still a fine beer. This one has relatively high bitterness, making it slightly less quaffable.

 

That's a good lookin' beer.

 

Warsteiner Oktoberfest


4.02/5 rDev +15.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Deep brassy gold tone, compact yet fluffy head of foam, drippy lacing. Doughy aroma, malt and yeast both present. Light and flavorful, mild bread crust toastiness, vague earthy noble hop aftertaste. Slight malt sweetness initially, becoming dry on the finish. Light creamy feel, good structure and body. Overall i’m glad I got a six of this, and that it’s fresh. More aligned with Festbier in style.

 

Pictures below. See if you can tell which beer I was drinking late in the evening. They all poured really clean, but for some reason, I thought I'd try to pour as fast as possible to see how much foam I'd get. (I get bored easily, what can I say?) It seemed like a good idea at the time, but we all know how well things go when there is beer involved . . . .


Apologies for out of focus pic below, just noticed better pic (with flash) doesn't show true color of beer.

 

Whatever's going on here, it's over my head.

 

O-Katz (Oachkatzlschwoaf) - Urban Chestnut, Saint Louis, MO



4.08/5 rDev +6.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Revisiting an old favorite I haven’t seen in a few years. Canned 7-29-22. Light amber, slight haze, ample foam and a halo of lacing that coats the glass. Aroma is yeasty with some lightly fruity pear esters, more bread crust as it warms up a bit. Smooth and malty, somewhat grainy, mildly perceptible alcohol, earthy noble hop finish. Maybe a tiny hint of papery oxidation. Substantial body, easygoing carbonation. A little heftier than a Festbier, more of a hybrid Märzen in my opinion.

 

Juniata Brewing Company (Huntingdon, PA)- Oktoberfest, 5% abv

Very malty - toasty and fairly rich caramel flavor. But only moderately sweet in the finish.

No proper glassware as I am camping so my shatterproof pint glass will have to do.

 

Some pictures from my adventures…

 

…continued…

 

…and continued…

 

Weihenstephaner Festbier (from a can)

I didn't see that anybody specifically replied to @thebeers question in this thread. So I'll give it a go.

I did have a Weihenstephaner Festbier on draft at my local Oktoberfest celebration 2 weeks (and 1 day) ago. My review for that is post #160 in this thread.

The canned version did come across a bit different than the draft. I noticed the hops more in the draft, both in the nose and in the flavor. The malts seem to be somwheat more noticeable from the canned version. Plus there is also some honey notes that I noticed. I also did pick up some notes of pear, primarily in the nose but also in the taste. Not a ton of pear, but some pear. Was I falling for the power of suggestion? Perhaps I was. But I can see how one could interpret what I smelled and tasted as "fruity".



500 ml can
Glass: 0.5 L Festmug
Serving Temp: 51.7 F
ABV: 5.8 %
Look:
Clear and bright golden yellow with a 2+ finger off white foamy and creamy head. The head reduces to about 1 finger but stays and stays and stays. Even after I take a sip or 2. Lacing is OK - the head hasn't gone down enough to judge.

Smell:
Light bready malts with a fair dose of lemon. Some pear can be detected here and also hint of honey. Very mild notes of grass and a faint but prickly spiciness.

Taste:
Initial hit of light-colored honey (such as acacia) gives way to a mild peppery spiciness and some zesty lemon and a hint of spiced pear. Light doughy malts are in the background mostly but are there. The sip dries out a slight bit at the end and finishes slightly dry with all of the aforementioned flavors lingering in a subdued form, especially the zesty lemon. A light floral note shows up in the aftertaste. Everything here is expertly balanced.

Feel:
Crisp and clean but also soft. The body is light-medium.

Overall:
A top-notch Festbier that is insanely quaffable. This is a couple of shades too light in the body and the (bready) malts for my preferences. But I can tell that it is expertly done.

 

Last one in my fridge that is not a rerun of my previous posts. I still have others that were part of 4/6-packs I bought when I couldn't buy a single, but I enjoyed exploring the different Oktoberfests that I've had during this tasting so I'm still going to be looking other new ones if I can get a single.

Speaking of new ones, this Erdinger Oktoberfest has not been posted by anyone here yet other than the NA version. Why is that? Maybe it's a late arrival getting off the boat from Germany (my store just received it). But my store never gets anything first! Maybe it's because it's a weisse style and less popular? (It carries only a 3.65 BA rating.)

Regardless, I enjoyed it, and mostly because it doesn't have the banana or clove flavors that are sometimes found with this style, but mostly in its cousin the hefe. I was expecting them and was very surprised that they weren't there. I think this beer needs a 4.0 rating.

 

Well then. Time to stock up on the Sly Fox!

 

Mine too. I don't know how I did that.

 

Yeah, most folks don't typically associate Weissbier with Oktoberfest I would think. Though my local 'Fest did have Weihenstephan's normal Hefeweizen on draft the other weekend.

I have only seen 2 Weissbier style Oktos on the shelves - this one and Schneider's Festweisse. I did see Erdinger's Okto on a shelf this year, but I passed. I posted a tasting of the Schneider in post #316 of this thread.

 

That's a good one right there!

 

Oooooo ... that's and even better one right there!

If you like Weizenbocks of course.

I have only had Aventinus from a can once so far. I found that the cloves seemed sharper than when I had the beer from a bottle.

 

Masthead Brewing Oktoberfest
A bit more on the hoppy side of things. Still enjoyable!

 

Bell’s Octoberfest is always a tasty treat. Cheers to this extended thread. It was great to see old favorites and new beers to try next year. Prost!

 

Just another snifter of a nice Oktoberfest.

 

couple of last-minute oktoberfest hurrahs thanks to @Manta200



this one had a little too much spiciness to it for me. beautiful looking beer and nice mouthfeel but something in the taste was a little off to me. still, not a bad beer just didn’t finish as “clean” as perhaps i would prefer.



this one was nice. easy drinking. a little more caramel sweetness than i like but still tasty.

both of these, plus the last fortnight, had me thinking how fun this would be with German-only beers but i also wonder if i could find 17-18 different German-made Oktoberfest beers. not that that’s how it would have to be handled but according to my notes for this tasting thread i tried 18 different beers since this began. 10 of them were new-to-me beers. 6 of them were German. 5 of them were pale fest biers with the remaining 12 being Märzen (or “Märzen-style”). i was shooting for half German / half American and fell a bit below that mark. oh well. this has been a ton of fun, and very educational as well. cheers!

 

Harpoon Octoberfest

My final beer for this Tasting is one of the classics. At least to me. I first had this beer decades ago and like to have at least one every year. It's not my favorite, and isn't on par with most any of the German Oktos, but it is good for what it is - the prototypical American Okto/Marzen.

As I mention below, this beer does remind me of a spiced (amber) holiday ale in some ways.


16 oz can
Glassware: 0.5 L Pokal
Temp at Pour: 54.7 F
ABV: 5.3 %
IBUs: 30

Look:
The color is a clear dark copper with red hues that just might come across as garnet. The head is a creamy light khaki that starts at about 2 finger high and then slowly dissolves to a thin cover. Lacing is good.

Smell:
Sweet lightly toasted caramel with some doughy bread. Some notes of earth and spicy hops, especially towards th end. The Classic American Okto aromas.

Taste:
Initial taste is one of toasty and bready malts with a light dash of caramel. This is followed by earthy notes and then spicy ones as well. Some hay can be detected. There is an underlying soft note of dark fruits, almost like Luxardo cherries, but it is not distracting. The sip finishes lightly malty (bready, really) and spicy.

Feel:
Crisp and smooth. The body feels about medium-light. Maybe a shade lighter.

Overall:
A classic and prototypical American Standard Oktoberfest/Märzen. And a decent one at that. I find that the flavors in this beer make me think of a spiced (amber) ale This absolutely would be a good beer for mid to late fall.

 

Regarding your second paragraph, I haven't seen this one in stores this year.

Regarding your third paragraph, Erdinger claims that this Festweisse is a combination between a wheat beer and an Oktoberfestbier. My initial reaction to that claim was that it was silly marketing speak, but after having the beer a few times it really comes across like the brewer was actually trying to make a cross between a typical Hefeweizen and a typical golden Festbier. The strength is a bit stronger than their flagship Weissbier, and the banana or clove flavors are very toned down. I think this is a tricky beer to approach without being overly biased with regards to style expectations, but from my POV it seems like you've done a great job of avoiding that trap.

 

I think you nailed it with your description and the brewery's attempt at a hybrid weisse and festbier. In retrospect, that's exactly what it seemed like.

If you haven't seen this one yet, maybe it just got off the boat. The best-by date is April, 2023, so assuming a 1-year timing period, this one has been floating around awhile somewhere.