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.

Summer cookout - Summer beer

The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy, but I've tried some new beers and had some great beer moments. So I figure I'll back it up to Sunday, July 25th. Amanda had invited a friend of ours over to start planning a State Fair party, and while he was over he asked if we had any summer beers.

Unfortunately, I didn't.

And it got me thinking - maybe I should take more advantage of the seasonal aspects of beer. That evening, we decided to have a cook out with John, John and Gregg. I ran to the store to get some brats (I just grabbed a Johnsonville party pack) and some summer beers. John had mentioned Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy, so I picked up a six pack, and since I don't care for Summer Shandy I also picked up a six pack of Sam Adams Summer Ale, which was a new one to me.

Now one thing I like about cookouts is beer brats. My love of beer brats is two-fold. The first is definately the easiest - I love eating them. But the second is important in maintaining a properly stocked refrigerator - Making beer brats gives me a chance to use beer in my fridge that I'm not drinking before it gets old and skunky.

Why would I have beer in my fridge that isn't getting drunk? Because although I'm willing to try any beer, I'm not willing to keep drinking some of them. Since everyone has different preferences in beer, it stands to reason that there isn't any bad beer, there is just better beer. But that doesn't mean I'm going to drink a beer I don't care for if there's something else available.

This time I used MGD and Harp. I don't really drink MGD, but we always try to keep some on hand for guests. Plenty of people drink Miller and I'd rather have MGD in the house than Miller Lite. I've gotten to the point where it has become my preferred beer for making beer brats and beer dip. But this time I only had one bottle left in the fridge so I broke into the next oldest beer in the fridge - Harp.

Unlike MGD, I do drink Harp, but since I prefer darker beers, I only drink it regularly. I had originally bought it to make black and tans (or more acurately half and halfs, since Harp is a pale lager instead of a pale ale) - but after a couple I got tired of them and the Harp wasn't going anywhere - So it was time to start cooking with it.

Anyhow, the cookout was a good time - relaxed and enjoyable. A perfect way to end a relaxing weekend. The Summer Shandy's went over well and I got to try my first Samuel Adams Summer Lager. It was a success. It was light, with a pleasant tartness and a little bitterness that went down quite nicely over dinner. I had thought of having a second as we sat out in the back yard around the firepit and chatted, but I find that beer makes me thirsty and I didn't want to end up dehydrating myself before work. That's fine, it's still there waiting for me.