A Tale of Four Oktoberfests

I intended to do a flavor comparison of several Oktoberfests about a month and a half / two months ago, but I never got around to it. I decided now was the time. I had four on hand, so I set myself up with them and everything I needed to taste compare them - in addition to the camera, I laid out my Oktoberfest coasters (to set the mood, of course) made sure my church key was on hand, set up a small bowl of pretzels and a bottle of water to cleanse my palate between beers, and four separate glasses. It means more washing, but I could view them side by side this way.



The Oktoberfests I had were sampled in the following order:
1) Leinenkugel's
2) Hoffbräu
3) Samuel Adams
4) Sprecher

Leinenkugel's

This comes in a 12 ounce bottle with a screw cap. It has a golden brown hue with a slight reddish tint. It pours with a minimal head that fades away quickly. It has a light sweet malty scent, soft and subtle. The flavor is robust, but not overpowering or overly strong. It is a full bodied malty flavor with just a hint of bitterness (which I like). The maltiness has a rich grainy character to the flavor. The aftertaste is carries a wonderful bread like taste that is probably my favorite part aside from drinking it. I very much like it. It is a very good, very solid Oktoberfest; and I will definately drink it again. I rather expected it to end up being my favorite.

Hoffbräu

This comes in a 12 ounce bottle with a pry-off cap. It has a beautiful light golden color that is very pale, but has more depth than a Miller or Budweiser. Despite the fact that the Hoffbräu is very light, it does not taste like a light beer. It has a more complex flavor without being as heavy on the malty flavor. It has a small, light head that fades away quickly. It has a slightly sour smell with a subtle, sweet maltiness. It has a very lively, floral malty taste - not sweet, but a light summery taste with a solid malty backing. There is a hint of bitter in the background, but it is very, very mild. Despite the sour scent, it does not have a sour flavor. There is a hint of bitter in the background, but it is very, very mild. There isn't much of an aftertaste, but what is there is a mild remnant of the bitterness. I like this Oktoberfest a lot.

Samuel Adams

This comes in a 12 ounce bottle with a pry off cap. This was a little more carbonated than the Leinenkugels or the Hoffbrau. It also had a minimal head that faded quickly. It had a beautiful reddish hue. It was very very beautiful, darker than the Leinenkugel's. It had a very subtle scent - sweet, almost like wine - like smelling a German white whine, but less strong. The flavor is a very solid malty flavor. No bitterness, and no sourness, but not much depth either. It has a surface flavor that sticks to the front of your toungue, but it doesn't envelope your whole mouth. The flavor reminds me of fresh baked bread or an English muffin (but less yeasty). The flavor doesn't stick with you, and there isn't much of an aftertaste to speak of. Although I like malty beers, this one doesn't have much to it. Compared to what I look for in an oktoberfest, this one is too light. There isn't a lot of body or depth, and it doesn't stick with you. It's not a bad beer, and I would pick it over mny others, but as far as Oktoberfests go, I wouldn't say it's one of my favorites.


Sprecher

This comes in a 16 ounce bottle with a twist off cap. It is more carbonated, much like the Samuel Adams. It has a light head that fades quickly. It has a darker color - a reddish brown that is a beautiful fireside sort of color. It has a very, very mild scent. It's not a very distinctive smell that has a light maltiness to it. The flavor is robust - rich, and malty. There isn't much bitterness, and what is there is only noticeable by comparison with something that is completely lacking any bitterness. More than the Samuel Adams, but that's easy to do. It has a little bit of citrusy sourness in the background, but the primary flavor is a standard maltiness. It is a GOOD Oktoberfest. The hint of bitter and hint of sour lend some real character to the depth of flavor provided by the maltiness. It carries the whole flavor into the aftertaste, which is lovely.

The following is the order in which I liked these:

1) Sprecher
2) Hoffbräu
3) Leinenkugel's
4) Samuel Adams

I liked the Sprecher the best, followed closely by the Hoffbräu. It was so close that I had to try the two back to back several times to decide. My third favorite was the the Leinenkugel's. I liked the Leinenkugel's aftertaste quite a bit. I figured that it would come out on top.

All in all, it was a wonderful taste-test.

Hoffbräu at the Grocery Store

I stopped at our local Pick'n'Save (grocery store) to pick up a few things and I stopped in the liquor department to grab a six pack of Oktoberfest - since it's that time of year. And to my surprise they had Hoffbräu Oktoberfest in bottles. I don't know that I've ever seen Hoffbräu at the grocery store, so I grabbed it. It didn't ring up right, so I may have been overcharged a little, but I'm happy to have it at home.

I wonder if I can get it from the Old German Beer Hall to take home for a better price? I'll have to check next time I'm there.

Completed the Set - Hofbräu in the Summer

Today I had the last of the Hofbräu beers that the Old German Beer Hall currently has on tap with their amber. It was a darker color than I expected with a mild, full flavor - rich, but not overpowering. It went down nicely over conversation, and had I not been on lunch with work waiting after I was done, I would have had more than one. So I have completed the set of Hofbräu beers - Obviously I have seasonal beers, but none of them are on tap right now.

I also nearly completed the set of free lunches that they offer. Their weekday lunch special is a meal with the purchase of a Point rootbeer, a Hofbräu beer or a cocktail; but it isn't all of their food. The choices are bratwurst, weisswurst, knockwurst, lieberkäse, or hotdog (I believe it's a Klements). The only one I haven't had is the hotdog, and I'm not sure I'm really interested. Don't get me wrong, I still love the old children's meal of mac-and-cheese and hotdogs, but that's one of the few times I'll eat hotdogs anymore. I had the bratwurst today.

This evening I tried the Capital Brewery Fest, which is their summer seasonal. It has a nice mild flavor - slightly sweet, very earthy, maybe a hint of bitter around the edges. Had it with a buffalo chicken salad, but I think it would go better with a tomato sauce based meal, or a tomato soup, or a beef broth based soup. Good. Definately good, but not my favorite. I think I'd have to be "in the mood" to drink it again, but I think I'd definately pick it over plenty of other beers depending on what's available.

Tried Two New Beers - and Revisited an Old One

The last few days have been unfortunately busy, but not so busy that I missed out on a little down time here and there. On Sunday I bought myself a Lakefront Brewery eight pack sampler and had myself a Klisch pilsner. Honestly, I didn't think I would like it. I assumed it would be too light for me, but I was wrong. It had a nice full flavor and a crispness that was real nice while I was getting stuff done around the house. Now I can see why some people think of pilsners as a great summer beer.

On Tuesday, I didn't have a new beer, but one I'd only had once before. I went to Milwaukee's Old German Beer Hall and had a half liter of their Hofbrau Dunkel, a refreshing dark beer, and followed it with a second half liter. I must admit I love the atmosphere there... and the beer.

Today I tried my first porter at Waterstreet Brewery. I had heard (I believe while touring the Guinness Brewery in Dublin) that the stout was developed to be a "stouter" form of the porter. But I had never had a porter before. It's a pleasant dark beer that I will definately have again. It's not always on the Waterstreet Brewery menu, so I'll have to make sure I get back there before it's done.

So far this week has been a total success!