Three of us sat down and did a comparative tasting of six Octoberfest beers to see which we liked the best:
Shiner – Octoberfest
Flying Dog – Dogtoberfest
Bell’s – Octoberfest
Point – Octoberfest
Millstream – Octoberfest
Goose Island – Harvest Ale
The top 2 beers were unanimous between the 3 of us: Flying Dog and Millstream finished First and Second, respectively (I thought Millstream was better, but was out voted 2 to 1).
Bell’s and Shiner finished initially in 3rd and 4th, but as the Bell’s warmed up it developed an off flavor (band-aid) that no one liked. So it got moved down to next to last at the end of the day. The only thing that kept it off the bottom was the fact that none of us liked the Point at all. It was closer to being MGD 64 than to an Octoberfest - watery, weak, no significant flavor at all.
The Goose Island was a very good beer, but turned out to not be close to an Octoberfest style; but in their defense, they don’t claim that it is. In fact, I looked it up on their webpage and they consider it an American ESB. So we didn’t include it in the final vote tally.
Overall, it was a fun exercise, one that we’ll likely repeat with other seasonal beers in the near future.
Octoberfest Beer Tasting
Octoberfest Beer Tasting
A Mighty Wind's A Brewing
“Life is short - break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile” ― Mae West
“Life is short - break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile” ― Mae West
Dave (the boy) and I did one a few weeks ago. Our rankings came in as:
1- Left Hand- a little dark for the style, more of what I think of as the style though
2- Boulevard- very good, the most to style
3- Flying Dog- Very good, slightly hoppy
4- Shiner- Almost identical to Flying Dog
5- Bell's- I don't remember an off flavor, but it was that great
6&7- Paulaner and Hacker Pschorr- Both were very stale and had a slight skunky taste. A huge dissappointment on what should have set the bar.
1- Left Hand- a little dark for the style, more of what I think of as the style though
2- Boulevard- very good, the most to style
3- Flying Dog- Very good, slightly hoppy
4- Shiner- Almost identical to Flying Dog
5- Bell's- I don't remember an off flavor, but it was that great
6&7- Paulaner and Hacker Pschorr- Both were very stale and had a slight skunky taste. A huge dissappointment on what should have set the bar.
Runamok Brewing
Jesus must have been a yeast. Who else could turn water into wine?
Jesus must have been a yeast. Who else could turn water into wine?
Octoberfest Beer Tasting
I bet they were last year's batch. I've noticed before that you can't seem to get a "fresh" Octoberfest until December or January.
On Sat, Oct 9, 2010 at 1:03 PM, tompb <brew-members@crbeernuts.org (brew-members@crbeernuts.org)> wrote:
On Sat, Oct 9, 2010 at 1:03 PM, tompb <brew-members@crbeernuts.org (brew-members@crbeernuts.org)> wrote:
Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://www.mail2forum.com)6&7- Paulaner and Hacker Pschorr- Both were very stale and had a slight skunky taste. A huge dissappointment on what should have set the bar.