Flying Dog Oktoberfest Reviewed

From Frederick, MD

The Brewery says..."the origins of Dogtoberfest are shrouded in mystery, but scholars think it has everything to do with an insane German king and a crazed Oompah band. You can read the full historical record of Dogtoberfest below. Dogtoberfest is deep mahogany in color with an intriguing caramel finish and brewed with 100% imported German ingredients for a true German flavor."

Appearance: Pours a deep copper with light ruby highlights. A ½ inch beige head that recedes after a minute or so into a covering cap. 7.2/10

Body: Medium light and round with carbonation that attacks and retreats. 7.5/10

Nose: Crushed malt with a touch of caramel and some spice notes. 7.5/10

Taste: The malt and spice notes translate and linger before the hops enter on the sides of the tongue and wrap. There are some vague fruity notes that add some complexity but not much. 7.5/10

Overall: 7.4/10

Comment: Flying Dog emerges victorious. This isn’t a hit you over the head style, but that doesn’t mean it has to be bland. Flying Dog’s Dogtoberfest has a more compelling Nose and the overall flavor profile is more rich and satisfying. 

Spaten Oktoberfest Reviewed

From Munich, Germany

The Brewery says...Spaten Oktoberfest Beer is amber in color. This medium bodied beer has achieved its impeccable taste by balancing the roasted malt flavor with the perfect amount of hops. Having a rich textured palate with an underlying sweetness true to tradition.

I say...

Appearance: Pours a clear, light copper with some reddish hues. The head dissipates immediately leaving no cap. 7/10

Body: Light and dry with concentrated carbonation. 7.3/10

Nose: Sweet malt notes, feint caramel, baked bread and some earthy hop notes in the background with a touch of lemon. 7.1/10

Taste: A very dry beer, with malt leading the way with the aforementioned bread bolstering. The hops play a co-pilot role and balances the malt by providing some earthy citrusy notes. 7.3/10

Total: 7.2/10

 Comment: This is a drinking beer, a festival beer. A beer that you should be able to drink 5 or 6 of. A perfect football beer. A sausage pairing beer. 

Oktoberfest USA vs Germany Round II

A festival with its own beer. A beer with its own festival. How wonderful. According to my best friend Wikipedia Oktoberfest is "a 16-day festival held each year in Munich, Germany, running from late September to early October. It is one of the most famous events in Germany and the world's largest fair, with some six million people attending every year, and is an important part of Bavarian culture. Other cities across the world also hold Oktoberfest celebrations, modeled after the Munich event.

The Munich Oktoberfest, traditionally, takes place during the sixteen days up to and including the first Sunday in October. In 1994, the schedule was modified in response to German reunification so that if the first Sunday in October falls on the 1st or 2nd, then the festival will go on until October 3 (German Unity Day). Thus, the festival is now 17 days when the 1st Sunday is October 2 and 18 days when it is October 1. The festival is held on an area named the Theresienwiese (field, or meadow, of Therese), often called d’ Wiesn for short.

Visitors also eat huge amounts of traditional hearty fare such as Hendl (chicken), Schweinsbraten (roast pork), Haxn (knuckle of pork), Steckerlfisch (grilled fish on a stick), Würstl (sausages) along with Brezn (Pretzel), Knödeln (potato or bread dumplings), Kaasspotzn (cheese noodles), Reiberdatschi (potato pancakes), Sauerkraut or Rotkraut (red cabbage) along with such Bavarian delicacies as Obatzda (a fatty, spiced cheese-butter concoction) and Weisswurst (a white sausage).

Life already has too many options, so I've narrowed down a traditional German Oktoberfest beer and compared it to an American Oktoberfest. Round Two. 

The Oktoberfest beer is also known as Marzen. According to the reputable Beer Advocate... Before refrigeration, it was nearly impossible to brew beer in the summer due to the hot weather and bacterial infections. Brewing ended with the coming of spring, and began again in the fall. Most were brewed in March (Märzen). These brews were kept in cold storage over the spring and summer months, or brewed at a higher gravity, so they’d keep. Märzenbier is full-bodied, rich, toasty, typically dark copper in color with a medium to high alcohol content. 

The common Munich Oktoberfest beer served at Wies'n (the location at which Munich celebrates its Oktoberfest) contains roughly 5.0-6.0% alcohol by volume, is dark/copper in color, has a mild hop profile and is typically labeled as a Bavarian Märzenbier in style.

I'll compare Spaten's Oktoberfest to Flying Dog's. 

Great Lakes Weizenbock

From Cleveland, OH

The brewery says..."Named after the Glockenspiel of Marienplatz in Munich, Germany, which features 43 bells and 32 life-sized figures that chime and re-enact two 16th century stories each day." 

Also...A complex, plum-colored Weizenbock with spicy notes of clove and banana.

Interesting. For a moment, I'll suspend my nationalistic bias...

Stats: 8% ABV, 20 IBU

Appearance: Pours a Falu red with golden orange hues around the bottom of the glass. A thin beige head sits at a half cm before leaving the beer completely exposed as the carbonation meanders from the bottom leaving a small collection of active bubbles in the center. 8.4/10

 

Nose: Candied Banana Split, Collins cherry, vanilla, circus peanuts. 8.2/10

 

Body: A little oily, with fuzzy carbonation. Creamy, then soft, then thin, quickly. 8.1

 

Taste: Nutty malt leads the way with toasted undertones and toffee tinges. After the malt fades the fruit kicks in with cinnamon apple and, in a strange way, juicy fruit gum. The wheat makes itself known in a faint way, and the beer fades with some sweet citrus hop notes. 8.4

Overall: 8.3/10

Comment: The edge goes to Great Lakes.  

Plank Bavarian Dunkler Weizenbock Reviewed

From Laaber, Germany

I'd usually cut-and-paste some information from the brewery here, but the website for this brewery looks like it was made in 1996 by a drunk 8th grader in a computer class. Oh, it was also in german. 

In any regard, here is my review. 

Stats: 7.5% ABV

Appearance: Pours a rosewood brown with cloudy light brown highlights. The head is pancake batter off-white and bubbles accordingly. Vigorous carbonation buzzes. 7.5/10

 

Nose: Banana bread, plum, raisin, clove hints, brown sugar--molasses after inhaling deeply. 8.4/10

 

Body: You have to let the carbonation simmer. After the soda-pop intensity fades the body becomes pleasantly creamy with the carbonation concentrating at the tip of the tongue. 8.1

 

Taste: Immediate banana fruit followed by apple and plum, which are slightly tart. The flavor rounds out with hops rolling on through until the finish. 8.3

Overall: 8/10

Comment: A great beer for an autumn evening. These beers just hit the Chicago market but in a large capacity. Regardless, it is still a beer to seek out.

Weizenbocks: USA vs Germany

According to the German Beer Institute Weizenbocks are...Comparable to the barley-based regular Bockbier a Weizenbock is the strong version of an unfiltered Weissbier or Hefeweizen. It is usually made with 60 to 70% wheat malt (German law requires that a Weizenbier, regardless of strength, be made from at least 50% wheat). The other 30 to 40% tend to be so-called Pils, Vienna or Munich malts. These are pale to amber, and sometimes slightly caramelized barley malts that give the beer a full-bodied mouthfeel, a rich and satisfying malty finish, and—depending on the barley malt's color—a more or less opaque appearance. While regular Bockbiers are lagers, Weizenbocks are all ales. They are fermented with a special yeast that gives the brew a slightly spicy, clove-like flavor.

Well, leave it to the experts. The truth is, these traditional German styles have been interpreted by American brewers and some keep it traditional, while others expand and elaborate. Let's compare. Shall we?

Harpoon Glacier Harvest '09 Wet Hop Ale Reviewed

From Boston, MA. 

The Brewery says... "Harpoon brewer Ray Dobens, creator of the beer, added a heroic dose of fresh hops the day of the harvest.The hop flavor and aroma from this copper-colored ale comes from a generous late addition of freshly harvested 'wet' hops."

The name is derived from the Glacier hop which was released for the first time in 2000 and generally used to add aroma to a hop profile. This is the second round for Harpoon with this beer, as it was brewed at harvest last year with the same hop--and the exact same description on the website. 

Stats: 6.7%ABV, 38IBUs. 

I say....

Appearance: Pours a copper--some lighter red highlights--with a frothy inch-high head. Some nice lacing adorns the sides of the glass as the head dwindles leaving a 1/4 inch covering cap. 6.5/10

Nose: I wasn't expecting prominent hopiness--considering the low amount of IBUs--but there are feint grassy, fresh and juicy harvest hops in front of canned peaches--like the Mott's I had as a kid--and candy malt. 7/10

Body: Medium, touch oily, light carbonation. 6.4/10

Taste: The hops jump out quickly and fade quickly. A bitter burst of orange/tangerine citrus supersoak the tongue, then take off. Some caramel sweetness tries to break through, but never does. There is, however, some pepper that manages to do so, and this adds some enjoyable complexity. 7.1/10

Overall: 6.8/10

Comment: I believe Harpoon wanted to allow the hops to speak, and for us to listen and be content, but, I'm not. Sure, trying a freshly harvested single hop beer has its merit, but I can't help but notice how other similarly styled ales surpass Glacier Harvest with ease and in every category. 

Founders Harvest Ale Reviewed

From Grand Rapids, MI 

Stats: 6.1% Alcohol By Volume(ABV), 

70 International Bittering Units(IBU) 

Appearance: Golden yellow hue with an off-white that recedes quickly leaving some lacing.

 

Nose: Hops. Aggressively pungent hops. Citrus fruit city. Grapefruit and resinous pine, cut grass, hint of lychee. Bit of pepper.

 

Body: Initially creamy becoming a bit thin. Minimal carbonation.

 

Taste: The nose leads you to believe the beer will be a hop bomb, exploding and lingering until every taste bud scorched under the heat of wet hopped goodness. This is not the case. The beer is very balanced—a plus—with the hops touching down with a caramel sweetness followed by the aforementioned grapefruit taking charge before spicy-bitterness dawdles down the throat.

Score: A: 8.5, N: 9, B: 8.7 T: 9

Overall 8.8/10 

Comment: I've met some people who love hops more than Jesus and this beer gives them a decent reason. Truly lush and complex. A limited amount was produced and a very limited amount made it to Chicago. Hurry. 

Hops. Let's Go.

---------->Hops. Beautiful lucius hops. Humulus Lupulus, if you please. ------>

The recent harvest has provided brewers across the States the opportunity to create "Harvest," or "Wet-Hopped" beers that add  new dimensions to IPA flavor profiles. Listen to a professional.