I do generally love (despite what you’ll read below) Oktoberfests. It’s a great style for the (finally) cool nights of September. Each year I get around to trying the offerings from quite a few breweries, and this year is no different. While plenty of Oktoberfests are still on the shelves, I figured a little retrospective was in order.
First, a bit on my ideal Oktoberfest. I’m not a stickler on color. It simply doesn’t matter to me – yellow gold, orange, amber, reddish, whatever. I think of Oktoberfest as being primarily about malt – a bit on the rich and intense side, sure, but not caramelly or sweet. And, the malt needs to be clean – no rough edges here, please, it’s a long-lagered style. Don’t have the time/space to do it right? Don’t do it then. The big malt requires substantial hops in my mind as well. There needs to be enough bitterness to balance all that malty goodness, at the very least. I also like some spicy German-hop nose candy as well. It matches well with all the malt. A good Oktoberfest also needs to beg to be drunk in quantity, even if I can’t. Ideally, I want to stare in disbelief bordering on annoyance at how quickly my glass was emptied.
Weihenstephaner Festbier – This by far and away my favorite example this year. It’s a lighter color than most Oktoberfests, tending more to a full gold, rather than into the amber range. It’s got a burst of spicy German hops, tons of clean malt flavor, nothing cloying, and enough bitterness to give it a good snap at the finish. Glasses of this beer just disappear.
Sam Adams Oktoberfest – This is usually a solid example, and that’s about as high as it reaches this year. I noticed no real difference between the draft and bottled versions this year. This one is more of a malt bomb than the Weihenstephaner, and I would prefer more hops. But, the malt that’s here is quite clean and stays away from the caramelly flavors that can get over-played in this style.
Capital Brewery Oktoberfest – I had high expectations for this one, given how much I generally like Capital’s lager offerings. As a result, this was probably the most disappointing Oktoberfest I’ve tried this year. It just sort of lays there. Not a lot of maltiness, next to no hop. It’s a little rough on the finish too. Surprising, and in a “gosh, I think that mole has gotten bigger” way.
Schlafly Oktoberfest – I’ve found Schlafly’s Oktoberfest to vary quite a bit over the years. For the last couple, the emphasis has been very much on a clean malt presence almost to the exclusion of everything else. This year’s rendition continues that trend. It’s very clean, with nothing other than the malt in evidence. I don’t get hops at all, and there is not much complexity to the malt. It’s leaps and bounds better than it used to be back in the Briess malt days, but now (like the Pale and Scotch Ales) it suffers from being so clean that it lacks character.
Left Hand Oktoberfest – Another disappointment, given the quality fo the Left Hand beers I’ve had so far. This one goes for a full-throttle caramel character. The color is a rich Amber-red, and there’s little mystery how the color got there after a whiff and a sip. Way too much caramel/crystal malt character for me. It’s really difficult to even drink a bottle of this at a time, let alone thinking about more than one.
This is obviously not a comprehensive survey of Oktoberfests available to me. My favorite, year in and year out, has been Ayinger, but I simply have not seen it on the shelves yet this year, and missed out on the first (of two) kegs that Dylan got for 33, so I’ve not had it yet. Ditto some of the other German faves, though these are more troubling, and need date-checking as many are year-round beers now, yet only make an appearance on shelves during the August to October season.
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