"Oktoberfest - Brauerie Gutmann" |
“Oktoberfest - Brauerie Gutmann”... that’s a lot of words Sierra Nevada!
It’s fall and time for everyone to enjoy an Octoberfest beer! That season started this summer..since brewers will start dragging out the Pumpkin Spice Latte of beers in May!
BaseLine Tap House along with the regular lineup, does a great job of throwing a seasonal into the mix. Last time this year, the Octoberfest was to my memory a nice little Marzen-like beer that I found myself enjoying. I wanted to go there again, with me enjoying Yuengling’s “Oktoberfest at home regularly. So I jumped right up, ordered one from a friendly face, and said, “hmmm, that is not an Octoberfest!” after a big gulp.
Let’s talk about it. So, it wasn’t as copper colored as my beloved Yuengling. It was not as malty and bready as a Marzen. It was honestly, a little hoppier than I expected. It’s a 6% ABV, hoppy ale with not as much malt as I expected. The hops shined, with a little 26 IBU rating. But the hops brought the flavor. I just kept asking myself what happened here that I ordered a hoppy lager and not a traditional Octoberfest. I guess Sierra Nevada’s love of hop flavor won out! I also found it a little odd that in Untappd, each year’s brew had the year called out and was marked out of production. I mean, this is a standard seasonal right? I was about to grumble about consistency as the color is so different between two years out of the same style plastic cup! Also, while I swear last year’s was more malty, it also had a higher 30 IBU! Sierra Nevada is too good of a brewery to be giving so much variance with a recipe!
INSERT RECORD SCRATCH! First, let’s talk about this beer being off-style. They don’t list “Oktoberfest - Brauerie Gutmann” as an Octoberfest, but a Festbier. This means to me and many other beer drinkers that this is really an anything-goes beer. It is meant to be drank in fall, in celebration of the season, and there’s no reason to worry about hitting any standard style definition! So that can explain why the two offerings are so different. But then I got really confused as I looked in my data as this year’s offering is titled, “Oktoberfest - Brauerie Gutmann” while last year’s was titled “Oktoberfest - Kehrwider Kreativebrauerei!” I need to know more. I did some time-consuming research, Googling, and read Untappd descriptions and a realization hit me, Sierra Nevada is using fall as an excuse for collaboration. They are working with German breweries, like Brauerie Gutmann and Kehrwider Kreativebrauerei who are known for making traditional Greman-style beers in Germany! Sure, I don’t know who they are, but if I actually was in Germany I would likely find their offerings all around me!
"Oktoberfest - Kehrwider Kreativebrauerei" |
This is awesome! I love the fact that Sierra Nevada is using the occasion to introduce German breweries to the United States and Disney Hollywood Studios! There’s no reason to worry about consistency or even style year-to-year because the style and collaboration allow breweries to play and give us something different every year!
Who Drinks This? You like drinking to the occasion, and like sampling something new this is for you. You also like collecting unique beers, catch this while you can because you won’t get it next year. Just don’t expect a Marzen! If you like some hop flavor, grab this annual offering. This is brewers giving you something different than maybe what you expect. This uniqueness could lead me to grab a second sip.
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