Callys Oktoberfest

Formerly brewed at Cally’s Restaurant & Brewing Co. (formerly Calhoun’s)
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
Harrisonburg, Virginia USA

Serve in Dimpled mug, Lager glass, Stein

Growler from the brewpub, opened 10/23/10, filled about a week prior. Pours a clear copper color with a medium sized offwhite frothy head. Decent head retention and lacing. Aroma of toasted malts, caramel and grassy slightly metallic hops. The taste is grainy malts, lightly toasted, caramel, raisins and a grassy hop finish. Medium bodied, fairly high carbonation.

On tap at the brewpub on 10/04/2008. Clear copper amber body with a medium creamy off-white head. Sweet toasty, slightly nutty and faintly grainy aroma. Sweet toasty flavor, more light nuttiness. Medium body with moderate carbonation and a very smooth finish.

Draft at brewery. 6.0% ABV. Nice caramel and malt nose. Clear amber/orange. Malts dominate with a touch of graininess. Medium body and mouthfeel. Clean finish. Nice Oktoberfest.

Draft at the brewpub. Pours a surprisingly dark amber with a very fluffy off-white head. This is the most head I have ever seen from a Cally’s brew. Nose is extremely muted. I really struggled to get anything out of it as cold as they serve it, possibly the slightest notion of bread malt. Body is fairly serious and heavy for the style, loads of malt and roasted almonds. Not complex by any means, but, very tasty and decent carbonation makes it fairly drinkable but not nearly as drinkable as most in this style (has to be when you’re drinking liters of it!). A very good effort, and I appreciate the pint on the house, I’m mostly just worried how true to the style it is. That said there are fuller bodied German oktoberfests in existence (I’m thinking Paulaner).

Thanks again to Rob for bringing the growler! Medium amber, hint of brown, good head, attractive. Light bread aroma. Flavor was slightly bready, some hoppy bitterness on the finish, but no real hop flavor came forth for me. Almost like a muted version of their very nice Alt. Nothing wrong here per se, but nothing spectacular either.

Nice beer to acompany bar grub, but not bold enough to stand on its own. As with most Calhouns offerings, the beer is well done but not overly impressive. Nice amber colour, good malty body, some subtle fall spice.