In two words, don’t bother! As I feared, this year’s Octoberfest is a bland, sweet mess. It’s your typical American take on Märzen beer. I guess Sierra Nevada got a lot of negative feedback from people who are used to drinking American-style Märzen last year. Last year’s beer was more of a modern festbier.
Wow, I perceived it completely differently. I found it dry, toasty, and not even approaching sweet. I wonder if maybe yours was made in Ashville and mine in Chico and there are differences somehow. Although, with SN’s focus on consistency that would be surprising.
That’s unfortunate. I haven’t seen it around yet and now I think I’ll have to pass. I always appreciated SN O-fest especially when they teamed up with a German brewery.
I had one yesterday and thought it was very good. I didn’t find it sweet and pretty sure mine was brewed in Asheville. I’ll try another one today and reassess
Keith and I don’t find it sweet at all. Try it.
Yeah, yours probably would be. All I can say is that I was actually surprised by how dry it was.
I’ll give it a try. I get Mills River where I live. I went to Mills River in June when I was visiting my brother in Asheville. The Maibock was spot on and wonderful during a warm afternoon. My wife made me switch to the Dankful which was amazing.
I tend to agree with Denny on this. I’m drinking one as we speak. My tasting notes from like 6 minutes ago on Untapp’d (well aw hell, here’s an image):
The first thing I detected (from a fresh clean palate) was dark CARAMEL, followed by strong bitterness, a burp of slightly citrusy but still noble-ish hop character, and then the dark roasted malt – apparently they use Special Roast and black malt – odd. So, yeah. Not what I expected.
So, take it back. It’s definitely too sweet and too “caramelly”. I’m thinking this is a west coast/east coast thing.
Yesterday I cracked one open around the grill and kinda just drank it because I was ready for a beer. But today I can see where saccharomyces is talking about:
Unfortunately this is what people on the east coast expect from
ofest… think Sam Adams. It’s not that it is bad, but it’s doing it’s own thing
I’m with Denny on this one as well. Dry, toasty, somewhat bitter, not at all sweet. It’s obvious that they’re not using German malts, but other than that it’s a respectable Marzen.
I’m lucky enough to live close to a German style pub that taps nothing but fresh kegs of German lagers. I’ll always choose a fresh German lager over an American equivalent, but I’ll certainly try the American version, especially if it comes from a brewery with integrity - like Sierra Nevada.
The Oktoberfest I had was from the Chico brewery by the way.
If anyone wants to trade let me know. I think they may be targeting two different regions. The East Coast has notoriously leaned more toward “sweeter” more caramel stylesovelr the years. Some of the local IPAs are very caramel forward – unfortunately.
Cans this year, correct. The code on the bottom will have a C or an M in it. Y’all can figure out where your beer was brewed.
I haven’t found it yet, but haven’t looked for it specifically.
Mine have a C
Mine have a C as well.
I wonder why the two different breweries would be allowed to brew different beers. It would seem to me the quality controls would be in place to brew very near the same beers.
Yeah, I really doubt they used 2 different recipes. And knowing SN, I’m pretty sure that they used the same ingredients. So that comes down to process, and again it seems difficult to believe that they wouldn’t monitor and check for that. So, maybe it comes down to our own perceptions and biases?
It’s pretty dark!
Yeah that is pretty dark for the style. SN does list black malt as part of the grist…perhaps they used a tick too much.
Supposedly using a roasted grain in a non-roasty style imparts some dryness in addition to color. Perhaps this is a workaround, maybe the dryness from the black malt offsets some of the caramelly sweet flavors that develop as the beer sits on a warm shelf.
It’s not difficult for me to imagine choosing two different interpretations for two different sides of the country. Whether its true or not …