Fall is the second most wonderful time of the year. The Christmas season may be my favorite season, but fall runs a close second, especially when Oktoberfest is in session. Imported and domestic Oktoberfest beers, German band music, food, and Oktoberfest celebrations really get my Teutonic blood in a fever. One of my favorite beers this time of year has always been Samuel Adams Octoberfest.

This is the first year in my recollection that Samuel Adams Octoberfest has been brewed with Munich malt. In the past, crystal malt imparted a rich, candyish flavor to the beer, and though it's still used the Munich lends the beer more authenticity. To be sure, Boston Beer has always done a great job with the malts they've used in the past.

Many German Oktoberfest-Maerzen beers use a process called decoction to get the nutty-toasty character that Oktoberfest beers are famous for. This is a process in which part of the mash is removed and boiled then returned to the tun to raise the overall temperature. This imparts a nutty-toasty type flavor to the beer overall, and most German brewers swear by it for Oktoberfest-Maerzen beers, bocks, and doppelbocks.

Others maintain that certain high quality malts available today (Munich especially) can produce beers of equal quality. Massachusetts brewer Horst Dornbusch, a German immigrant, is on record with such an opinion. Samuel Adams Oktoberfest is not decocted, but does use Munich malt, as well as Harrington, Caramel, and two-row Moravian. Tettnang hops are used as well.

Samuel Adams Octoberfest pours to a brownish-amber color with a huge head formation and a generous stream of carbonation that cascades up the glass. The nose is nutty and slightly sweet, the palate even more laden with those nutty-malty melanoidin flavors imparted by the Munich malt. There's a touch of chocolate too, a slightly thinner than desired body, and a finish that is balanced between malt sweetness and hop bitterness. This is actually a very good Octoberfest beer, and one of my favorite Samuel Adams beers. I look forward to it's release every September.

Obviously, this beer matches well with wursts and sauerkraut, schnitzels and spaetzels, pork roasts and hot potato salad with bacon. Tonight I paired it with Mexican food: homemade gorditas and tacos bursting with peppers and onions. It was a great pairing, but the Mexicans have known this for a long time: Mexican brewers have been producing Vienna lagers ( an extremely close relative of the Octoberfest beer) for a long time.

UPDATE 2003: Samuel Adams Octoberfest now comes in a once-again updated bottle that is festooned with bright orange borders. Halloween and Octoberfest all wrapped up in one, one might say. The beer, however, is the same, almost exactly as I described it three years ago. Nutty, chocolatey, and delicious. The body seems richer, however, and the finish a tad less hoppy. If anything, it may be better than ever.

Update 2006: It's fall (well almost) and once again one of the most welcome signs of the season is Samuel Adams Octoberfest hitting store shelves. As always, it's a real treat: the nose is packed with toasty nutty Munich malt notes, and the palate really delivers them with a hint of choclate to boot. You should get a hint of caramel, too. The body is rich, the finish slightly grassy with Noble hop bitterness.

To fully appreciate, allow it to warm in your glass until it's cool, not cold, so that all of the delicious malt flavors can emerge to their fullest. I'm moving it up a notch to four and a half stars this year.

And it should be noted that, per Boston Beer, "Samuel Adams Octoberfest won a gold medal at the 2005 European Beer Star-a beer tasting competition held annually in Munich, Germany."

Home