Summit Oktoberfest

Brewed by Summit Brewing Company
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
St. Paul, Minnesota USA

Serve in Dimpled mug, Lager glass, Stein

12 oz. screwtop bottle. Taking a break from preparing my weekly Chicago beer calendar to enjoy this. Hearty malt smell under the cap. Pours a big load of foam over an autumnal brown beer with lots of bubbles. Smell in glass is very grainy. Off for an Oktoberfest, maybe they should offer that as characteristic of Minnesota and other barley regions? Taste has some phenol and age to it. Can’t decipher the bottle code, but I got this in July, so it might be a refugee from last year. Well, sometimes I can get behind a grainy lager. This does have some nice hop bitterness intact. Nothing here is bad, just a little aged, so I’m rating this overall a touch more than the sum of its parts. Quick! Pour me a fresh one!

Very clear and amber - great off-white head. Some bread in the aroma, but otherwise, lacking here. Taste is malty and "soft". Not much bitterness. The malt actually gives a bit of dark fruit or cherry flavor - just a touch. It needs some bitterness to balance. If it was balanced and had this much alcohol, I could forgive things a bit, but to me, an Oktoberfest should be sessionable, and yet so many of these Marzen’s are quite high in alcohol.

Bottle. Pours a light amber-orange with a thin layer of head that quickly dissipates into a ring with nice thick edges. Aroma is a os some carmel malts, a bit sweet, with a little bit of zest and spice. Flavor is malty sweet with some bitterness on the end. A long finish of carmel malts and a little hops that seems to linger.

Bottle at Sip n Stroll wine tasting event in Katy, TX. Orange-amber with a small tan head.This is thick compared to most oktoberfests with a lingering malty taste. Sweet, but not too much, the flavor is fuller than many others of the style. Good beer, and one of my favorite oktoberfests.

12 oz bottle/various taps. Summit’s Oktoberfest is just too sweet for me; perhaps when it gets colder and I need a thick, almost gooey beer, I’ll reach for one. Caramel dominates the nose -- the malts smell almost candy caramel apple sweet. The taste is similar -- sweet, caramel, heavy, almost viscous sometimes. Though an Oktoberfest should be warming, this one is just too much. The balance is off -- it needs a raciness or something else to save it from being heavy handed.

Clear golden amber pour light beige head ... aroma of bready and sweet caramel malts ... taste of caramel and bready malts with some spices and a nice hop bite in the finish .... a nice well balanced oktober

UPDATED: NOV 4, 2010 Pours a reddish orange color with a small lingering head. Aroma is mainly lager/yeast with a hint of malt in the background. Taste of sweet bread and yeast, again with a hint of malt in the background. Medium bodied, somewhat creamy with a noticeable amount of carbonation and a crisp finish.

Tallahassee, Fl - ABC Liquors - Betton - 12 oz bottle. Pours a nice light copper with a thin but long lasting white head. Aroma is somewhat neutral with some fresh lake water and hint of pepper. Flavor is slightly muddled with some ripening vegetables, a hint of caramel and some back end molasses. Passable.