Beer of the Weekend #170: Samuel Adams Octoberfest
Writing-wise it has been a long week, so I want to keep this week’s BotW short and sweet.
I am closing out October with a fitting beer that is a hair out of season. The beer of the weekend is Samuel Adams Octoberfest, brewed by The Boston Beer Company of Boston, Massachusetts.
This is only the second Samuel Adams beer I have sampled on BotW. SAO was highly recommended by a former Dirty John’s guru; he said it and Schell’s Oktoberfest were the best domestic märzen’s around. Schell’s version was very disappointing, so I am eager to try SA’s. (Frankly, I drank one or two last Saturday during the Wisconsin-Iowa game. I was not too impressed, but we shall see for sure tonight.)
On a somewhat sad note, this is the last BotW I bought with my California drivers’ license. Unsure if it would still be around this weekend, I picked up the sixer of SAO last Thursday along with the sixer of Back Road Stout. Apparently while I was on the west coast, Iowa’s alcohol retailers all fitted themselves with scanners and barcode readers to verify in-state licenses. However, the readers and scanners do not work with out-of-state IDs, at least those that are not compatible. When buying beer, I sometimes had to wait for a manager to manually key-in my birth date. But no more. Now when I make my weekly beer run, I can proudly show my Iowa license and have it scanned. Slick.
Wait a minute. I said I wanted to keep this post short.
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. The “ENJOY BEFORE MONTH NOTCHED” date is March.
Appearance: Straight pour into a pint glass. The color is red with copper undertones. Two fingers to white head dissipated very quickly to leave a skim of lacing and ring around the edge. No bottle cap can float on that.
Smell: Subdued sweet caramel, molasses, and a little dark chocolate.
Taste: Much like the aromas, the typical märzen flavors are very subdued. The caramel comes through, though the molasses and dark chocolate from the smell are faint at best. A spicy hop backbone dominates throughout the pint.
Drinkability: Decent, but it is far from my favorite märzen.
Fun facts about SAO:
-Style: Märzen.
-Price: $8.49/sixer at John’s Grocery in Iowa City.
-Serving temperature: 45-50ºF.
-Alcohol content: 5.3 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: To tell you the truth, food pairings are not my thing; they don’t get me off at all. If you are interested in food pairings for SAO, I suggest you go to the Samuel Adams website and hunt down Octoberfest’s page. It will lead you to a pairings page with tons of recommendations.
-Gravity: 13.6 degrees Plato.
-Calories: 183 per 12-ounce bottle.
The Quiet Man’s grade: B.
I am closing out October with a fitting beer that is a hair out of season. The beer of the weekend is Samuel Adams Octoberfest, brewed by The Boston Beer Company of Boston, Massachusetts.
This is only the second Samuel Adams beer I have sampled on BotW. SAO was highly recommended by a former Dirty John’s guru; he said it and Schell’s Oktoberfest were the best domestic märzen’s around. Schell’s version was very disappointing, so I am eager to try SA’s. (Frankly, I drank one or two last Saturday during the Wisconsin-Iowa game. I was not too impressed, but we shall see for sure tonight.)
On a somewhat sad note, this is the last BotW I bought with my California drivers’ license. Unsure if it would still be around this weekend, I picked up the sixer of SAO last Thursday along with the sixer of Back Road Stout. Apparently while I was on the west coast, Iowa’s alcohol retailers all fitted themselves with scanners and barcode readers to verify in-state licenses. However, the readers and scanners do not work with out-of-state IDs, at least those that are not compatible. When buying beer, I sometimes had to wait for a manager to manually key-in my birth date. But no more. Now when I make my weekly beer run, I can proudly show my Iowa license and have it scanned. Slick.
Wait a minute. I said I wanted to keep this post short.
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. The “ENJOY BEFORE MONTH NOTCHED” date is March.
Appearance: Straight pour into a pint glass. The color is red with copper undertones. Two fingers to white head dissipated very quickly to leave a skim of lacing and ring around the edge. No bottle cap can float on that.
Smell: Subdued sweet caramel, molasses, and a little dark chocolate.
Taste: Much like the aromas, the typical märzen flavors are very subdued. The caramel comes through, though the molasses and dark chocolate from the smell are faint at best. A spicy hop backbone dominates throughout the pint.
Drinkability: Decent, but it is far from my favorite märzen.
Fun facts about SAO:
-Style: Märzen.
-Price: $8.49/sixer at John’s Grocery in Iowa City.
-Serving temperature: 45-50ºF.
-Alcohol content: 5.3 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: To tell you the truth, food pairings are not my thing; they don’t get me off at all. If you are interested in food pairings for SAO, I suggest you go to the Samuel Adams website and hunt down Octoberfest’s page. It will lead you to a pairings page with tons of recommendations.
-Gravity: 13.6 degrees Plato.
-Calories: 183 per 12-ounce bottle.
The Quiet Man’s grade: B.
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