Beer of the Weekend #95: Oktoberfest
BotW is back!
The beer this weekend is Oktoberfest brewed by the Karl Strauss Brewing Company of San Diego, California.
I had no clue what to get tonight. I thought about trying pumpkin ale, but…no. Anchor Porter and 1554 got me craving something dark, and the color would go well with a spooky, Halloween theme. But I wasn’t convinced. I walked the aisles at the Beach BevMo!, browsing the shelves for something interesting, unsure what I wanted. Then I saw Oktoberfest.
Jackpot! Not only is it a perfect October beer (though a couple weeks late), but it’s from a local brewer. Karl Strauss only distributes its beer in SoCal, so there’s no way I’ll be able to drink it next fall when I’m back in the heartland. This was my chance to try it, and I wasn’t going to let it pass.
On a side note, I also picked up a sixer of Red Hook Late Harvest. I didn’t think the märzen would deliver the flavor I craved so I wanted a back-up. Thankfully, I reconsidered and put it back on the shelf. Maybe next week. (Hopefully. It’s only available through October.)
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles.
Appearance: Poured a crystal clear, deep amber. Two fingers of thick, faintly tan head developed and dissipated slowly to a thin lacing and a thick ring around the edge.
Smell: Chocolate and toffee up front. Very surprising for a märzen, but also very pleasing. There’s also a deep, rich caramel aroma. It’s like fresh baked chocolate bread let to cool in a kitchen where a pot of coffee is brewing.
Taste: Not so much chocolate, but the sweet caramel dominates. The toffee comes through, too. There is also a fig-like presence, though it’s not prominent. It’s malty all the way through, without a hint of hop bitterness at the end.
Drinkability: Superb. It’s not true to style, at least the traditional style, but it’ll do. Oktoberfest is a very tasty brew, and a good variation of the märzen style.
Fun facts about Oktoberfest:
-Price: The witch lady at BevMo! didn’t gave me the receipt. Regardless, I think the sixer was on sale for $7.99.
-Serving temperature: 45-50°F.
-Alcohol content: 5 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: The Karl Strauss website has nothing to say about food pairings, which is strange. No fear — BA is to the rescue suggesting German cuisine. Does that include Wheaty Spacebars?
-Color: 15 SRM. The SRM measurement — which stands for Standard Reference Method — is the color standard for the American Society of Brewing Chemists. (The Europeans, of course, use a different standard: EBC (European Brewery Convention).) According to Mosher’s Tasting Beer, SRM measurements are taken using “a 430 nanometer blue light, typically in a spectrophotometer.” The scale range runs from 2 (pale straw, which would be a light lager) to 70 and 80 (imperial stouts). Oktoberfest is on the dark side for märzens, which range from seven to 15.
-IBU: 20.
-Gravity: 13º Plato.
The Quiet Man’s grade: B+.
The beer this weekend is Oktoberfest brewed by the Karl Strauss Brewing Company of San Diego, California.
I had no clue what to get tonight. I thought about trying pumpkin ale, but…no. Anchor Porter and 1554 got me craving something dark, and the color would go well with a spooky, Halloween theme. But I wasn’t convinced. I walked the aisles at the Beach BevMo!, browsing the shelves for something interesting, unsure what I wanted. Then I saw Oktoberfest.
Jackpot! Not only is it a perfect October beer (though a couple weeks late), but it’s from a local brewer. Karl Strauss only distributes its beer in SoCal, so there’s no way I’ll be able to drink it next fall when I’m back in the heartland. This was my chance to try it, and I wasn’t going to let it pass.
On a side note, I also picked up a sixer of Red Hook Late Harvest. I didn’t think the märzen would deliver the flavor I craved so I wanted a back-up. Thankfully, I reconsidered and put it back on the shelf. Maybe next week. (Hopefully. It’s only available through October.)
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles.
Appearance: Poured a crystal clear, deep amber. Two fingers of thick, faintly tan head developed and dissipated slowly to a thin lacing and a thick ring around the edge.
Smell: Chocolate and toffee up front. Very surprising for a märzen, but also very pleasing. There’s also a deep, rich caramel aroma. It’s like fresh baked chocolate bread let to cool in a kitchen where a pot of coffee is brewing.
Taste: Not so much chocolate, but the sweet caramel dominates. The toffee comes through, too. There is also a fig-like presence, though it’s not prominent. It’s malty all the way through, without a hint of hop bitterness at the end.
Drinkability: Superb. It’s not true to style, at least the traditional style, but it’ll do. Oktoberfest is a very tasty brew, and a good variation of the märzen style.
Fun facts about Oktoberfest:
-Price: The witch lady at BevMo! didn’t gave me the receipt. Regardless, I think the sixer was on sale for $7.99.
-Serving temperature: 45-50°F.
-Alcohol content: 5 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: The Karl Strauss website has nothing to say about food pairings, which is strange. No fear — BA is to the rescue suggesting German cuisine. Does that include Wheaty Spacebars?
-Color: 15 SRM. The SRM measurement — which stands for Standard Reference Method — is the color standard for the American Society of Brewing Chemists. (The Europeans, of course, use a different standard: EBC (European Brewery Convention).) According to Mosher’s Tasting Beer, SRM measurements are taken using “a 430 nanometer blue light, typically in a spectrophotometer.” The scale range runs from 2 (pale straw, which would be a light lager) to 70 and 80 (imperial stouts). Oktoberfest is on the dark side for märzens, which range from seven to 15.
-IBU: 20.
-Gravity: 13º Plato.
The Quiet Man’s grade: B+.
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