Coney Island Freaktoberfest

Shmaltz Brewing Company
Brewed at Olde Saratoga Brewing (Mendocino Brewing Co.)
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
San Francisco, California USA

Bomber at $5. Wow, just upon pouring, I know this is a freak bear. Ruby red with a big creamy pink (?!) head. Despite the appearance, it smells like a normal marzen - light, a bit doughy, a bit of dark fruit in there. Flavor is pretty simple, but solid. ots of cereal notes, and some booze on the finish. Medium bodied with soft medium carbonation. Overall: Ok, this stuff is by no means great, but I think it is getting some harsh ratings here.

This bottled brew from a bottle shop poured a medium sized head of foamy finely sized pink, yes pink, colored bubbles that were and left behind a transparent typically carbonated red brown colored body and a very nice lacing. How does one rate an atrificial color? The mild aroma was fruity and reminiscient, perhaps due to the color, of strawberries. The crisp mouth feel was tingly at the start and at the finish. The strange weird flavor contained notes of malt and soft hops. Not one that I would buy again.

Uh...this kinda freaked us out when we poured it. It was the last 2nd beer we tried and we thought maybe something went awry in the brewing process. Blood/brick red is not a normal color, but it was kind cool. Honeyish aroma, some vegie type aroma (creamed corn I guess) and paper mache. Flavor was far sweeter than the style calls for, with big honey flavor, grassy bitterness and light finish. Freaktoberfest indeed.

I just can’t get over this beer. Pours a blood red, which freaked me out and likely ruined a lot of my experience with it, has a thin pinkish hued head, and minimal carbonation. Aroma slighly hoppy, strong malt, and a taste that I can’t place (probably in my mind). Flavor matches and isn’t that bad, but I can’t get over it. I would drink it again only for novelty purposes.

Freaky, indeed. This beer is blood red - somewhat alarming if you are not warned about the color ahead of time. The beer tastes... red. Maybe because I could see it was red, I felt like there was a bitter dye taste in the beer. Of course, that could just have been hops. I think this would score best in a novelty beer category, and wonder if they will make a green beer for St. Patrick’s Day? Palate seemed red. no. seemed fine. i’m giving it a 4 for appearance strictly for creativity. I think if this beer was in a literal blind testing, it might not be identified as an Oktoberfest.

In the bomber bottle from Gomers ($4.99). Imagine my surprise when the damn thing poured out blood red with a pink head! A mild hoppy floral aroma, but a huge poisonous hop bitterness to the taste. This was an unpleasant and brutal bitterness that nature evolved our palates into a decisive warning through revulsion. I keep wanting to say that there’s some cranberry mixed up in there somewhere, but that might just be from the tongue paralysis. I don’t need to be tricked by this spook of a beer again.

Warm, chemic, not as malty as I would have liked. Little bitter, and it taste like the stage blood they used to make it red.

Bomber. Pours hazy brick red with a thin pink head. Raspberry, dust, flowers and bread show up vaguely in the aroma. Light body and carbonation. Not much happening in the taste before a somewhat earthy, astringent and bitter finish. This one is kinda hard to picture as an Oktoberfest/Märzen. Maybe a strangely concocted fruit beer?