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.

Cedarburg Wine and Harvest Festival

Today we went to the Cedarburg Wine and Harvest Festival. It's a lovely event that we try to do every year.

We led off at the Lions Club area where I got a hamburger and a Sprecher Oktoberfest. This is the first time I've had their Oktoberfest and it was a nice rich, dark color with a great full flavor. And it went well with the burger.

While we were walking around I saw a beer booth for a local microbrewery that I hadn't heard of - Silver Creek Brewing Co. They are from right there in Cedarburg. They had an Oktoberfest, a session ESB, a root beer and something else on tap.

I decided to try their ESB. Unfortunately I was so disappointed in it that I only drank half of it. The best thing it had going for it was it's beautiful reddish brown hue. It didn't have much head, it smelled like grape juice and apple cider vinegar - just a touch sweet with alot of sour. It tasted weak and watery, and the most distinct thing I could pick up from the flavor was an unpleasant sourness. I understand a session beer shouldn't be too strong, but I have had light beers that tasted better.

Now, I may have little good to say about it, but I doubt they could be successful and serve their own beer in their brew pub if they didn't bring something to the table. I didn't have time to try their Oktoberfest, so I can't judge the quality of their beers as a whole. I very much want to get my hands on some of the other beers that they brew, and maybe even visit their brew pub. They absolutely deserve a second chance.

I may even give their ESB a second chance. I have a friend who once said to try everything twice. It's good advice, especially since things go wrong sometimes and your first try isn't the typical quality. For example - a couple of years ago I decided that I wanted to try Heineken, so I bought a 4 pack of cans. I hated it. I told some friends of mine and one of them was surprised because he likes it. I mentioned that I had it in cans and he said that draught is best, bottles are good, and although cans aren't bad they are the bottom of the three. This last week Thursday I went out for some drinks after work and had a couple Heinekens in bottles. I enjoyed them. It was nothing like my first experience. Now it may be the three Jack and Coke's I had first, but I don't think they would have made that much of a difference.

Long story short - I am very interested in trying more Silver Creek beer. Hopefully soon. And I want to try the ESB, but I want another beer on hand in case I have the same experience the second time around.

Sprecher Brewery Tour

Yesterday, Amanda and I did the Sprecher Brewery tour with her aunt and cousin.

The tour was fairly short and very fun. Extremely affordable at $4.00 per person ($2.00 for minors, $3.00 for seniors and FREE with a Military ID - gotta love a company that respects those that serve). It was 3 stops and then their indoor beer garden. Sprecher makes 8 types of gourmet soda as well as beer, and in the beer garden, minors can drink as much soda as they want (Well, anyone can). And visitors 21 and older get an 8 ounce glass - which you get to keep - to sample up to 4 of the beers they have on tap - unless you look "receptive" to the other guests. At the start of the tour everyone over 21 is handed 4 beer tickets. While we were drinking after the tour a nice couple next to us gave us all 8 of their beer tickets because they were only drinking the soda. Then another gentleman who told us we looked "receptive" gave us four more. And then another wonderful older gentlemen gave us 2 more! It just kept getting better.

The only unfortunate thing was that we stayed past last call and didn't get a chance to use all of the tickets - which I suppose my brain and liver are thankful for. We could have used them all, but I was enjoying looking and smelling and sipping my beers and didn't want to start chugging them just to keep the tickets from going to waste.



Although not all of their beers were on tap, they had more than we tried. What I found to be fantastic was the selection of beers they had on tap. I've had the Black Bavarian a couple of times and I believe the Special Amber once, they were far surpassed by some of Sprecher's other beers that I've never had. I'm not saying the Black Bavarian and Special Amber are bad - not at all - but I had beers that I'd never seen before and they were amazing. It makes me wonder how little I've really looked at Sprecher beers before. Now, I suppose that part of the reason may be that Sprecher is better known for their root beer than their beer (in fact, they produce and sell more root beer than all of their beer combined). Nonetheless, I'll be keeping an eye out Sprecher when I'm out on a beer run.



So the following are the beers that I had and what I thought of them:

IPA²
I loved this beer. LOVED it. It was my favorite of all the ones I tried. For an IPA it was very sweet but not too sweet. It had a mild floral/fruity scent mixed with a nice tangy-hoppy smell. It had a nice medium amber color and a light mild head. I don't mind sweet beers at all, but I think I lean to bitter beers a bit more. But this was a great combination of the two.

Abbey Triple
It was good, but not my style. It had a light pale color with a mild flavor. It had a slightly sweet maltiness and a finish that I can only compare to a slight biscuity flavor. It also had an element to it that I find in Carlsberg that reminds me of childhood and makes me think of my father.

Germanfest
This beer is brewed specifically for Germanfest here in Milwaukee. It was light like a common macrowbrew but with more flavor and a nice hoppiness. It was too light for my taste, but I liked it better than MGD or Bud Light.

Pipers Scotch-Style Ale
It had a creamy, light tan head and an orange-red-brown color. It was very mild, with an almost imperceptible floral scent. It was sweet and smokey - not bitter at all. Despite my preference for bitter, I really liked this beer - with some reservations. I would not drink more than one at any given time, and if I were to drink it again, I want to be eating meat and/or cheese. It would go well with a nice gouda, a pulled pork sandwich and a kielbasa. I think it's because the smokiness was stronger than I would normally want in a beer, but not enough to keep me from coming back to drink it again. I think this would also probably make a fantastic marinade base for beef, pork or chicken. I'd also like to try using it for stew and in homemade BBQ sauce.

Belgian Dubble
This had the unfortunate role as my final beer before we had to clear out, so I didn't give it nearly same the attention as my other beers. It was good. Not much head. Sweet and savory with a hint of bitter and a clean bready finish. I want to try it again to get a better idea of what I think of it.

One that I didn't get to try for myself was their Russian Imperial Stout. Marsha (my wife's aunt) had one before the keg ran out, but I didn't. I had a sip of hers, but that's all I got because after it ran dry, they replaced it with their Hefe Weiss. From the sip I had I think I may really like it, but I'd like to give it a real try.

Afterward, Amanda suggested we all go to the Old German Beer Hall for giant soft pretzels and a couple more beers. She really has the best ideas.

Needless to say, I absolutely want to go back to the Sprecher Brewery, but I think that next time I'll go for one of their Reserve Tastings. They are done in smaller groups than the regular tour, and feature premier and limited edition items. You get ten samples paired with cheese, and it only costs $15.00 per person. I'd willingly pay that price. It still includes the glass you can keep and the tour.