Samuel Adams Octoberfest

Brewed By: Boston Beer Company in Boston, Massachusetts
Purchased: Single bottle (12oz) from Sam Adam's Harvest fall mix-pack purchased in Chicago, IL; 2011
Style/ABV: Oktoberfest/Märzen, 5.3%

Moving onto beer number three from the Harvest fall mix-pack, we have the Sam Adams Octoberfest. This is an Oktoberfest style beer, spelled with a "C" for us Yankees I assume. Oktoberfests are big malty beers, and I touched on the history when I reviewed Two Brothers Atom Smasher.  

For a quick refresher, Oktoberfests are an adaption of the Vienna style. Oktoberfests were traditionally brewed in the spring and then stored in cold caves during the warm summer months so that the beer could be consumed during the fall celebrations. This is lager style of beer with big malt characteristics. 

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Let's dive in! The pour yields a strictly October/Autumn beer. The color of this beer is a bright orange-gold color. The beer has moderate to high carbonation, and it is both filtered and transparent. The pour resulted in a bold 3-finger, slightly off white head that was pretty thick and creamy. The head has settled down into a thin coating of bubbles. I thought there was some lacing, but I was mistaken.

 

Samuel Adams Octoberfest

Sam Adam's Octoberfest is brewed using Two-row Harrington pale malts, Metcalfe pale malts, Munich-10, Moravian, and Caramel 60 malts. It also uses two varieties of noble hops. This is straight up lager brewed with Sam Adam's lager yeast.

 

You do smell some crisp or fresh qualities imparted by the Noble hops. I smell toast, grain, metallic, wet leaves or wet forest, light caramel, hints of grass or an herbal quality/tea I cannot place. 

 

As far as taste goes, there's a lot of sweet malts, caramel, and some herbal or grassy pulls from the hops. I'm getting light nuttiness, a metallic quality, and some grain as well. The sweet malts impart some interesting fruit notes: I'm getting slightly astringent canned fruits note; peaches; and maybe some veggies. 

 

The mouthfeel of this beer is light-heavy to medium, with a slightly oily or syrupy body. There's enough carbonation and not a ton of "umphh" to this beer, so despite the slightly thicker mouthfeel the beer stays grounded. The front end is lightly carbonated, and I pick up on sweet malts and hops. This rides into the middle, and finishes with some metallic/peaches/veggies/astringent stuff on the back. Not complex at all, not bold, and low depth on the palate.

 

Rating: Average
Score: 55%

 

Clean. Solid. Standard. Uninspired. These are good descriptors of this beer. There are some good things going on here: solid malt characters, some interesting non-typical notes like canned fruits.

 

This beer doesn't scream "celebration" or leave the impression that it has been waiting in a cave for several months. It stretches a bit thin in terms of depth and complexity, and even approaches being a tad watery towards the middle and back of the palate.

I can recommend this beer for its cheap price and availability, and this is an okay addition to the Harvest fall mix pack. There are better Oktoberfest beers out there.