Oktoberfest tips

[pootz]

Having just returned from a German club private fest hall I can state inequitably that a Schlenkerla smoked marzen chases a shot of Jagermeister quite well....perfect match

[old faithful]

In New York recently I had an excellent bottle of the Schlenkerla weizen. Personally I like this better than the other beers from the house (I haven't tried the lager). It has quite a pronounced smokey edge but the light sharp flavours from the wheat balance the smoke quite well. If anything I'd reduce the smoke somewhat to let the wheated element show through more, but it is very good as it is. When you have a beer like this you can see that the people who make it are masters at what they do and it reminded me (in quality) of the best craft beers I've had in North America. Next to it, a Cooper's Dark Ale was rather lesser in comparison. The Cooper's wasn't bad but a little bland I thought, it tasted like an English commercial brown ale (a bit like Newcastle Brown but with more taste from the bottle-conditioning). By the way Newcastle Brown is getting a big promo push in Manhattan. I tried it on draft, it is not bad and quite similar to what I recall in the last 30 years, the profile hasn't changed much. It would be better if it had more malt depth. I wanted to try Cooper's Dark because I read that the house switched to a light-colored malt about 35 years ago and I thought the dark ale might resemble what the beer was like before the switch. I find though I prefer the sparkling and pale ale versions of Cooper's.

I had some good draught Octoberfest beers in the city including Thomas Hooker's, which seemed to use some smoked malt (but lightly), and the Fest beer from Stoudt, which was superb. Both these avoided the overhopping which can affect some U.S. micro beers, to the beers' advantage. Tasted next to some German draft Octoberfest imports there was no comparison I thought (i.e., the American beers were much better); on the other hand I have a feeling consumed on their home turf the German beers would resemble more in quality and freshness the American emulators.

Best beer of the trip was a cask Sunset Red ale from Chelsea brewery (this one sampled at The Gingerman) which had a complex interweaved malt and hop taste I recall from the best English bitters. The hops seemed to have both English and American elements. Also, I tried a Blue Point pale ale on cask which was big and fresh and clean, while the big American hop accent is not to my taste I had to admire the sheer quality of the drink. I added the last two ounces (which is almost a kind of hop extract!) to 18 ounces of draft O'Hara Celtic Stout from Ireland and it picked up the stout quite a bit, not that the O'Hara isn't very drinkable without it, but that particular glass needed something I thought.

Finally, I tried Popering's Hommelbeer from Wallonia, sampled on draft at DBA, which reminded me of some bieres de gardes consumed freshly on site on the Franco-Belgian frontier (i.e., near to where Poperings is). It had a big spicy hop taste that somehow did not overwhelm the malt. It is quite amazing I think to get imports in such fresh condition, it had just arrived and I think I got it in optimal form, but also the inherent quality was evident.

There are great beers in New York but there are here as well and the advantage there is just variety, especially on the import side.

Gary