Local-ish Oktoberfest beers

This is the reason I never buy "regular" beers from the breweries I deem to be hop-crazy, which for me means IPA-centered. I am just not interested in spending money to find out if they were able to hold back this time.

 

I went for an Oktoberfest for nostalgia's sake, went with Bells, and am fine if I don't have another Octoberfest for the next 10 years...

 

Märzen is just generally not a style I look forward to each year. But I usually pick up a pack of Lager Town as I love it’s spicy hop contrast to the caramel malt base. I’m finding this year’s especially enjoyable.

As a contrast, I also picked up SN’s Oktoberfest as it’s been many years since I’ve tried it. It’s more traditional and very caramel forward. So it falls into my general feelings on the style.

 

Sierra Nevada, sorry.

 

Interesting, I’ll check that thread out. Maybe my palate was off (I’ve only had one bottle so far). But it definitely had a candy-like flavor to me that brought Werther’s to mind.

 

Tried Sun King's last night and thought it was very meh.

It's not an Oktoberfest but was feeling a brown ale given the weather yesterday and tried Alesmith's, absolutely wonderful stuff.

 

Having a Revolution Oktoberfest and am surprised we have not discussed it more, I'm absolutely loving it! Great balance between that nice caramel malt flavor up front that gives way to a nice bready flavor.

Really good stuff, one of my favorite so far this year.

Edit: I almost detect a little rye malt in there too. What a lovely beer.

 

Goose Islands Marzen is horrible

 

I loved Rev’s original recipe Oktoberfest, it had a hop character similar to Lager Town. They changed it after a few years to be closer to a traditional Märzen style. Agree it’s very good for a local, just wish I enjoyed true Märzens more.

 

Old Irving Brewing announced the release of their Oktoberfest beer yesterday. https://www.facebook.com/OldIrvingBrewing/ I'm hoping it's last year's recipe, which was awesome!

 

Munsterfest and Solemn Oath's Oktoberface were both excellent. Solemn Oath's is also a 4 pack of 12oz cans! I think it was $8.99 so if you only want a little, that's a benefit.

 

Yeah that could be why I liked it It's probably on the more aggressive side, especially if you've had a bunch of the German offerings lately.

Speaking of, I hit a jackpot at a Binnys yesterday and found basically every remaining Oktoberfest I've been wanting to try this year in their mixed 6 pack selection... Bells, Paulaner, Hofbrau, Weihenstephaner, Hacker-Pschorr and Hofbrauhaus Freising's Festiber. I was extremely excited about it.

I cracked the Bells last night and found it to be a nice offering but from some of the rave reviews here I expected better.

Then I had the Paulaner which I found to be wonderful. I am struggling to think of words to describe the taste profile but maybe a bit of noble hop flavor followed by some wonderful bready malt, but it was also so much more than that.

Delicious stuff, maybe the best I've had all year.