Yup that’s it. The Vienna is called Vienna. There is a Red IPA in there too. Flipside
It was brewed in collaboration with Bavarian brewery Riegele. IMO, it’s an excellent example of the Maerzen style (as opposed to the more modern Festbier/Wiesn). Really enjoyed it at our sneak preview.
Looks like fun Toby! I like the stein picture, I would need a bowling wrist brace to hoist that one.
If you’re referring to the one in my medal shelf pic, yeah, it’s a bit over a liter. I have only drank out of it once. It was a prize for placing first in a category at the 1995 Dixie Cup. The Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest steins aren’t quite that big. They’re more like an imperial pint.
Just cracked a bottle. It’s good- but more hop bitterness than I prefer in my o’fest. Definitely had a lingering bitterness in the finish.
EDIT: As Jon noted, the malt profile is really nice. I guess the problem I’m having is that nice bready malt taste is abruptly disrupted in the finish as the hop bitterness grabs you. not bad, just not what I expect and desire from this style.
That was the Summer mix pack, it was surprisingly delicious!
The Vienna was tasty. Tumbler is so good!
How dare they call that a Kolsch! It has simcoe hops in it.
It does? Huh.
According to their website. I was surprised to see that. I was just joking around because I have a kolsch type beer with Amarillo hops. I try to avoid calling it a kolsch although no one who drinks it knows what real kolsch is.
30 IBU puts it right at the top of the style in BJCP.
If one were to make something like this, the Steffi malt would be the one thing that is hard to find.
it is phenomenal - and I had the pleasure of having it fresh on draft at the brewery and taking a growler home with me. 8)
my favorite oktoberfest this year.
Was that picture at Mills River?
Now that I’ve had some around for a few days, I have a little different opinion. If I remove my biases as best I can, pretend someone just handed me a glass and said “what do you think?” I think it’s a tasty, drinkable pale ale that used spicy/floral hops instead of citrus/pines hops, and was either fermented with lager or hybrid yeast, or cal ale at low temps to keep the fruitiness low.
For me, it is missing that richer malt depth that a good classic oktoberfest has. The lighter malt presence and color scream “festbier” to me and a fairly good one at that. I do too agree that the bitterness (and maybe hop flavor additions) could be brought down a notch.
Yep. Beautiful facility. The video I posted was filmed there also. This was down by the river itself.
They have a lot of river front and property. Most beautiful brewery I have ever seen.
+1 pretty much where i’m at on it.
funny to me I get a lot of well balanced, toasty type malt character that is blended with hop bitterness to lend a crisp finish that begs the next sip. I’d agree that the hop aroma is a bit on the higher end of the range but not intrusive.
Sierra’s is pretty close to a good, fresh Ayinger.
in my opinion, several of the American craft interpretations of the style are borderline bocks with lots of rich dark fruity type maltiness and full mouthfeels, leaning decidedly towards malt without the counterbalancing hop bitterness in the finish. Lefthand, Samuel Adams, Highland Clawhammer, Harpoon all come to mind as examples this year. If that is what fits your idealization of the style, you are definitely going to be disappointed.
One final note - I did find the malt to be a bit richer in later batches - the 6/30/15 packaged batch was a bit more bitter and less balanced than the more recent one that I’ve had.
Just picked up a 6 to try. I’ll check the date.
ok so thats interesting. mine is the 6/30 batch and just like you described.