Oktoberfest suggestions

As it's been said a thousand times, this years SN Oktoberfest was fantastic.

Try out Dauntless by North Peak if you can get it. I tend to avoid the German Oktoberfests, especially Hofbräu after having itthe past three years and not liking it once.

 

I'm ticking thru the imported version, so far Hacker Pschorr is my favorite. I'm kinda surprised there's not more on the shelf.

 

Hofbrau and Beck's OFests never hit my area this year. A bit of a downer. But I did pick up some more Ayinger. Does anyone know how to read the numbers on the back? I bought from a place known to just sit on beers, so it may have been from last year.

And in what may be the worst Oktoberfest I have had this year, Flying Fish Oktoberfish finally hit my area. It's just way too sweet and syrupy. Even my dad who loves the American style found it to be nearly undrinkable. I want to say, STAY AWAY. But I did give it a single try.

 

Timely post. My four top Germans, based on my own ratings:
Ayinger, Paulaner, Hofbrau, and Spaten

My top four Americans:
Left Hand, Heavy Seas Cutlass Amber, Great Lakes, Sierra Nevada

Heavy Seas seems an anomaly on this list, but I must have experienced something wonderful in that bottle. As many said, is there a wrong choice in the marzen category? The watery ones at least have a little more malt character than their lager counterparts, and the good ones are as sweet as fall itself.

 

I've been drinking the crap out of Revolution Oktoberfest. Other than that just did a run up to Wisconsin for some New Glarus Staghorn, the American Oktoberfest that changed my mind about American Oktoberfests. The Leinie's actually ain't bad either, one of the better beers in their regular line up.

 

No, but the brewer/distributor likely does.

Is it two numbers? Or a letter and a number? Schlenkerla uses a letter and a number, and apparently all European brewers have to have something similar as a way of determining when the bottle was brewed. I'm fairly certain Ayinger has the same "code". I put code in quotations, because the letter and number do not translate from batch to batch. For example, "A1" could mean January of 2015 this year, and mean November of 2016 the following year.

Basically, if you really wanted, you could try e-mailing Ayinger and asking them if they know what the code means. Schlenkerla was very accommodating when I e-mailed them asking if their Eiche should have floaties in it. They said it should not, and they decoded the letter/number...the bottle was two years old. They requested a few more codes from other styles, and were able to give me more dates. Beyond that, you likely won't be able to continuously decode the dates on Ayinger bottles.

Try e-mailing them though, and let me know how it goes! Fresh beer is important to both the consumer AND the brewer.

 

If it A.) didn't gusher B.) Taste sour or cardboardy, you probably got the new stuff. Ayinger just doesn't hold up well on shelves, and it shows.

To the Beck's Okto, you aren't missing anything.

 

Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest- Wow, that's master brewing!!

 

All the usual German suspects - Ayinger - Spaten - Hofbrau - Hacker Pschorr - Weihenstephaner etc

Love the Sierra Nevada / German collab this year - tasty stuff

Great Lakes Octoberfest

Thirsty Dog Barktoberfest

to name a few!

 

The 2 I have had this year, so far, are Sierra Nevada's new Octoberfest and Hacker-Pschorr. Both were good but I prefer the Hacker. Definitely want to try Ayinger!

 

I had bought a bad case of Ayinger about a year ago. Unknown to me at the time, it was with the old style bottles with the labels that used a series of notches in the bottom of the label for the expiration date. I emailed Merchant du Vin (the US importer) at [email protected] about how to determine the date of the beer and they had me send them a pic of a label from one of the bottles. They determined that the case was about a year out of being good and promptly issued me a refund check for the cost of the case once I sent them a scan of the receipt from the beer distributor that I bought the case from which I thought was awesome customer service on their part.

I really like Ayinger, but as others have said, they don't date their cases/bottles in a way that the consumer can decipher, so I no longer buy their beer.

 

New Ulm, MN is Germanville USA. Therefor it's Schell's Octoberfest

 

I just had my first Great Lakes Oktoberfest of the season. Damn, that beer is stellar. By far one of my favorite American produced versions of the style. Sierra Nevada is great, too.

 

+1 to SN, Ayinger (the usual) but I agree with ShanePB that this year's Great Lakes Oktoberfest is wonderful. And these are not my usual beers either.... fun to see some improvement in this usual hum-drum category (for me at least, no offense intended).

 

Had SNoktofest this weekend, good lager for the price.

 

Really?

 

I really enjoyed Sante Fe's Oktoberfest this year. Perfectly balanced and tasty. Probably not available in your area.

 

Try Surly for a non-traditional

 

Ayinger, Copper Legend, Night Shift.

 

Seriously? It wasn't even close?? How many others have you had?