Recently, a friend and I did a taste test of this year’s Oktoberfest beers that we had in stock at the store. Traditionally, Oktoberfest (or Marzen) is a lager brewed with bottom-fermenting yeast, which needs low temperatures to act. The beer was brewed in Bavaria (southern Germany) until March (ergo “Marzen”), when the weather began to warm up. During the summer, brewers would stash their beer in caves or other dark places and surround the beer with blocks of ice to keep the summer heat from spoiling it.
As far as I know, the traditional method is not followed today, at least not by breweries large enough for us to find in a liquor store in Florida. But the style of the beer has caught on as a seasonal offering by many breweries and every year it seems there is more Oktoberfest on the shelves.
Red Brick Oktoberfest: malty, sweet, light to medium feel. This one is more full-bodied than any of them, there is a bit of bitterness, but overall it retains a nice, rich flavor. WORTH FULL PRICE.
Magic Hat “Hex” Ourtoberfest: malty and sweet, light to medium feel. Has some structure to it: there are hints of citrus and just a little hop bitterness on the finish. WORTH FULL PRICE.
Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest: rich malt, sweet and light, just a little bitter. BUY IT ON SALE.
Spaten Oktoberfest: malty and quite sweet. There is some hop bitterness on the finish; light to medium mouthfeel. What I imagine the traditional Oktoberfest would have tasted like. BUY IT ON SALE.
Samuel Adams Octoberfest: Quite malty with a good amount of sweetness. This is the Oktoberfest I judge others by. It is very standard & I like it. If it is worse than Sam Adams, it’s not worth drinking. If it’s better, then it must be well-crafted, because Sam Adams is hard to beat. BUY IT ON SALE.
Beck’s Oktoberfest: Somewhat sweet, there is a nice maltiness. There is some bitterness which lingers a while in the finish. This is where it misses the mark of being an Oktoberfest, but you wouldn’t mistake it for anything else. DRINK IF IT’S FREE.
Harpoon Octoberfest: Some sweetness, not very malty, the finish if long & quite hoppy. If there were less bitterness, maybe the sweet, malty Oktoberfest characteristics would come through in the finish, but they really don’t. This beer really does taste good; it just seems to miss its goal: if it were not on the label I would not think it was meant to be an Oktoberfest. DRINK IF IT’S FREE.
Leinenkugel Oktoberfest: Very little malt, some sweetness, it is very light. There isn’t a lot there, it tastes watered-down. EMERGENCIES ONLY.
Blue Point Oktoberfest: Light to medium feel, too sweet. There really isn’t anything good to say about this beer. It seems that they added too much sugar to this batch. There is no malt so speak of; it tastes like Steel Reserve. EMERGENCIES ONLY.
