10// September 17, 2009
Second Supper
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Oktoberfest Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu Munich, Germany
BEER
Review
Depending on your priorities in life, September may harken the start of school, football, original network television or squirrel hunting, but it has a singular appeal among beer snobs: Oktoberfest lagers. Yes, careful readers, Oktoberfest occurs in September. I don’t have the column inches here to fully explain this calendrical disconnect, but when you have a smooth lager in your hands, it doesn’t much matter anyway. Last autumn, my first as Second Supper’s beer critic, I reviewed a different Oktoberfest for six straight weeks — a fun streak that I hope to keep alive in 2009. The only thing stopping me, I suppose, is the variety of brews stocked by my local retailers, but if this beat has taught me anything it’s that when it comes to beer, Wisconsin will always provide. Yet for my inaugural beer in the Great American Oktoberfest Tour, I opted for this selection from Minnesota. The Summit Oktoberfest pours a nice auburn hue with a thin beige head and racing carbonation. Inhaling from a distance, the aroma seems airy with faint caramel-like malts and traces of grassy hops, but a deep whiff evokes something closer to mosquito
spray. There’s some serious alcohol in this Appearance 4 brew! — 7.7 percent abv, more than I’ve Aroma: 7 seen in any other Oktoberfest. Even so, the fla- Taste: 8 vor comes on light with toffee sweetness quickly Mouthfeel: 6 shifting to dry hops. That heavy hop pres- Drinkability: 8 ence may be a staple for Summit beers, but here it nearly obliterates the Total: 33 malts, which are usually the backbone of Marzen-style Oktoberfests. Some biscuit flavors do arise from the middle of the tongue, but this beer’s defining trait is a peppery finish. The mouthfeel is surprisingly thin-bodied for a high alcohol lager, and it’s drinkability is also way too easy. In many ways, this is a lager like no other — dry, hoppy, thin-bodied and high alcohol, a nice comparison for all the Oktoberfests that are to follow.
— Adam Bissen