Oktoberfest season starts now

Seen yesterday, 25 June 2025:

Just in time for the summer solstice. Uff da! We're still 3 months out from Oktoberfest and horny deer running out in the middle of the road.

On the bright side, I tried this which I thought it was great.

A very fine blend of roasty and coffee flavors along with a little dark chocolate too. Nice green-spicy hops for balance. Light body - very reminiscent of a Schwarzbier. Highly recommended.

Take the Summer Off: Festbier by Sprecher Brewing Co.

Back in the summer Sprecher Brewery released Festbier, a…um…festbier, I guess. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time Milwaukee’s oldest microbrewery has brewed this type of beer. So what exactly is a festbier?

Bueller? Bueller?

“Oktoberfestbier” seems to be a trademarked appellation, not unlike Kölsch, Champagne, and Bubbler, for the brews made by the 6 Munich breweries that have the right to serve their beers at the festival. Or are Oktoberfestbiers the only beers allowed to be served in a certain part of the festival grounds? It’s not clear to me. Festbier, on the other hand, appears to have a more nebulous meaning.

Here’s what I have been able to piece together after years¹ of research:

If you take a little trip back to Bavaria in the mid-16th century, you will find that the brewers there decreed that one could brew only between 29 September and 23 April. Or it was Duke Albrecht V that issued this edict? Why would whoever it was do such a thing? Well, the main reason cited by all the sources I found was because brewing beer involved boiling and boiling means fire and fire means Danger, Will Robinson! - as in your whole town with its fine wooden buildings could burn down.

While I can understand the summer months being of particular concern for fire hazards, the German love of beer runs deep. The Roman historian Tacitus noted this proclivity back in the first century C.E. so those Bavarian public awareness campaigns must have been hardcore and/or ubiquitous. I am picturing Smokey Bär dressed in Lederhosen – “Nur Sie can prevent the whole town from burning down!”

Presumably this fire hazard existed long before this brewing decree so why did they wait so long? The mills of Bavarian bureaucracy ground slowly but exceedingly fine, apparently.

The new brewing restrictions gave way to a new beer. If you brewed a whole lot of bier in, say, Märzen (March) and let it age the requisite 8 weeks or so, you will have liquid refreshment available just as the season of no brewing kicks in and the biergartens open. And if you made it a bit stronger, the stuff could last until the autumn where it would be quaffed by revelers at autumnal festivals. Hopefully you’d have enough to last until fresh batches could be made. I bet every brewery started brewing at exactly midnight on 29 September with whole towns aglow from the boilers firing up.

These Märzen beers became the standard at Oktoberfest at some point because, well, they were available...? I guess they started out with very dark due to the kilning technology of the age but eventually became the amber and the new standard. In 1953, Augustiner, one of the 6 official Oktoberfest breweries, introduced a pale Oktoberfestbier which has gone on to replace the amber colored one. According to Ron Pattinson, it’s the beer’s strength that makes a Märzen a Märzen. So today you’d be served a Helles Märzen at Oktoberfest whereas prior to 195X you’d have gotten a Bernstein (amber) Märzen.

I haven’t found anything explaining why Augustiner decided to go with a Helles Märzen after decades of the Bernstein stuff. Was it cheaper to make? Maybe they just wanted to shake things up after 100 years.
 
It seems that here in the United States, we think of the Märzen/Oktoberfest as being a strong amber lager and a style unto itself with the festbier being Märzen-like with a strong malt flavor but more of a golden color and in its own stylistic category.

Festbier – Sprecher’s brew, that is – was a welcome surprise. After I learned of the brewery’s sale back in early 2020, I was filled with trepidation. One article had some quotes that sounded like they came from a venture capital Krampus ready to beat the poor brewmaster until every mash tun and brite tank was filled with IPA. It was all money man talk of growing the brand with the goal of making a lot more product within a few years or some such thing. Then Refresh Button IPA came out and it seemed like my worst fears were coming true. "Soon there’ll be exploding cans of fruited sours and ad copy that used the word 'crushable'," I lamented.

Thusly seeing Festbier in the cooler was a delightful surprise. Sadly, it seems that Festbier has replaced the excellent Summer Pils as their summer seasonal. You can’t have everything.

Festbier is a lovely deep gold color and clear as day. My pour had a smallish disc of loose, white foam on top. A larger head would have been nice but the paucity of foam was probably due to bad pouring skillz on my part. On the plus side, the foam lasted quite a while. I spied a goodly number of bubbles inside. The aroma was largely honey-like and sweet but the hops were present too adding a little grass here and something floral there.

For a summer brew, it was heavier than I expected. Not the liquid bread of a doppelbock but medium-heavy. While there were definitely honey and caramel flavors here, the beer wasn't overly sweet. A faint roastiness stayed in the background along with some spicy, Saaz hoppiness. Perhaps those hops were meant for a summer pils and just had to be used up when plans were changed. The fizz was firm and gave a noticeable astringent bite.

All of that malty sweetness slowly faded for the finish allowing the spicy hop flavors to come to the fore. They offered a solid dose of bitterness and sturdy dryness.

My experience with Helles Märzen is limited to Paulaner's Oktoberfest Wiesn which is now called Oktoberfest Bier, at least here in the States. Think of it as a bigger Helles - in malt, hops, and alcohol. Sprecher's Festbier is 5.3% A.B.V. so it's between a Helles and Helles Märzen on that front. I think. It also tastes less bready than Paulaner's brew. Still, Sprecher has made a very tasty beer here. A bit too heavy on the mouthfeel for my summer drinking taste when it's 90 degrees out, but it has the virtue of not being too sweet. And the malty flavors are well complemented by those spicy Saaz hops. A fine late summer treat.

Junk food pairing: Sprecher's Festbier pairs well with pretzels and I found gustatory nirvana by snacking on some Snyder's Snyderfest Beer Cheese Pretzel Pieces.
 

¹ i.e. - minutes

The Last Gasps of Oktoberfest

Unless something goes horribly wrong, this will be my final Festbier review of the year, the omega of Märzen analyses, if you will. Yes, Oktoberfest inspections are on the way out.

Because this year's crop of Wisconsin Oktoberfests was, for the most part, cringeworthy – the ones I tasted, anyway – I am hoping to end on a high note. And so I look to foreign brewers to get the job done right.



To begin I am going to heed Horace Greeley's imperative and taste Märzen by Denver's Prost Brewing.

Considering that Prost brews German bier styles exclusively, one would think that their Oktoberfest would be preternaturally tasty. So far, I've found their biers to range from mediocre to very good. So, while perhaps not a shoo-in, I certainly expected this to be a really good bier.

Things began well enough as I discovered its golden hue, tinged – but only just – with amber. Certainly this would not be laced with caramel/crystal malt sweetness. Clear as day, I could see surfeit of bubbles inside. Alas, they made their way upwards to an imaginary head. D'oh!

The aroma was light toffee, bread, and some apricot. It was sweeter than I expected, yet it was not cloying with the bready scent more than holding its own.

If I had any worries about the aroma being a portent of things to come in the taste, I needn't have had them. Märzen came replete with Maillardy goodness, full of toasty bread taste. Just wonderful. It also had that nutty taste I first encountered with Victory Festbier, though less strong. Other less toasty bread flavors were joined by some great hops that were grassy tasting at first but took on a really nice flavor upon closer inspection. I did, however, find it a bit over-carbonated. Witness all those bubbles I saw.

Those hops took on some spiciness at the finish and added moderate doses of bitterness and dryness to drive away the last of the malty residue. Of Schaumhaftvermoegen there was none.

While it suffered from a touch too much carbonation and was thusly was a little acidic, this was a very good brew. It was nice'n'Maillardy and had very little sweetness. I really enjoyed the hops, especially the floral taste.



We now leave the Rocky Mountains and head to the bayous of Louisiana and Abita Brewing. Well, I am not sure that Covington is even near a boyou, truth be told. Still, the brewery likes to trade on bayou imagery, especially gators. Perhaps only gators. I don't recall ever seeing an airboat on one of their bottles.

One thing I don't associate with the creole culture in Louisiana is a German influence. I think of Native American, French, African, and Spanish but not German. But there was apparently a "German Coast" in the state's early days on the east bank of the Mississippi River. That Wikipedia article also notes, "During World War I, in a reaction against Germany as the enemy, the Louisiana state legislature passed Act 114: it prohibited all expressions of German culture and heritage, especially the printed or spoken use of the German language, in the state." Yikes!

So let's taste Abita's expression of German culture and heritage.

I begin by noting the bier's medium gold color. A good beginning as this bodes well for minimal sweetness. Clear? Check. For a change of pace I managed to pour a big head. The foam was white and loose and lasted 30 seconds or so. This was an effervescent bier with lots of bubbles inside.

Rather than caramel sweetness, my nose first caught the scent of some fresh grassy hops. Unexpected though not unwelcome. That caramel was there but tucked away in the back while a more bready smell was at the fore.

The same held with the taste. A rich bread/biscuit flavor held sway and relegated a touch of malt sweetness to a supporting role. The hops were firm but not overpowering and they had a tasty combination of grass and spiciness. While the Prost had a bit too much carbonation, here it was just right.

Those hops were let loose on the finish after the malt faded or was, perhaps, pushed out. They were pretty spicy – nearing minty territory – and made for a rather dry denouement, though not especially bitter. The Schaumhaftvermoegen was great with webbing everywhere inside my glass.

As someone who hadn't had many Abita beers prior to this one and with the ones I did have being all fruited beers, I wasn't really sure what to expect from them doing a traditional lager. I am happy to say that this was a really good Oktoberfest. It had a nice bread flavor, though not of the Maillard toasty variety, but tasty nonetheless. And the sweetness was minimized. Those spicy hops on the finish were a pleasant surprise too. I find that spicy hops clash with sweeter malts in an unpleasant way but here, with bready flavors, they were a wonderful complement.

Junk food pairing: Pair Abita Oktoberfest with a bag of Snyder's Peanut Butter filled Pretzel Pieces.



Watching Hell or High Water I noticed that Jeff Bridges character drank Shiner Bock in almost, if not every, scene in which he drinks a beer. Now I don't know if this was because the Shiner folks paid the filmmakers or if the filmmakers simply like the beer. Or perhaps a preference for craft beer is supposed to be a commentary on the otherwise gruff old-timer with a penchant for racial humor of a decidedly non-politically correct type. I suppose I was expecting to see cans of Lone Star.

I don't think I've ever reviewed a Shiner beer. Shiner is a brand brewed in the town of the same name in Texas between San Antonio and Houston. And it is brewed by the Spoetzl Brewery, named after Kosmos Spoetzl, a German immigrant and the brewery's first brewmaster and owner.

A fair number of German immigrants settled in Texas although I tend to associate the state with things like oil, steak, chili, and Tejano music. Then again, Lone Star was founded by at least one German immigrant. We're talking lagers here, a technique surely brought to Texas by Germans. And so while surely a minority culture, that of German immigrants left its mark.

Ooh. Shiner Oktoberfest pours an amber hue. We could be headed for caramel sweetness. The bier's clarity revealed a generous amount of bubbles floating upwards to a sizable loose, white head. Sweet or not, it sure looked pretty.

Yep. Sweet caramel(ine) was out front on the nose trailed by some bread and a nice herbal hoppiness. Things aren't going too well here.

While I could certainly taste caramel, I was relieved to also taste bread and roasted grains to keep the sweetness from dominating. There was a nice fizziness to it as well as some very tasty hops that were grassy and spicy.

A little of the sweetness lingered towards the end as the hops became stronger and took on some black pepper taste. The finale was quite dry and bitter, eventually washing away all trace of malt. Schaumhaftvermoegen was limited to a smattering of foamy spots with a few small patches.

All things considered, I quite liked Shiner's Oktoberfest. It ended up not being quite as sweet as the color would have you believe. Plus the bread and grain flavors were quite tasty even if they weren't toasty in a Maillard kind of way. The bier finished more like a Bohemian pilsener than a Märzen but the sprightly hop taste made for a nice, bracing libatious experience.

Junk food pairing: Shiner Oktoberfest pairs well with sharp cheddar cheese food products like Velveeta and Easy Cheese so dip a soft pretzel in some melted Velveeta dip or pointed your aerosol can in its direction.

Oktoberfest Is the Cruelest Style: Oktoberfest by Pecatonica Beer Company

I guess my previous post won't quite be my last review of a Wisconsin Oktoberfest.

The Pecatonica Beer Company is apparently domiciled in Gratiot, Wisconsin in the southwest part of the state. The company's tied house, the Pecatonica Beer Company Tap House, however, resides south of Gratiot on Highway 78 and across the Cheddar Curtain in Warren, Illinois which is within spitting distance of the Wisconsin-Illinois border. I would have included this bier in a Wisconsin Oktoberfest round-up but I was under the impression that the company itself was headquartered in Illinois with the suds being brewed in Wisconsin. Ooops.

Pecatonica's beer is brewed in Monroevia (as my Croatian-American friend who lives there calls it) at the Minhas Craft Brewery. Minhas does not exactly enjoy a good reputation as a microbrewery yet it was #9 (#9, #9, #9) in a 2015 ranking of largest craft breweries by volume. The Wisconsin State Journal's Beer Baron confessed that he finds "a lot of the beer produced by Minhas has a Corn Pops-type flavor". I personally haven't noticed this but did find that every beer in their Lazy Mutt sampler pack tasted A) thin & watery and B) barely distinguishable from one another. I will admit that those bombers of Rhinelander stout are plenty fine, especially for the price.

As for Pecatonica, I have had their Nightfall Lager. The dark lager is one of my favorite styles and so I upbeat at the prospect of another one appearing on store shelves. Unfortunately, the few times I've had it – on tap – it has been a syrupy, ill-attenuated mess. Did a perfectly delectable barrel leave Minhas only to become sullied somewhere along the way each time? It is certainly possible. Wherever the blame lies, I have avoided Pecatonica since. Well, until recently.

Pecatonica Oktoberfest pours a lovely light amber color. Atop the clear amber liquid sat about half an inch of loose, off-white foam. Sadly it did not hang around very long. Inside there was a fair amount of bubbles. All in all, a very pretty brew. (All that glitters…?)

There was a lot more caramel to be smelled than the bier's color let on. Usually big sweetness is accompanied by a darker hue. Sneaky. Some nice grassy hops and a nebulous, berry-like fruit scent rounded things out for my nose.

I was thoroughly unsurprised to find that the taste was dominated by caramel sweetness. I can only imagine what it would have been like if there wasn't nice, firm carbonation and a tasty bit of black pepper as well to put down the sweetness rebellion. Shades of bread and banana rounded out the taste.

Grassy/spicy hops bid the malt auf wiedersehen leaving things in a pretty dry and bitter state. There was also an astringent chemical taste that I couldn't identify. Of Schaumhaftvermoegen there was not a trace.

Talk about going out with a whimper. Octoberfest has been the cruelest style for Wisconsin brewers this year. I am tempted to find another local Festbier just to end this year's batch on a high note instead of this. Knowing next to nothing about the actual details of how Pecatonica's beers are made nor what trials and tribulations my bottle may have undergone prior to being in my clutches, I don't know on whose shoulders this mess belongs. On the one hand, the paucity of bready tastes as opposed to sweet, toffee ones is not a sin belonging to Pecatonica alone. On the other hand, the banana and chemical tastes are as is the lack of a nice lagery crispness. The tastes just don't harmonize here; instead it is as if they are at loggerheads all the time.

Junk food pairing: Go for the cheesy overload and pair your Pecatonica Oktoberfest with some Snyder's Cheddar Cheese Pretzel Sandwiches dipped in a fine cheese food product dip.

A Final Wisconsin Oktoberfest With Addendum

Today will be my terminal tasting of Oktoberfests from Wisconsin breweries. By and large this year's crop has been disappointing. Words like "full" and "rich" were sadly inapplicable to most of these biers. At least one was laden with diacetyl – a big disappointment. But most were simply one dimensional, thin and watery with a touch of caramel sweetness and perhaps some hops.

There were, of course, many more homegrown Oktoberfests that I haven't tried than those that have crossed my lips. Amongst bottled brews are New Glarus, Ale Asylum, and Sprecher. Add to that those from brewpubs and I'm sure you've got quite a total.

I'm no statistician so I am not sure if 12-14 samples is representative enough of Wisconsin Okto-output to render a valid verdict for 2016. But as far as my tongue is concerned this year was simply disheartening. I'd like to be able to just put this episode behind me and wait for Wisconsin to shine with its Weihnachtsbiers but we don't really brew many of those. What is my state's preferred winter seasonal?



First up is the venerable Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company. I wrote about the special place in my heart for Leine's not too long ago. Having said this, their output is uneven. They brew some fine beers but they also brew liquids that are almost, but not quite, entirely unlike the style listed on the bottle. It's like they're starter beers. They get you into the ballpark of what the style is about without ever going all in.

Will the same fate befall Oktoberfest?

It poured a deep gold which was something of a relief as I figured it wouldn't be overly sweet. Clear as day, I could see a fair number of bubbles rushing upwards to a big, frothy, white head that decided to stick around for a while.

As expected, my nose caught a bready smell first. It was joined by some tasty grassy hops. Sure, there was some caramel sweetness but, as the color foretold, it was rather mild. And really, overall, the aroma was pretty tame. Not bad, but certainly not an olfactory fanfare.

The taste was mostly more of the same. A restrained bread/biscuit maltiness bolstered by a touch of caramel sweetness. While the hops were grassy on my nose, they pulled a Jekyll and Hyde routine and took on a sharp herbal/spiciness on my tongue. Add in just the right amount of carbonation and you've got a nice little bit of zing going.

The malt fades at the end leaving that zesty hop flavor to come forward for a rather dry and bitter finish. My glass was left with some scattered patches of Schaumhaftvermoegen.

Leine's Oktoberfest was just about what I expected it to be – a Virginia Slims beer. It's got all of the Oktoberfest components but not enough of most of them. More malt flavor was needed in place of the hints of bread and biscuit here. I will admit, however, that I really like the hoppiness. Grassy to the nose but spicier on the tongue with a little bite. Really nice.

Junk food pairing: Pair Leine's Oktoberfest with something simple like potato chips and a bacon & horseradish dip.



This is really more of an addendum as the Old Style brand is, to the best of my knowledge, still owned by Pabst which is, in turn, owned by a "beer entrepreneur named Eugene Kashper and a private equity firm based in San Francisco. According to Wikipedia, anyway. And so, while Old Style is not a Wisconsin company, it is being brewed in La Crosse again at City Brewery, the former of of G. Heileman.

Old Style was very popular in Chicago when I was growing up there and when my friends and I would steal beer from our fathers' stashes, it was usually Old Style. (And sometimes Special Export or Hamms.) I don't have an affinity for the beer or the brand because of this but Old Style has a long history in Wisconsin and I think it fits the theme here, if only tangentially. Having said this, I see that the Old Style website plays up its (former?) popularity in Chicago heavily. "Chicago's beer" is everywhere. Oh well. Alia iacta est.

I haven't found any indication that Old Style used to brew an Oktoberfest while it was still brewed in La Crosse back in the day although G. Heileman may have under a different label.

As with the Leine's Oktoberfest, I didn't go into this with great expectations.

Old Style's Oktoberfest was amber in color which augured a sweeter bier. It was clear and, against all odds, I managed to pour a bier with a nice head. This was was firm and off-white and, happily, it lasted a while. There was a modicum of bubbles inside.

As was forewarned by the color, Oktoberfest had a not insignificant caramel sweetness to it that managed to somehow not lapse into being cloying. There was a little biscuit flavor as well as a healthy dose of peppery hops. The carbonation fell into the optimal range. And there was also this nebulous earthy/spicy flavor. The best way I can describe it is that it was as if they were going for that peppery flavor you find in some amber lagers such as Eliot Ness but couldn't quite get there. It wasn't unpleasant, really, it just malformed or perhaps undercooked.

For the finish the malt bid farewell leaving some peppery hops to do their thing. Here that meant a fairly firm dryness and attendant bitterness. Along the lines of a German pils, I'd say. Schaumhaftvermoegen was everywhere with streaks all around my glass.

With a medium body Old Style's Oktoberfest had a bit more heft than Leine's but this is purely because of the additional sweetness. What both biers had in common was a real lack of maltiness – especially the kind that doesn't taste like caramel. They were both thin and in need of more of a grainy foundation. The peppery hops in the Old Style were a pleasant surprise but they required more malt to play against.

Sadly, these Oktoberfests by larger, maybe less crafty, brewers are very much in line with those brewed by smaller, craftier ones.

Junk food pairing: Pair your Old Style Oktoberfest with some Doritos dipped in a vat of warm, gooey Velveeta cheese food product.

Brewing and Nothingness: Festbier by Victory Brewing Company

I am taking a break from native Oktoberfests because it was getting to be dolorous and drinking beer shouldn't be that way. Quaffing a Märzen should be a mirthful experience, one that highlights the brief periods of joy that punctuate our time on this earth before we return to the soil. And so I look to suburban Philadelphia wherein lies Victory Brewing to address my existential ennui.

My previous encounters with Victory beers were all positive and mostly very fine indeed. But I've been afflicted with a case of microbrew angst this past month or so as various other breweries with good reputations offered Oktoberfests of a less than tasteful nature. Perhaps now that our state Department of Natural Resources is run like a business, there truly is something in the air or in the water which afflicts our brewmasters, rendering them maladroit and consigning them to produce Oktoberfests which would have made Gabriel Sedlmayr cry.

It is my hope that by looking to the east, to the city where John Wagner brewed the first lager on these shores (well, a suburb of that city) that I may find some hope that all is not lost.

Victory Festbier pours a lovely amber and was suitably clear. While I only managed to produce only a meager head of light tan foam which went away quite quickly, the bier was rather effervescent with a fair number of bubbles inside.

The aroma smelled strongly of bread, which as a good sign. But there was also a little caramel and some roasted malt scent too. It was surprised at how restrained the sweetness was here considering the bier's color. So far, so good.

Things got even better upon tasting the brew. A shiver went down my spine as luscious Maillard reacted malt taste swirled and eddied on my tongue. It was a wonderful toasty flavor that had a deep vein of nuttiness as well. The malt also tasted of fresh bread along with just a hint of toffee sweetness. Peppery hops hovered in the background and paired with a healthy dose of carbonation to add crispness.

For the final act, the malt faded allowing the hops to step into the limelight. They became spicier – almost minty – and gave a nice cleansing bitterness. Dry but not overly so. Schaumhaftvermoegen was limited to a few shorts streaks and the odd speck of foam.

Eureka! Victory proved, well, victorious. While it may not provide a definitive answer, Festbier certainly comes down on the affirmative side when it comes to decoction mashing. Those toasty Maillard flavors run deep and full here and I just love the nutty taste to it. They are given pride of place but complemented by other malty flavors while some really tasty hops offer contrast and balance. The malt is rich instead of being watery. Sweetness bows before savory. Everything in its place. There is yet hope for Oktoberfests.

Junk food pairing: Pair your Victory Festbier with some Mature Cheddar and Chive crisps, er, potato chips. They have a rich heartiness that other cheddar chips don't and thusly go very well with savory malt taste of the bier.

I Saw the Best Märzens of My Generation Destroyed by Maltiness

I am getting to the point where I cannot drink anymore Oktoberfests. It has nothing to do with them being seasonal biers because they are tasty in a variety of situations throughout the year. They're not particularly big biers nor are they optimized for warmer weather with light bodies. Nor are they brewed with nutmeg, allspice, clove, and cinnamon and thusly given a narrow window of quaffing potential. The style is not tied to a harvest or a holiday and there's nothing really seasonal about them any longer since virtually no one brews them in March and pulls them from the lagering caves in September.

No, I have made the mistake of investing in the Oktoberfests of my fair state and being disappointed most of the time. I have no explanation and the reason why they've been so untasty is probably reasons – they are plural. Poor shipping and storage practices may certainly be an issue. I won't deny that but nor can I prove it. But my cynic soon return and feels that most Wisconsin breweries have abandoned the state's German brewing heritage to varying degrees and so the Oktoberfest is simply a perfunctory exercise in obeisance. When you brew IPAs, sours, and potent barrel-aged potables all year, you're not getting practice at brewing lagers.

Contrariwise, some Wisconsin breweries with a fine lagery track record have produced some most unremarkable, if not awful, Oktoberfest biers this year. So there goes my lagerphobic hypothesis.

Whatever the case may be, I still have lots of Oktoberfest reviews piling up which calls for another omnibus.



From the wilds of La Crosse comes Pearl Street's Lederhosen Lager. Pearl Street brews various and sundry German styles and has an annual pils. This is definitely not a lagerphobic brewery that genuflects to tradition once a year.

So why is Lederhosen Lager so thoroughly mediocre? It was just a little over-carbonated – not a hanging offense - and under malted – a cardinal sin. It leaned to the caramel side but wasn't cloyingly sweet and let some more bready flavors come through. But all the malt tastes were subdued. I liked the spicy hops, though, and it left some of the best Schaumhaftvermoegen of the season.



Lakefront knows lagers. Hell, even their pumpkin beer is a lager and it is actually brewed with pumpkins. They have a great brewery tour to boot.

Sadly their Oktoberfest is par for the course as far as Wisconsin iterations go. Caramel sweetness was the dominant flavor – which I can handle - with very little bready taste – which doesn't cut the senf. I somehow managed to catch a dash of root beer in there too. And it was overly carbonated. I did like the herbal hops, though.

If I may quote T.S. Eliot's typist, well now that's done and I'm glad it's over.



Capital and I go way back. Their maibock was not only my first taste of a helles bock but I also lost my seasonal beer virginity with it. It was the spring of 1991 and I was blissfully unaware that beers were seasonal like Shamrock Shakes and McRibs. Later that year their Oktoberfest became the first Märzen to cross my lips. Capital is also likely responsible for introducing me to the concept of drinking local and was a cornerstone of my microbrew education.

Having said all of this, I was not impressed by their Oktoberfest this year. It has always been a caramel-forward bier and that hasn't changed this year. But, like most of the Wisconsin Oktos I've had this year, this one lacks a bready base upon which to build a house of sweetness. It wasn't over-carbonated and I really liked the hops which were grassy and herbal but those biscuit and bread tastes were just too faint, lost like distant stars in the city streetlights.



I will close with the completion of the trifecta of Oktoberfests from Green Bay featuring Stillmank. Neither Titletown nor Hinterland was able to pull through this year.

Stillmank, however, did.

And I believe it was the first time I'd had one of their beers so I was quite impressed. While there was some malty sweetness to be had, it was kept in check by a nice bready flavor. Stillmank got the proportion of malt tastes just right to my taste with bread/biscuit at the fore with sweeter malt given a supporting role. A good Oktoberfest is about getting the various malt flavors in the right spots for a grainy gestalt. Now I grant you that Stillmank didn't endow their Oktoberfest with much of that toasty/Maillard reacted goodness that I crave, but it was still a fine maltiness. And the hops. They were simply wonderful with a sprightly, fresh grassy flavor that is hard to beat.

Going into this little venture last month I wouldn't have dreamt that Stillmank would not only make a great Oktoberfest but that it would probably be the best domestic (i.e. - from Wisconsin) one of the season. Truth be told, I have a couple more from Wisconsin in my cellar and I'll likely have others on tap so the title is provisional, but this will certainly go down near, if not at, the top.

What Have the Germans Ever Done For Us?: Oktoberfest by Potosi Brewery

Good ol' Potosi. Whenever I hear the name, I think of how a friend of mine still holds it against me that I unwittingly drank his last Potosi Czech Style Pilsner one day in the dim and distant past. He still speaks of the incident in tones of thinly veiled anger. He's like liberals who still piss and moan about Ralph Nader forgetting all the while that it was the Supreme Court who crowned Dubya president. In addition to a very tasty Czech pils – there was a reason I chose it amongst the others on offer - they have a fine brewery and museum out there on the Mighty Mississip.

With the vast majority of Wisconsin Oktoberfests that I've had this season ranging from almost medicore to awful, I had a goodly amount of confidence that Potosi could be different. Their Oktoberfest could be like the Battle of Guadalcanal or the Battle of Stalingrad. Just as those campaigns proved to be turning points in World War II, so too could Potosi's bier be the critical juncture in the search for a good Oktoberfest brewed in the Land of Cheese.

I mean today's Wisconsin microbrewers are ostensibly the successors to generations of German immigrants who settled in our fair state - and their descendants too. The earliest waves of Forty-Eighters brought socialist ideas which most famously shaped Milwaukee along with other things like kindergarten. And immigrants regardless of political orientation gave us their love of sausages, strudel, and of course bier. Germans had a very large impact not only on culture here in Wisconsin but also the United States at large.

Ergo it's been frustrating as a Wisconsonian of some German extraction to witness breweries of my state flounder attempting to brew on Oktoberfest that tastes as good as one that has made the trip all the way from Munich. Hell, we've even let California eat our lunch.

Potosi's Oktoberfest poured a gorgeous clear copper hue. My initial pour managed only a small head that was off-white and left me wishing is Auf wiedersehen all too soon. This was my inability to pour correctly, however, as my second and more vigorous pour gave a much larger and much prettier crown of foam. There wasn't much effervescence on display.

Moderately sweet caramel was first to hit my nose followed by a smidgen of roasted grain while some faint grassy hops lingered in the background. I wasn't surprised by the bouquet since the bier's color lacked the pale complexion of Oktoberfests: The Next Generation.

Considering the lack of bubbles, Oktoberfest was well-carbonated by which I mean it had just the right amount of carbonation. Not particularly acidic, but just enough push back against the malt. And that malt was mostly caramel tasting with attendant sweetness. Not cloying though. It was joined by a little roasted grain and some hops which had taken on a spicy tint. Overall it had a nice medium body and a clean lager taste that was fairly crisp.

The malt faded on the finish allowing the spicy hop taste to really come through. While rather bitter and a fair bit dryer than I'm used to for the style, it was still rather pleasant. My first pour of the small head produced no Schaumhaftvermoegen but my second let loose some really nice, thick streaks of foam.

This was not a bad Oktoberfest but nor was it great. I liked the level of caramel sweetness here but felt it needed more roasted grain flavor to bolster the larger malt taste. This has been a common refrain here this Oktoberfest season. Most of the one's that I've had have had a very one dimensional malt taste – caramel and little else. Potosi, to its credit, adds more non-caramel malt flavor than your average bear but this bier just didn't find that Golden Malty Mean.

Junk food pairing: I paired my Potosi Oktoberfest with Snyder's Zesty Ranch Pretzel Pieces to good effect.

A Surfeit of Festbiers

From Green Bay we now head southwest to Lake Louie Brewing.

Hypothesis: Tom Porter and the gang out in Arena brew a tasty Dortmunder Export and fine, if boozy, helles bock. And so, while they mostly brew ales, they have a proven track record with lagers. Odds were good that the brewery's first Festbier would be a winner.

Experiment: Lake Louie's Oktoberfest went the pale Märzen route with its gold color. The bier was clear revealing a goodly number of bubbles making their way up to a nice bed of white foam. All of that effervescence gave my tongue a firm, yet gentle, carbonic bite. Bread, a mild honeyed sweetness, and a touch of spicy hops came in the initial salvo while a bit of roasted grain and even a tad of toasty, Maillard reacted malt were noticeable upon repeated quaffs.

The lovely malt flavors quietly faded as the spicy hops grew louder as they took on some grassy tones leaving my tongue high'n'dry.

Conclusion: Really good. Easily the best Oktoberfest I've had this year from a Wisconsin brewery. Cheesehead brewers have basically shit the bed this Oktoberfest season sending countless German settlers a-spinning in their graves. Lake Louie's Festbier has a nice bready flavor, which, if it had been fuller, I wouldn't have complained. Plus the hops gave a nice bite on the finish. As a bonus, the Schaumhaftvermoegen was generous and pretty.

Lake Louie's Oktoberfest went well with Late July Bacon & Habenero tortilla chips which have what is likely the best bacon flavor on any chip anywhere, anytime.



Back up north to the Wisconsin interior and Central Waters.

The cicerone cries
Amidst the gadarene rush
To slumgullion



About 90 miles west of Amherst lies Black River Falls and the Sand Creek Brewing Company. They've got a nice little place up there.

Another Wisconsin brewery that specializes in ales. Methinks their Oktoberfest is their only lager. I give them credit for putting a brunette in a dirndl on the label, though, instead of a blonde. Thinking outside the box.

I have to wonder if Sand Creek exists but for the grace of contract brewing. This is not meant as a sleight – simply an observation. Or perhaps Wild Ride Eyepah sells like gangbusters and I am blissfully unaware. It's just that I don't see hordes of Chicagoans crossing the border in search of their beer. Hell, I don't see them around Madison much outside of liquor stores. Oscar's Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, a darn fine beer, used to be seen (by my eyes, anyway) more frequently in taverns and restaurants but is a relative rarity today. I guess not making grapefruit beer has taken its toll.

Onto the Oktoberfest…

Sand Creek apparently took a more traditional route with its Festbier as it was amber. Nice and clear, it was a lovely bier to be sure. The head was a light tan and I got about an inch of the stuff. Inside there were bubbles. Lots and lots of bubbles. It looked like it has having an embolism.

The aroma was, overall, on the mild side. What there was was led by caramel which didn't surprise me given the bier's hue. Just a little roasted grain peeked out from behind some grassy hops.

The taste too was, to put it kindly, mild. Again, a bit of caramel sweetness was most evident but that's not to say the bier was sweet. This was joined by some apricot-like fruitiness as well as grassy-peppery hops. If this bier was a palimpsest, then that would be the bit that got erased yet faintly bled through. On top of all this was a harsh, dry acidic bite from all of that carbonation. It was like Oktoberfest champagne. Zoinks!

As what little malt there was faded, my tongue was hit with a one-two combination of carbonic bite and very peppery hops which made things quite dry and equally as bitter. On the plus side, there was some nice Schaumhaftvermoegen in my glass with a few streaks of foam for decoration.

I get that Festbiers are not supposed to be as malty as doppelbocks. And while I'm not a big fan of Bohemian pilsener levels of hops in them but, if that's your thing, go for it. But for Pete's sake, have a good, firm bready, malty base. Sand Creek joins several other Wisconsin brewers who are putting out Oktoberfests that lack a solid grainy foundation. I had a Paulaner Oktoberfest a few weeks ago at a chain restaurant in the middle of mall Hades and it was great. It was shipped from Bavaria in who knows what kind of container an indeterminate amount of time ago yet it was superior to the Oktoberfests from just down the road a piece.

I am getting paranoid that my tongue is simply giving out. Is my brain malfunctioning? That Paulaner was a symphony of malt tastes in harmony. Bread, Maillard toastiness, a little doughy sweetness, and some roasted grains all played in time and accompanied by a chorus of hops. But it's like the brewers of my state are mired down in fourth grade strings class trying to play some twelve-tone Schoenberg while being led by a conductor doing the St. Vitus dance.

Junk food pairing: spray some Easy Cheese on Smoked Gouda Triscuits to accompany your Oktoberfest.

I Watched Steinkrugs Glitter in the Dark Near the Siegestor Gate: Bent Tuba by Titletown Brewing Company

OK, Green Bay. You may not draw the attention that various breweries here in the southern part of the state do as I hypothesized previously, but that certainly doesn't mean you don't warrant more love. So strut your stuff this Oktoberfest season. I am rooting for you. Hinterland was unable to pull through due to diacetyl so now it's time for Titletown to step up. John Brockington is counting on you. Don't let him down.

Titletown turned 20 this year. While that makes the brewery something of an elder statesman, they didn't begin distributing down here in Madison until relatively recently. Good thing they finally did because Titletown brews an absolutely fantastic pils and a stellar schwarzbier as well.

With a proven ability to brew up wonderful lagers, I just knew Titletown would make a great Oktoberfest.

Bent Tuba poured a simply beautiful deep gold with a tint of amber. It was perfectly clear. Titletown went the newer route with a paler brew. The small white head didn't hang around long while just a few bubbles could be seen inside.

Unlike the Oktoberfest brewed across the street which smelled like a movie theater concession stand from 20 paces, Bent Tuba had very little aroma. For a second I pondered the possibility of a conspiracy, that I was in fact drinking a test brew from Wisconsin Brewing Company. But no, I wasn't. There was a faint bit of caramel and an even fainter scent of bread. The grassy hops were muted. While the aroma was disappointing, or rather the lack thereof, I'd had beers with precious little smell that tasted fine.

As is now my wont, I concentrated on the carbonation on my first sip and did not find it wanting. It added a pleasant little bite. Some tame notes of roasted grain mingled with a light caramel taste that had just a touch of sweetness. Overall, it had a nice, clean lager taste. The hops were not exactly ostentatious here merely whispering their soft grassy pleas to be tasted.

For the finale, the malt flavors faded – this did not take much – allowing the hops' spicy side to be revealed. In concert with the carbonation, they gave dryness but not much lingering bitterness. Schaumhaftvermoegen was nowhere to be found.

OK, so I had a bit of an epistemological crisis here. All of the requisite flavors were present but the grainy ones were lost like tears in rain. What should have been full and rich was instead thin and watery. On the plus side, the sweetness was restrained. And I really liked the hops at the end where they became a little spicy. But the dryness was without its malty counterpoint.

Junk food pairing: If you don't happen to have any soft pretzels und Obatzda on hand, then grab a bag of Snyder's Cheddar Cheese Pretzel Sandwiches.

Boreal Brew: Oktoberfest by Hinterland Brewery

I've not quaffed a whole lot of brews by Green Bay's Hinterland Brewery and have only reviewed a trio of them. They've been a mixed bag, in my humble opinion, but I am quite partial to Winterland with its vital juniper berry heat. But when I saw their Oktoberfest, I jumped at the chance to try it on for size.

If I were to describe Green Bay as being "up north" I would surely draw indignant comments from some fellow Cheeseheads. The whole concept of "up north" is arguably a state of mind or way of living rather than a physical place but I tend to think of it as being demarcated by a line that goes from Hudson to Oconto (roughly). Once you get north of Eau Claire and Wausau – then you're up north. Perhaps my definition was influenced by living near Eau Claire, but really, north of this line your conurbations get smaller and smaller and fewer and farther between. There's lots of forest, Indian reservations, and bears. People get around on snowmobiles and sleighs in the winter more than we do here in the southern part of the state.

And so, Green Bay is more mid-state. While the city is our third largest, its microbrew scene lags behind that to west in the center of Wisconsin where you have Red Eye, O'so, Central Waters, and Point too. I say "lag behind" meaning simply that Green Bay breweries don't seem to get as much publicity or have quite the reputation of their mid-state peers down here in the southern part of the state. Then again, at least they don't have it as bad as Eau Claire area breweries, many of which don't even distribute down here.

Hinterland, Titletown, and Stillmank all distribute to Madison (I don't believe that Badger State Brewing does, though) yet they are a bit like the Rodney Dangerfields of brewing down here – they don't get no respect. That's not true but they don't seem to have found a breakout beer, a beer that really makes a name for the brewery, a beer that can take them from yeoman to royalty, so to speak. Perhaps it's where I roam on the Internet, but praise for Green Bay breweries tends to be parceled out in words like "solid" as opposed to "stellar".

Perhaps Green Bay's microbrewers can make a name for themselves with Festbiers…

Hinterland's Oktoberfest poured a gorgeous deep gold color with a slight haze. My bad luck streak in pouring school continued with my glass getting a teensy bit of white foam up top that quickly transmogrified into a thin film. A smattering of bubbles inside the glass were making their way up.

As I was waving my glass around to see if the bier was more gold or amber, the smell of butter wafted into my nose. I was hoping it was just an illusion or a trick of the nose but, upon giving Oktoberfest a sniff, I caught a big wave of butter which was followed by caramel and black pepper. What a bummer. The disappointment was compounded by the fact that I had run into the same problem with their Weizen Bier. I tasted half a six pack of that before consigning the rest to a date with the Madison Water Utility. (This is in addition to a butterscotchy tasting bottle of Lakefront's Brandy Barrel Aged Cherry Lager. I have yet to open a second bottle.)

But stiff upper lip and all that so I plowed on and poured some into my mouth. I was quite surprised not to taste any butter. Instead I found that it had a nice little carbonic bite and that the black pepper made a return appearance. Indeed, the spicy hop flavor was quite prominent. There was little malt sweetness, just a bit of stone fruit and dough along with a mild bread taste. As the bier warmed, the butter flavor crept in until it overpowered the vein of Märzen goodness that I had found.

I tasted some lingering malt sweetness at the end which butted up against more of that spicy, peppery hop taste which I really liked. The hops added a modicum of bitterness and dryness. Just the perfect amounts, truth be told.

The peppery hops reminded me of Great Lakes' Eliot Ness just as did Tyranena's Oktoberfest, Gemutlichkeit. The line between a Vienna lager and an Oktoberfest, at least far as American brewers go, is pretty blurred. So blurred that Coke bottles glasses will do you no good. I tend to think of Vienna lagers as being a bit drier than their Bavarian cousins but that distinction seems to be going the way of the dodo.

But let me not stray too far from the big "D'oh!" here that is the big buttery aroma and taste. This is two styles in a row from Hinterland in which I tasted diacetyl. Either Hinterland has a quality control problem somewhere along the line or my gustatory organs are failing. Am I alone in this experience?

Moving beyond butter, Oktoberfest wasn't bad. Or it had potential. Or something. One thing it did have was the virtue of not being particularly sweet which I appreciated, but this was mostly due to the fact that grain taste was thin on the ground. The bier was also lacking in more savory malt flavors. There was little bread taste and a shortage of the Maillard reacted toasty taste (that is the gold standard for me) in the same way Venus has a shortage of water. I really liked the peppery hop flavor, though, and I think I am growing accustomed to Oktoberfests that aren't afraid to give hops something more than a bit part. Still, more maltiness is needed to make the contrast complete.

Junk food pairing: I've been thoroughly enjoying Cape Cod's Smoked Gouda potato chips lately so they get the nod with their smooth cheesiness and hint of smoke.

Lay's had a limited run of smoked gouda chips and I saw similarly flavored Triscuits last weekend. Smoked gouda snacks appear to be a pico trend. I approve.

Märzen Ohne K: O-toberfest by O'so Brewing Company

The 2016 Oktoberfest season rolls on today with O'so up in Plover.

I remember when O'so first hit store shelves in Madison and tasting Duzy Piwo. Not only was it a tasty blonde ale but, I, having some Polish blood in me, appreciated how the name paid tribute to the Polish heritage of Portage County. Those days are long gone and O'so is now renowned for its sour beers. This is probably a good thing because had they tried to specialize in, say, barrel aged beers, there would have been mass carnage. I recall drinking one of their early attempts at aging beer in bourbon barrels during the inaugural Madison Craft Beer Week at Jan's Unfriendly or whatever moniker the tavern at Baldwin and E. Washington had at the time. It was barrel aged Night Train (now Night Rain thanks to a trademark dispute) and the emphasis was clearly on the bourbon. That stuff was rocket fuel and the walk to The Malt House did us good, I can tell you.

I'm trying to recall if I've ever had O'so's Oktoberfest, O-toberfest. Odds are that I have at some point but it apparently didn't stick out enough for it have left an impression. O'so is primarily an ale brewery and so I am a bit nervous going in here. Until recently they brewed a pilsner, Memory Lane, which was serviceable, and I believe they continue to make a doppelbock as well as an American pale lager, Doe in Heat, neither of which I've ever had, to my recollection.

It's not that ale breweries cannot make a fine lager, but rather that this is done relatively infrequently, from my experience. So let's find out how O'so fares.

O-toberfest is a deep amber and so falls into the more traditional Oktoberfest realm, at least as far as appearance goes. Oddly, it was just a touch hazy. While this may get you docked points at a competition, I personally don't mind. Unlike the last Oktoberfest I poured, this time I got a good crown of foam – almost an inch of loose, off-white stuff. It lasted a slightly shorter period of time than I think of as average but it had nice effervescence with a fair number of bubbles inside.

Caramel sweetness was at the top of the aroma followed by some toasted grain, a dash of grassy hop, a pinch of vanilla, and even some stone fruit which was closest to plum. That caramel made me even more anxious because I prefer more toasted grain. But I wasn't surprised considering the beer's color and, besides, the sweetness may be toned down in the taste.

Well, no. While not very sweet, toffee and dough were the first footers that crossed my tongue's threshold. The taste was really just like the aroma, at least as far as its constituent parts. Add in some stone fruit, a touch of vanilla, and a light roasted grain flavor. Carbonation and some spicy tasting hops that hovered in the background and tried to corral everything into some kind of order.

Malt sweetness lingered at the finish and was joined by more of the hop spiciness which added only a modicum of bitterness and a hint of dryness. Schaumhaftvermoegen was noticeable by its absence.

I did not care for O-toberfest all that much. It has a nice medium light body but the malt flavor was primarily sweet and lacked fullness. While it didn't taste exactly like wort, it leaned in that direction. The malt tastes were just not very rich and they remained disparate instead of coming together in a gestalt of grainy goodness. I am going to stick with Infectious Groove and Picnic Ants when I need my O'so fix.

Junk food pairing: I paired my O-toberfest with some Ruffles All Dressed potato chips. "All dressed" is a Canadian thing which apparently means everything including the kitchen sink. And so the chips have a little sweetness, some vinegar tang, smokiness, spice – the whole 9 yards.

Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit: Gemutlichkeit by Tyranena Brewing Company

Poking around the Tyranena website I see that they no longer offer Stone Teepee Pale Ale. That's too bad because that label used to make me laugh. You see, at a previous job there was an historic preservationist who would get exasperated with people who brought up the subject of the supposed stone pyramids underneath the waters of Rock Lake over in Lake Mills, home of Tyranena. He'd get calls from "researchers" wielding "proof" that the mounds of stones were man-made and aligned with the sidereal movement of the heavens. These calls were in addition to ones such as the time someone phoned him up to breathlessly relate how she saw "spirit orbs" rising up from some Native American effigy mounds.

So, just to get his goat, I'd ask him about the pyramids. If he was in a good mood, I'd get a pair of rolling eyes and a moderately curt, "Shut up." And if he were in a bad mood, I'd get, "There are no pyramids. They are just piles of rocks!"

Tyranena is something of an underrated brewery, in my opinion. I think it enjoys a good reputation generally but doesn't seem to have an "it" beer. Honestly, I am surprised that Bitter Woman never became the official state IPA. It came out in – what? - 2002? Scurvy, an IPA with orange zest, predates the current citrus IPA trend by a few years, if not more. And Rocky's Revenge? They were barrel aging back in 2004, long before it became de rigeur. It's like brewmaster Rob Larson is so ahead of the curve that he's behind it now.

Gemutlichkeit, Tyranena's Oktoberfest, is a "limited seasonal" and is only available in Wisconsin. It complements the brewery's other autumn seasonal, Painted Ladies, a pumpkin spice ale which is apparently not limited. Perhaps the brewery has only a limited amount of space to dedicate to lagering.

Gemutlichkeit is a burnished gold color and as clear as day. This puts it in the camp of the newer, paler Wiesn style. Sadly, I managed to pour the bier and basically produce no head. My inability to simply create foam was astounding. All I could manage was a white film atop the bier that doesn't even count. There was a smattering of bubbles in the brew itself.

Dinner was on the stove when I drank my bottle of Gemutlichkeit so it's possible that my nose was skewed here. My caveat aside, I smelled grain which was not sweet but more bready as well as some hops that were grassy-floral. The recipe calls for both Liberty and Tettnanger hops but I'm not sure which one contributes more to the aroma. I think of the latter as being like spicy, almost like black pepper so I am going to guess it's the Liberty here.

Those Tettanager hops made themselves known in the taste, however, which had a distinct bit of pepper to it. The malt tastes here were of bread as well as biscuit and some sweetness too which had both toffee and honey flavors. Carbonation was firm, though not big while the medium light body leaned more towards medium and was clean'n'lagery.

For the finish the malt flavors found themselves gently swept aside as the spicy/peppery hop flavor came through. Overall it was not very dry or bitter but there was just enough hop to chase away the lingering malt sweetness. Curiously, there was no Schaumhaftvermoegen to be had.

It had been several years since I'd drank a Gemutlichkeit and I enjoyed it as much now as I did then. Honestly, I was strongly reminded of Elliot Ness by Great Lakes with the peppery taste. There is a nice bready flavor to be had here, though not a strong Maillard toastiness, but it is subtle with the malt sweetness over shadowing it. This is not to say that Gemutlichkeit is very sweet, but I would have liked a bit more of that bread flavor so as to give the sweet taste a run for its money. I really liked the peppery hop flavor, though, and how it remained steadfast throughout.

Junk food pairing: My Gemutlichkeit went well with some Cape Cod Smoked Gouda potato chips as well as a handful of pretzel sticks.

Thus Brewed Stutrud: Oktoberfest by Summit Brewing Company

It is now September so I feel more comfortable drinking Oktoberfests than I do when they appear on stores shelves in July. While singles shelves can be where beers go to die, this time of year they are cornucopias bursting with fresh Oktoberfests from far and wide. Well, there's no guarantee that the bottles from Munich haven't accumulated seniority but surely more local brews are still in the flush of youth.

After admitting my guilt a couple months ago when it comes to not giving our neighbors to the west, Summit Brewing, enough love, I jumped at the chance to try their Oktoberfest again. Besides, it had been a long time since I'd last had one.

While I have not done a large scale survey of American Oktoberfests, the anecdotal evidence I've accumulated thus far shows that they tend to be some shade of amber and have a range of sweetness that goes from "Oh, there's a bit of sweetness in there" to "I think I just got a cavity and developed diabetes to boot." My understanding is that, if you were to actually go to Munich and hit the bier tents during Oktoberfest, you'd be served a paler version of the brew known as Wiesn.

Regardless of your Oktoberfest's color, the key is the malt flavor. My preference is for a rich, decocted, Maillard reacted, toasty malt taste with sweetness kept to a minimum. I had some Spaten Oktoberfest recently and, while I am not qualified to determine whether it is the Platonic ideal of the style, it certainly fit the bill for me. American renditions of the style – the ones I've had, anyway – rarely achieve this Überflavor. This is not to say that American brewers who don't decoct cannot concoct a fine Festbier because they do, but rather that they tend to achieve a bready taste that lacks the toasty element to it that German brewers conjure so well.

Summit Oktoberfest pours a lovely amber that is crystal clear. My mini-stein, an Oktoberfest glass from some Kohler festival a few years back, got about ¾" of off-white foam which lasted about 30 seconds. Now, when I see photographs from Oktoberfest, I see a buxom blonde carrying litre steins that have about three times the head. Methinks I need pouring lessons. Anyway, a smattering of bubbles inside helped make this a mighty pretty bier.

The aroma represented perfectly the duality of the Oktoberfest – that Jungian thing, if you will. A lovely bread scent was predominant but there was also a honeyed sweetness there in the background. This boded well to my taste.

Oktoberfest was a bit sweeter than the aroma betrayed with some honey and dough-tasting sweetness but it was far from cloying. Atop this was a really tasty bread flavor. Summit decocts their Pilsener but I do not know if this bier was brewed using that method. The taste here is slightly chewy and like fresh bread as opposed to the more toasted taste of Maillard reacted nectar. The carbonation's firm hand kept the malt from running amok as did a spicy hoppiness that loomed over the proceedings in a very tasty manner.

Malt sweetness came to the fore on the finish but not for long. The Summit webpage indicates that Saaz hops are used here and you could really tell on the finish. Their characteristic sharp, mint-like spiciness rose to the occasion and cleared the sweetness out leaving a trail of bitterness and dryness in their wake. My glass began pretty and ended the same way with some really nice streaks of Schaumhaftvermoegen.

I really liked the bready malt flavor here. Unfortunately the taste found itself equaled and occasionally bested by sweetness. It's not that this is a cloyingly sweet bier, I just wish that the balance leaned a bit in the other direction. On the other hand, I really enjoyed the Saaz hops as they made for a nice departure from the normal hoppiness of a Festbier. The bier retains the Noble taste but kicks it up a notch for a little sumpin' sumpin' to keep the sweetness honest.

Junk food pairing: I enjoyed pretzel sticks smothered in garlic dip – the stuff you get at Corn Fest in Sun Prairie - with Oktoberfest.

Just Say Ja to Oktoberfest: Oktoberfest by Sierra Nevada and Mahrs Bräu

You know it's July when American Oktoberfests hit store shelves. I managed to refrain from buying any until late August this year because, well, that's just how it should be.

Pretty much everyone and their mother brews an Oktoberfest here in Wisconsin these days. Lake Louie brewed their first one this year. Ale Asylum decided to finally bottle a lager this year and that lager was an Oktoberfest, Oktillion. It's surely the most resilient vestige of the state's German brewing heritage which has laregely been cast to the wayside in large measure to accommodate hoppier eyepahs and the style's attendant off-shoots. Breweries that specialize in ales even find the time to do a little lagering during the summer.

Surprisingly, to me anyway, is that Wisconsin brewers have largely avoided tinkering with the style. Milwaukee Brewing Company's Hoptoberfest, an aggressively hoppy take on the style, springs to mind as an exception. But I have yet to see Oktoberfests blitzkrieged by brettanomyces or assaulted by Citra. I am sure that there are more modifications of the styles out there than just Milwaukee Brewing's, but I don't see them. Perhaps they're at taprooms and brewpubs. Or I am oblivious to them.

My guess is that my intro to the Oktoberfest was Capital's. In fact, I think Capital tutored me in seasonal beers. And I recall when New Glarus introduced their Oktoberfest, Staghorn. It was love at first sip.

While those two beers will always be part of my late summer/autumnal drinking ritual and have special places in my heart and liver, I have to be honest and say that the Oktoberfest that I was looking forward most anxiously was Sierra Nevada's.

Last year the venerable California outfit decided to "explor[e] the roots of Germany’s famous Oktoberfest beers" by partnering with a different German brewery to produce a version of the style. The first collaboration was with Brauhaus Riegele and the resulting bier was simply fantastic. This year Sierra Nevada teamed with Bamberg's Mahrs Bräu.

Oktoberfest pours a medium yellow/light gold color which puts it in the wiesn or pale Märzen camp. From my experience, Wisconsin Oktoberfests are amber. But, from what I've read, the paler variety is what you will be served in Munich at the Oktoberfest. It was clear which made for a very pretty sight as did the loose, white head that formed atop my bier. The foam went away fairly quickly. However, there was a goodly amount of bubbles inside.

Taking my first sniff of the bier reminded me why it only took one brew last year to make it eagerly anticipated this year: bread. That lovely bread smell. There was a little honeyed sweetness, but not much. This year Sierra Nevada is advertising the use of a rare variety of Belgian hops called Record. As far as I know, this was my first encounter with them. My nose caught some grassy hoppiness but I am not sure if that was Record or not.

Just like last year's Oktoberfest, the new iteration was like a bakery in a bottle, steeped in Maillard toastiness. Simply wonderful. It was complemented by some less toasty and more yeasty bread flavor, a touch of doughy sweetness, and a very healthy dose of hops which were both spicy and herbal tasting. Was this the Record hops?

The plethora of malty mannas faded on the finish allowing a zesty, spicier hop taste to take center stage where it offered up a firm bitterness and dryness. Alas, Schaumhaftvermoegen was absent.

Ausgezeichnet! Sierra Nevada and Mahrs Bräu have created a great Oktoberfest full of the Maillard toastiness that I love. But they've also tweaked tradition by giving the bier a heftier hoppiness. Not content with that, the two breweries made sure that the hops would be of a different character at each step: grassy to my nose, herbal/spicy to the taste, and then an almost citrusy Saaz flavor at the end. Just marvelous.

The bier is 6% A.B.V. and has a light-medium body which will go very well over the next few days as temperature cools down into the low 70s.

Junk food pairing: Pair this year's Sierra Nevada-Mahrs Bräu Oktoberfest with pork rinds or some Cheetos White Cheddar Puffs. To satisfy a sweet tooth, heat up a Pillsbury Apple Toaster Strudel.

Teutonic Tyrrany: The Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest by Avery Brewing Company

I thought that I was done with Oktoberfests back in October but I've been dragged back into the fray...

Avery Brewing Company began back in 1993 in Boulder, Colorado. It's a brewery that's never been on my radar. I don't mean this as a slight but simply that no one ever told me that I ought to try their brews nor did any of their beers ever jump out at me as something that I ought to be drinking. Things changed last year when I took notice of some bottles that had some unsavory characters on them. Avery may be the only brewery to have a line of beers featuring autocrats on its labels. The first entry in their ("supremely limited") Dictator Series, an imperial stout, featured Czar Nicholas II of Russia. It would not be until the third installment, however, that his cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, was given a brew of his own: an imperial Oktoberfest.

I recently grabbed a bottle of the latter and played some appropriately themed songs by Iron Maiden, Fish, and IQ as I sat down to contemplate the legacy of World War I. And savor what will surely be my final Oktoberfest of the season.

The Kaiser pours a deep amber color – almost copper – and is clear. I got about an inch of nice tan foam atop the bier while inside there was a fair amount of bubbles going upwards. This bier is sehr schön and one can imagine the Kaiser himself lovingly gaze at it as he did his dreadnoughts. The nose was also quite lovely with bready malt commingling with its sweeter side that was reminiscent of peach. Alongside the grainy festivities was a healthy dose of spicy hop aroma.

The promise of an Oktoberfest is a vein of rich malts flush with flavors redolent of the staff of life itself. An imperial Oktoberfest doubly so. And The Kaiser delivers in spades. First I caught a nice bready flavor that was somewhere between fresh bread and toast – lovely Maillard reaction goodness. The clean taste also yielded some malt sweetness that was like apricot and honey. But this was not a sweet bier as these more toothsome flavors were quite subdued in contrast to the more savory ones. These massive German malt flavors overpowered the hops just to the point where I could barely discern any Nobility. Carbonation added a little dryness while a 9.3% A.B.V. meant there was a generous burn from the alcohol.

On the finish the malt sweetness moved to the fore and lingered while some spicy hop bitterness finally came through. And the alcohol became even more noticeable. My mini-krug was left with some nice Schaumhaftvermoegen all around.

For being such a big bier, The Kaiser retained the medium body of its non-imperial cousins. It had a great bready malt flavor that kept the sweetness at bay. The alcohol burn is wholly appropriate for even these warmer than normal December nights although one may not appreciate it in August when the beer is released. A great bier to share on an autumn evening.

Junk food pairing: Cheese curds! Seriously, cheese kurds and Oktoberfests are a match made in Himmel.

Drinkin' La Vida y Muerte: Vida y Muerte from 5 Rabbit Cerveceria

I've been a fan of Chicago's 5 Rabbit Cerveceria for a while now and have sought out their beers on visits to Chicago over the past 3+ years. Their beer is now being distributed in Wisconsin which means that I can drink their suds more frequently. The brewery is inspired by the founders' Latin American backgrounds: Andres Araya is Costa Rican while Isaac Showaki hails from Mexico. (Showaki left 5 Rabbit in 2013 and has since relocated to the only Waunakee in the world to found Octopi Brewing.)

Rather than simply fabricating a line of Latin American IPAs, 5 Rabbit are more interested in utilizing tropical fruits, Costa Rican coffee, chilies, et al in a variety of ways to pay tribute to Latin American culture and history. I have previously reviewed 5 Lizard, a "Latin-style witbier", and 5 Lizard, which is billed as an "Oaxacan-style dark ale". I highly recommend both but especially the latter as the weather is about to get chilly.

Some of 5 Rabbit's fall seasonal, Vida y Muerte ("Life and Death") made its way to Madison. The brewery refers to it as a "müerzen" as it "loosely based" the beer on the märzen.

I lucked out and got to drink a Vida y Muerte on a gorgeous fall evening and so my photograph is pretty fair. The beer was a lovely amber color and slightly turbid. My tulip glass was graced with a couple fingers of nice white head that hung around for a while. There were lots of bubbles in the glass going upwards. This is one effervescent brew.

While Vida y Muerte may be a distant cousin of the Oktoberfest, it also trades on the so-called pumpkin beer with the addition of Mexican cinnamon along with other unnamed spices. That cinnamon was readily apparent when I took a sniff as was nutmeg. There was a caramel sweetness here too but I'm unsure if it came from the malt or the dulce de leche or milk caramel. Perhaps both. I could also smell grass which I'll put down to the Glacial hops, a variety with which I was unfamiliar until now.

The taste is similar to the aroma with the spices being the first thing my tongue noticed. While the spices were front and center, they didn't overwhelm and allowed that caramel sweetness to come through. Milk sugar is added to the beer so there is a definite sweetness but this isn't a syrupy sweet mess. Vienna and Munich malts are used and while I didn't end up in melanoidin cielo, there was some tasty bread flavor. Although a kusine of the festbier, Vida y Muerte is an ale and I tasted some fruity flavors as well which were like cherry. Lastly, the carbonation added a little bit of bite.

At the finish the cinnamon and nutmeg ebbed away and were replaced with grassy and spicy hop bitterness which brought a moderate dryness to the close of the proceedings. My glass was left with some decent webs of lacing.

I was rather surprised at just how light-bodied Vida y Muerte is. With its beautiful amber color, a 6.3% A.B.V., and all that milk sugar and caramel, I expected something a bit heavier. I recall drinking this beer immediately after coming home from work and being very thirsty. It went down quite easily, I can assure you. The spices were pronounced but they weren't oppressive. The malt and milk sugar/caramel added just enough sweetness to provide a base for the cinnamon and nutmeg while the carbonation and hops kept everyone in line. While I prefer a little more body in my autumnal beers, Vida y Muerte was still a nice sweet treat for Halloween/Día de Muertos.

Junk food pairing: Having lost my brother earlier this year, Día de Muertos took on especial significance for me. Ergo I paired Vida y Muerte with some Pan de Muertos. The extra bit of sweetness was fine but I really liked how the bread added more heft to the mouthfeel, a little more base for the spices.

Prost, my brother.

When It's Cold Outside and You Want to Drink In: Afterburner by Metropolitan Brewing

Chicago's Metropolitan Brewing began distributing here in Wisconsin this past spring which means I can enjoy their beers more often instead of having to wait for trips down south. Co-founders Tracy and Doug Hurst are both from Wisconsin: she from the Milwaukee suburb of Greenfield and he from right here in Madison. Doug attended the UW and took the infamous Plants and Man course where you can brew beer in lieu of writing a paper. A roommate of mine in college took this class and brewing the beer became a project involving everyone in the house and my first involvement in the production of the sweet, sweet nectar.

Metropolitan opened in 2008 and has been forging its own path ever since. Perhaps because of the Hurst's Wisconsin upbringing (and hence exposure to breweries such as Capital and Sprecher) as well as the time Doug spent in Germany learning his trade, the fateful decision was made to brew lagers with no concessions to the preternatural preoccupation with hops. I met Tracy earlier this year when she was in town introducing drinkers to her beer and instead of boasting about a brotastic cascade of citrus hop flavors, she emphasized the comity between malt and hops.

The brewery currently has three annuals along with six seasonals. Afterburner is Metro's Oktoberfest that is released in September (instead of July). I'm not sure when Metropolitan began brewing it but I do believe that it was draught-only early in its life and was first bottled in 2013.

Afterburner is a beauty of a beer, eh? It is a lovely light copper and clear. My pour produced about ¼" of loose, off white head that dissipated fairly quickly. Either that or I spent a long time trying to get a decent photograph. Surprising to me was that there were only a few stray bubbles going up. This beer appeared almost still. The aroma was full of malty goodness. There were biscuity notes but also some sweeter ones that were akin to figs and a hint of caramel too. My nose also caught just a hint of spicy hops.

The beer's medium body was replete with a great combination of malt flavors. As was expected, there were bread/biscuit tastes along with some stonefruity sweetness. As Afterburner's copper color let on, there was also a welcome roasted grain flavor that was like well-done toast. It had a bit of nuttiness to it as well. Lurking underneath the malty mélange was a bit of peppery hop in addition to a little dry bite from the carbonation.

The clean malts gave way at the finish to a moderate dryness from both the carbonation and some mild spicy/peppery hop bitterness. My glass was left with just a little Schaumhaftvermoegen towards the top.

Afterburner is perhaps the very model of a modern Märzen beer. The clean maltiness is spearheaded by bread and biscuit flavors but bolstered by a touch of sweetness and the nutty taste of roasted grain. This winning combination is kept together by the hops which never seek to overpower, only to complement. I can't find any info on the ingredients so I don't know what kinds of hops were used nor if German malts are in the recipe. Afterburner is 6.1% A.B.V. so it is perfect for chilly October evenings.

Junk food pairing: Deep-fried cheese curds. I cannot even begin to describe the depths of malt gluttony you will wallow in when eating deep-fried cheese curds with your Afterburner.

"O'zapft is" In a Can: Oktoberfest by Bull Falls Brewery

Another Oktoberfest review and today’s victim, er, exemplar comes from Bull Falls Brewery in Wausau. A newcomer to the Madison market, the brewery was established in 2007 by brewmaster Mike Zamzow and his father Don who named the brewery after the city's original appellation, "Big Bull Falls". This name referred to a stretch of rapids on the Wisconsin River which flows through town. 2013 proved an auspicious year for Bull Falls as the brewery completed a $1.5 million expansion and gained wider distribution. Cans of their brews finally hit store shelves here in Madison this past summer.

Bull Falls has a fairly traditional line-up of English and German styles. There's nothing extreme nor very much that would send Reinheitsgebot purists ducking for cover. Five Star Ale, an amber ale is the biggest seller while Hop Worthy IPA and a bourbon barrel stout seem to be concessions to current trends. Yet Zamzow's first beer for the brewery was Oktoberfest and the first beer brewed in the new expanded brewhouse a couple of years ago was Oktoberfest. According to Robin Shepard Zamzow brews his Oktoberfest using a German (continental?) brewing technique called decoction mashing which involves taking some of the mash (i.e. – the admixture of grains and water) and boiling it in a separate vessel for a time before returning it from the kettle from which it came. Shepard maintains that the process "accentuates the smooth malty flavors in the finished beer".

I'd heard that decoction mashing is what gives German beers that melanoidin/Maillard reaction flavor which I think of as being a bit like bread crust or lightly toasted bread. It's grainy but not sweet; it's rich yet not cloying. Having spoken with some brewers and read more accounts on the Interwebs it seems that American brewers are split. Some think decoction is what gives that flavor while others think it's the malt varieties. One of the great mysteries of our time.

Bull Falls' Oktoberfest pours a lovely deep gold color. It is as clear as the day is long. My pour produced about one inch of foamy off-white head. There were a few bubbles making their way upwards from the bottom of the glass. The beer looked so pretty and I just couldn't wait to breathe in its aromatic goodness. I found that there were the expected and most welcome bread and yeast aromas but there was also the smell of metal. It wasn't ferric to my nose and it also wasn't overpowering. I held out hope that this off smell didn't make it into the taste.

Thankfully it did not and my tongue was instead greeted by some fine, clean malt flavor, delightfully decocted. There was the bread as on the nose but also an earthy sweetness like fig or date. A touch of carbonation on the tip of my tongue and a pleasant bit of herbal & spicy hop bitterness did their level best to balance the malt but it was not to be. Still, they provided some nice contrast. It had a smooth medium body instead of leaning onto the thin side as had Lazy Monk's Oktoberfest earlier that day.

It finished with a bit of that stonefruity sweetness lingering along with a mild herbal bitterness. I have to admit that I have really enjoyed all the herbal hop flavors in these Oktoberfests the past several days. My glass had a nice ring of Schaumhaftvermoegen towards the top where the head had given way to the beer but nothing beneath it. Harumph.

Bull Falls' Oktoberfest is a solid brew. It looks gorgeous with its golden hue and ample foamy head. Any dirndl-clad maiden would be proud to be seen serving it. It tastes great too. I loved the decocted bready malt flavors. The beer also had a moderate malt sweetness which was fine but I prefer less. I will also admit to thoroughly enjoying the herbal hop flavor here after the more spicy flavors in the pilsners I'd been drinking previous to the Oktoberfest binge.

Junk food pairing: As has been noted here previously, deep fried cheese curds are the sine non qua of any Oktoberfest drinking session. Well, after the beer itself, that is. The salt accentuates the smooth malty flavors of the beer perfectly. And there's cheese involved too.

Thank You For Our Daily Liquid Bread: Oktoberfest by Lazy Monk Brewing

I spent some time over the weekend at Stalzy's Deli's Oktoberfest celebration which featured an abundance of both domestic and imported Oktoberfest beers as well as a curious excess of Anglo folk and country-flavored music. Having spent time quaffing Oktoberfests or autumnal beers from Karben4 (Oaktober Ale was a bit heavy-handed on the oak but still good), Summit (sprightly and bubbly – the champagne of festbiers), Schell's (a bit less malty than I'm used to yet very tasty), Next Door Brewing (NextDoorberfest ale was earthy/nutty with a vinuous element to boot), Paulaner, und Hofbräu (classic step-mashed {?}, melanoidin goodness), one would think that I'd have reached peak Märzen and needed a bumptious pale ale to recover from malt madness. Nein!

Lazy Monk Brewing opened up in Eau Claire about four years ago. The brewery was founded by Leos Frank, a native of The Czech Republic who began homebrewing when he discovered a dearth of Czech-style beers in his adopted homeland. The brewery flies under the Wisconsin craft beer radar as it has limited distribution and Frank focuses on malty lagers instead of hoppy pale ales, although they do have a couple of IPAs. To the best of my knowledge Lazy Monk began distributing outside of the Chippewa Valley only last year. Still, business is apparently good as the brewery will be moving to a new location in Eau Claire next year.

I was at the brewery a couple of months ago and rather impressed at how they took an industrial space and had transformed it into a fair simulacrum of what I think a Central European tavern would look like. Mr. Frank was even behind the bar. The Dulcinea and I enjoyed a flight before delving into a couple pints. Even I must declare the Rye IPA to be the finest in Eau Claire.

Mr. Frank's Oktoberfest was a beautiful gold and crystal clear. Unlike my last Oktoberfest, I managed to get a nice head with about an inch of creamy off-white foam in my glass that lingered for a while. There were a few stray bubbles going up my glass. The aroma was full of bready scents as I expected but there was also a modicum of sweetness to it that was like honey and apricots. I could smell no hops but admit that I had a slightly stuffy nose no doubt because of the transition to autumn.

While the hops may have been absent from the nose, they were certainly present on my tongue after taking a sip. They had a moderately strong herbal/peppery flavor which complemented the clean bread and bread crust flavors of the malt. I tasted little carbonation and also found little sweetness which was rather surprising given the sweetness in the aroma.

It finished fairly dry with that herbal hop bitterness lingering for a short time. I think the carbonation added a just little bite here as well.

The beer was a bit hoppier than I'm used to for the style but I suspect this is simply because the malt flavors here were rather subdued. I appreciated the bready flavors along with the absence of sweetness but the beer simply tasted a little watery. The rich malt flavors were rather more in the background than is to my taste. Because of this the beer had a medium-light body instead of one a little heavier which is what I'd expect. This medium-light body coupled with hops that are more herbal than spicy also makes the beer a bit more easy-drinking than a typical Oktoberfest. My can went down like a helles.

This is by no means a bad beer – the malt was very tasty and I really enjoyed the mellower/more herbal hops. It just lacks the fullness I expect from the style.

Junk food pairing: As I have determined previously (thanks Curd Girl!), deep-fried cheese curds are the junk food pairing par excellence for the Oktoberfest. The salt really throws the wonderful bready malt flavors into sharp relief.