Bayern Oktoberfest

Picked up 12-oz bottle from Liquid Solutions. Pours a dark caramel cola brew with a fast dissolving off-white head that leaves behind a fine film and thin ring. Aroma of caramel malt, some light flowery hops, a touch of toffee and raisins. Taste is medium bodied, lightly carbonated with flavors of caramel malt and some dry roasted nuts and citrus. Finish is slightly dry with a good hop bite and a faint caramel malt aftertaste. One of the more dry Oktoberfest brew than the sweeter styles I’ve tried.

Pours dark red/copper with a thin beige head. Malty caramel flavor, with a cherry and sweet bread finish. Light on the hops, just enough to keep it from being cloying. Long roasty caramel finish. Very rich oktoberfest beer, while not one you could probably drink a few steins of without feeling totally full, still a nice beer.

Pours a nice deep dark amber color. Aromas of bread, caramel, and hops. Flavor has a nice big malty taste witha nice bitter hop finish.

Bottle: Dark copper, moderate light beige foamy head, fairly nice lacing.   Dark, bready aroma, slight soy, lightly spiced.   Moderate breadiness on the tongue, slight fig/date, finishing with a whole wheat flair.  Medium bodied, average mouthfeel.   Finishes with very light flavor.   Clean, but needs to be a bit more flavorful and aromatic.   Overall its a tad too light.

Bottle. Suprisingly dark, ruby colors only showing through with moderate light. Clear with a decent light tan head that fades to a ring and leaves fair lacing behind. Aroma is rich and malty with a little background of earthy hops. Lighter side of medium bodied. Flavor is pretty malty and a bit too much of residual sugar. Decent earthy hop bitterness. Not bad.

Sampled this at the Big Mountain Brewfest in Whitefish a few weeks ago. I thought it was the best beer poured that day. Perkeo’s spot on with the Vienna lager comparison. Too many folks are looking for big gravity and hops in this style. Enjoy it for what it is--an excellent lager, true to its roots.

DARK. Very nice beer in this it’s 2005 incarnation, but closer to a bock in character than Octoberfest. Dark brown, smooth munich and vienna malt flavor, rich, yet adequately dry in the finish. Getting harder a nd harder to find a good fresh lager around Octoberfest time, this one will certainly do...

Bottle. Deep garnet color, smallish tan head with some decent lace. Nose is sweet caramel, some banana, and bit of nutmeg. Mouthfeel is thin and the finish is less sweet than the nose led me to believe. Not much hopping in the boil on this one, but I like the flavor. I wish Bayern would kick up the gravity a bit. It seems like they brew to the common palate more than I’d like. Missoula can handle more gravity than this.