New Glarus Staghorn Octoberfest Beer

Brewed By: New Glarus Brewing Company in New Glarus, Wisconsin

Purchased: 12oz bottle bought at Woodman's in Kenosha, WI; 2013

Style/ABV: Oktoberfest/Märzen, 6.25% 

Reported IBUs: ?

And for part two of our twofer, we jump into our time machine for this Autumn seasonal. About New Glarus:

New Glarus is the rare, gorgeous "Midwest" brewery, founded in 1993 by Deborah Carey, the first woman to found and operate a brewery in the United States. She raised the capital for the start-up as a gift to her husband, Dan Carey, who is New Glarus' brewmaster and co-owner. Dan Carey has a long history working in the brewing industry, including an apprenticeship at a brewery near Munich, Germany and a job as the Production Supervisor for Anheuser-Busch. The brewery began as an abandoned warehouse using old brewpub equipment. In 1997, Dan Carey purchased coper kettles from a brewery in Germany. In May 2006, New Glarus opened their new (current) facility on a hilltop in the village of New Glarus. The facility looks like a Bavarian village, and is gorgeous. The expansion has allowed the brewery to continue to increase their production, and expand their operations. For more information, check out their brewery page or Wikipedia. 

The Staghorn Octoberfest is brewed with Midwest grains, "expensive hops," fresh yeast from Germany, and Wisconsin water. 

New Glarus Staghorn Octoberfest Beer

This one also gushed on me...but I did drop the bottle. The beer pours into a clear/filtered amber body, with some brown/gold tones. A finger of off-white, amber-tinted head forms, but quickly fades leaving some lacing and a nice cauldron effect. In bright light the beer is a dark gold/bronze color, and there is lots of carbonation rising upwards.

The aroma is light, clean, and malty. I'm getting lots of sweet malt, toast, and toffee on the aroma. There's also some grain, caramel, a hint of cocoa or molasses, and maybe a little brown sugar spice? I'm also getting some mild hop character, probably Noble hops.

The taste is clean with great malt complexity. After the wash of clean, slightly spicy lager yeast/water, you get big caramel/toffee, nuttiness, hints of cocoa/molasses, and a sweet and sharp spice note that is reminiscent of brown sugar. The Noble hops cut through the whole beer. 

This works as an Autumn beer and Oktoberfest, with good palate depth and complexity. I think this could be a bit sweeter and more rustic, but I'm not complaining. This is drinkable, but boozy enough to get you drunk. Maybe stop after you have a liter or two. The mouthfeel is medium to medium-full bodied, with good carbonation. Up front is spicy lager yeast and burgeoning malts; that rolls into tons of malt complexity, with caramel/toffee, nuttiness, hints of cocoa, more spice; the back end finishes clean thanks to the hops that cut through the beer. 

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this. I'm drinking this a bit late, so I wonder what this tastes like fresh. I would pair this beer with any German or Swedish dishes. It's an Oktoberfest, brah. Pretzels and football would also work. Again, you can't beat the price on this, so I wouldn't hesitate to pick up this American-made Oktoberfest. 

Random Thought: I'm too sleepy for random thoughts. Stay tuned for much more New Glarus.