A Year of Craft Beer, Vol. 96, Spaten Oktoberfestbier

Hi everyone!  I apologize for missing last night's post, but I was out having fun and couldn't fit this in.  I do have untappd, but that is a complete fail on my phone.  I have no clue why it doesn't work well on my p.o.s. HTC LTE.  Wow, was that phone overrated!  Well, I was out and had two nice beers, Bells Oberon and Great Lakes Alchemy Hour.  Both were fantastic beers!

Tonight I am doing an old familiar beer called Spaten Oktoberfestbier.  It's been for sale in the states for a long time so this is not the first time that I have had this beer.  It's a good beer.  Obviously it is of the octoberfest class, or Marzen (for March, the last month before summer that beer was typically able to be brewed and then kept in cold storage over the summer).  These beers are typically dark copper in colour, mildly hopped, full bodied and fairly high alcohol content.

I poured this beer into a standard pint at about 55 degrees F and it was light copper in colour with a light tan one finger head that keeps as a fairly full head throughout the drink and leaves excellent archway looking lacing on the glass.

It smells mostly of caramel malts with a hint of apple and some biscuity yeast maybe.  I'm not getting any skunky aromas as this was in a green bottle.

The tastes and the aromas are pretty straightforward.  The beer starts off with a little carbonation bite then mellows to caramel malt sweetness with hints of apple and mild dark fruits, some bready characteristics and finally a well balanced finish that is only slightly hoppy, dry and peppery.  It's a bit warming going down and the alcohol is mildly apparent, barely noticeable.  

The beer is fairly full bodied or just under and has a mostly sweet, but not syrupy profile.  The carbonation is moderate or slightly above which seems to accentuate the mild hoppy finish.

Overall, this is an excellent beer.  In my book it is probably approaching world class and I could see how one can call it that.  I think it may be a little thin and therefore I am only going to give it like a 4.3 out of 5 or so.  Not shabby at all!  Very good.  I would seek this out again as it is sessionable even though the alcohol is noticeable.

Life is too short to be drinking Hamms.  F@cking stop drinking that sh!t Knucklehead!

-Wiss