Beer of the Weekend #271: Summit Oktoberfest
Munich’s famous Oktoberfest beings tomorrow and I have decided to recognize the festival by sampling märzen for the next three weeks. (The Munich version ends October 3.) Kicking off my personal Oktoberfest is Summit Oktoberfest, brewed by the Summit Brewing Company of Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Minn-e-so-tah.
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. There is a code on the label that I think contains a freshness date: “12091102.” Maybe that’s wishful thinking.
Appearance: Straight pour into a becker glass. The color is copper tinted caramel. Two fingers of dense, buttery, slightly tanned head dissipated slowly to leave a thin lacing and ring around the edge.
Smell: I got a whiff of toffee and a little caramel when popping the cap. After the pour, sweet caramel and toffee are the most prominent aromas. I also get a little hint of burnt hair in a salon, but it is faint and slowly fades as the beer warms.
Taste: It is on the bitter side for a märzen. It is a metallic/burnt hair bitterness, which I thought would fade after a few sips and after the beer continued to warm, but it remained throughout the pint. It really distracted from the toffee and the caramel, the only other favors I was able to pick out.
Drinkability: For me, the bitterness was off-putting. I prefer a little bite with märzen, but not something distracting like this. It really took away from the malts I would enjoy much more. However, it is still very robust for the style, and for that I will commend Summit.
Fun facts about Summit Oktoberfest:
-Style: Märzen.
-Price: $7.99/sixer at John’s Grocery in Iowa City.
-Serving temperature: Summit sez, “45-50 °F, in a Nonick tumbler or Stein.”
-Alcohol content: 7.3 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: The beer’s Summit webpage offers these suggestions: “Swiss cheese, turkey, spicy food, bratwurst, wild game.”
-IBU: 29.
-Color: 15º Lovibond.
-Nerdiness from the brewer. Apparently, Oktoberfest’s motto is, “Hold the bottle up to your ear. You can almost hear the polka.” Here is the description from the webpage:
-Summit Oktoberfest was first brewed in 2001.
The Quiet Man’s grade: B-.
Minn-e-so-tah.
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. There is a code on the label that I think contains a freshness date: “12091102.” Maybe that’s wishful thinking.
Appearance: Straight pour into a becker glass. The color is copper tinted caramel. Two fingers of dense, buttery, slightly tanned head dissipated slowly to leave a thin lacing and ring around the edge.
Smell: I got a whiff of toffee and a little caramel when popping the cap. After the pour, sweet caramel and toffee are the most prominent aromas. I also get a little hint of burnt hair in a salon, but it is faint and slowly fades as the beer warms.
Taste: It is on the bitter side for a märzen. It is a metallic/burnt hair bitterness, which I thought would fade after a few sips and after the beer continued to warm, but it remained throughout the pint. It really distracted from the toffee and the caramel, the only other favors I was able to pick out.
Drinkability: For me, the bitterness was off-putting. I prefer a little bite with märzen, but not something distracting like this. It really took away from the malts I would enjoy much more. However, it is still very robust for the style, and for that I will commend Summit.
Fun facts about Summit Oktoberfest:
-Style: Märzen.
-Price: $7.99/sixer at John’s Grocery in Iowa City.
-Serving temperature: Summit sez, “45-50 °F, in a Nonick tumbler or Stein.”
-Alcohol content: 7.3 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: The beer’s Summit webpage offers these suggestions: “Swiss cheese, turkey, spicy food, bratwurst, wild game.”
-IBU: 29.
-Color: 15º Lovibond.
-Nerdiness from the brewer. Apparently, Oktoberfest’s motto is, “Hold the bottle up to your ear. You can almost hear the polka.” Here is the description from the webpage:
Brewed in the classic Märzen style with Northern Brewer hops from Germany. Rich, toffee malt flavors up front with a clean hop finish as crisp as the autumn air. Unfortunately, like the fall colors, this seasonal beer is gone before you know it.
-Summit Oktoberfest was first brewed in 2001.
The Quiet Man’s grade: B-.
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