Hoptober By New Belgium Brewing Company

(This post was written on 9/20/2011)

Hola readers,

Hope everyone has had a tolerable Tuesday.

Today I have enjoyed getting my oil changed, my hair cut, and congratulating my lovely wife on her new job as an adjunct professor at a local community college.

This good news is completed by tonight’s first preseason game for the Dallas Stars, and after the first period they have bested Montreal 3 to nil. So the only thing that can act as the cherry on top of this day is to enjoy a fine beer, and that’s just what I have done.

Diverting from my creation and celebration of Tex-toberfest, I have pulled out a bottle of Colorado’s New Belgium’s Hoptober.

Filling the pint glass du jour, the ale pours a lovely, golden straw color. The beer is very clear, exhibiting only a very slight cloudiness, and forms a nice, frothy, off-white head.

A bready nose mingles with a wonderful grapefruit aroma. This citrus essence carries over as the forward flavor of the beer. With the medium bodied, hop-forward flavor, bitterness is kept surprisingly at bay, while no real distinct maltiness really develops throughout the beverage.

Taking into account a nice lacing and a decent, medium-to-medium full body, this is a good beer verging on excellent. Enough is here to be enjoyed by a hop head, with tempered bitterness to make the beer approachable by drinkers less inclined to sample an ale with the same flavor profile paired with sharper bitterness on the palate.

Prost!

Oktoberfest by Real Ale Brewing Company

While I usually do not do multiple beer reviews in an evening, given the several hours since I drank the Rahr and Sons Oktoberfest, I decided to make my little office a virtual biergarten in celebration of Tex-toberfest. After enjoying my One-Quarter-German-American wife’s take on Korean Beef, and reading on German drinking games, I decided another liquid Oktoberfest offering was in line.

Limited on the Texas brewed Oktoberfest marketed offerings I had on hand, I ended up opening a bottle of Real Ale Brewing Company’s own take on the Marzen style beer.

With a semi-aggressive pour the cloudy, burnt umber lager formed a moderate amount of off-white head that subsided to about a quarter-finger’s width.

The mild aroma of bready malt is present, with a slight generic spice on the backend of the nose.

A medium bodied bitterness greets the palate on the front end, reminiscent of a generic, mild flavored, citrus zest. As flavor moves across the tongue, a slightly sweet caramel flavor develops with hints of nutmeg bringing out warmth in the tasting profile.

Real Ales contribution to Oktoberfest offerings is a decent beer, however it is nothing so special that I would look forward to this seasonal release. 

Oktoberfest by Rahr and Sons

Well, yesterday was the official beginning of Oktoberfest in Munich, so today Intoxico will begin its official recognition of Tex-toberfest. 

Tex-toberfest celebrates Texas brewed Oktoberfest beers offered by Texas Breweries in recognition of Bavaria’s Oktoberfest, and also reflects the Germanic immigrants that made up a substantial part of the population of this territory before it was a part of the United States.

To begin this made up observation, Intoxico is proud to review Rahr and Sons Oktoberfest.

Already having tipped a few of these longnecks back last Sunday with my brother, I was really looking forward to this post. Atypical with the experience I had previously with this beer, this pour failed to generate the aggressive head that I was expecting.

Head formation aside, the beer poured a wonderfully rich amber color, exhibiting a ton of carbonation in the form of bubbles, and a slightly cloudy body.

Greeted by an aroma of syrupy, caramel malts, and a slight citrus backend, the flavor sings the joys of maltose goodness. Being the malt-hydrogen bomb that this beer is, the tongue is bathed in a slightly viscous, sugary coating of bright caramel flavor on the front end. As the barrage of sweetness sweeps over the palate no bitterness is generated, but a warm toasted caramel tang rounds out and gives the beer a wonderful depth.

While I wouldn’t call this beer very complex, it is a very good, strait forward example of why malt flavors shouldn’t be seen only as a base for other flavorings. In an industry that is leaning more and more towards hop forward beers, Rahr and Sons Brewing has crafted an American beer that celebrates rich malted grain over the more commonly lauded botanicals. 

Prost!