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Episode 14 - Oktoberfest
121 Plays6 years ago
On this episode we drink and discuss Oktoberfest beers while consuming delicious pretzels. We also dive into what we're brewing next as we approach Autumn and Halloween.
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Transcript
Podcast Availability
00:00:02
Speaker
You're listening to the 212 Round Table Podcast. You can find us on SoundCloud, Spotify, Google Play, and Google Podcast, as well as Apple Podcast. Be sure to leave a review and subscribe.
212 Brew Club Online Presence
00:00:13
Speaker
You can also find the Brew Club at 212.beer. That's the number 2, the word 12, .beer. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching 212 Brew Club. Now on to the show.
Beer Styles Discussion
00:00:40
Speaker
That's what's to count.
00:00:42
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of 212 Roundtable. I am a... 20 colic. I'm Brandon Wininger. You need me to finish this as always. As always. I'm Brandon Wininger. Alright. I haven't changed my name. Not yet. Welcome back everybody. In this episode, we're getting into a style of beer. What I really like. And I think I say that every episode, but...
00:01:07
Speaker
It's that time of year. Well, it's because we usually talk about beers that we really like. That's true. We haven't done an episode about beers I don't like, which I don't know if there's a beer that I don't like. No, I mean... Oh, we could do a Brute IPA episode. I don't like those. Yeah. Well, that's the thing is, like, I wouldn't say I hate it. Yeah, I've only had one that I liked. The rest of them I don't like.
Introduction to Oktoberfest Beers
00:01:28
Speaker
It's like if I wanted to do a milkshake IP. That's what it gets at me. I hate. Hey, why don't we do a milkshake Brute IPA episode? Oh, God. I think we have to drink them. Well, think about like the, those are like two of the opposite, on the opposite spectrum. A milkshake beer, which is loaded with lactose and other fruits and the fucking smoothie, carbonated smoothie with alcohol in it. And then the Brute IPA is just super dry. Yeah. So, I don't know. But we are going to talk about,
Oktoberfest History and Personal Experiences
00:01:59
Speaker
Oktoberfest beers, which everybody, I'm sure at this point, you guys have all had an Oktoberfest now, right? This is where everyone, you can nod your head and say, yes. Ziggy, zoggy, ziggy, zoggy. Oi, oi, oi. Have you ever been to Germany for Oktoberfest? No, but I, so when we went for our honeymoon, this, it was kind of neat because we ended up, we literally got to Germany, we got to Munich on 4-20.
00:02:24
Speaker
is it
00:02:40
Speaker
a cool place to go would be let's see how far the park is where they do Oktoberfest, like Germanfest. So I googled it and Google Maps had this thing on there where they if there's an event happening and it said Freundlingfest and I clicked on that and I was like what is this and Becca she knows a little German and I told her she goes sounds like Springfest and I was like so I googled Springfest and it was literally
00:03:08
Speaker
They're Mayfest, they're Mifest or whatever. And it goes like two and a half weeks, starting on- So it's the spring version of Oktoberfest. Yeah. Well, just like in here, we do- Well, we do Mifest. Yeah, this place to do Mifest, Mifest. So we walked over to the grounds and all the big tents were set up. That's awesome. Oh yeah, that's right. I remember you telling me about all this. And we sat in a table with underage kids. This kid was like 16. And we were drinking liters of beer and talking to him.
00:03:37
Speaker
And he was like screaming about how Trump is amazing and like what yeah, he was weird That doesn't sound like a cop. I'm sorry. I'm also eating a pretzel 16 years old. It was hilarious and I was like, all right, you know what? Good for you kid. He's got don't you have school? It was like no drink a beer Yeah, so we hung out there like there's awesome video like us just chillin and stuff like that. It was it was it was fun. Oh
00:04:04
Speaker
God, your washer sounds like a helicopter. Yeah, I thought that was going to be done by now. That's
Origins of Oktoberfest
00:04:10
Speaker
all right. Well, for those, let's get a little background on Oktoberfest. I did research for this episode, so I'm really proud of myself. Oktoberfest began as a wedding celebration more than 200 years ago when Bavaria's Crown Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese of Saxony Hildebrockhausen on October 12, 1810.
00:04:30
Speaker
I probably butchered the last name. The wedding was celebrated with multiple days of drinking, feasting and horse races. And the reason why it's Oktoberfest, Oktoberfest ends on the first Sunday of October. So it goes for two weeks. So it starts the second half of September.
00:04:48
Speaker
It ends in October. And I'm sure all major cities now in the United States have some type of Oktoberfest, some type of celebration, which normally is a bunch of beer, mainly German, pretzels, and sausage. Which, you know, that's all right up my head. You can't go wrong with that. You can't go wrong with it at all.
00:05:12
Speaker
Now, most of the, not most, but the traditional Oktoberfest beers are lagers that are brewed and consumed in celebration of the Oktoberfest. And technically, they must be brewed within the city limits of Munich and be brewed with the coordinates of the Rheinheiste boat. Am I saying that right? Yep. Close enough. I think I got the phlegm right. The German purity law that states beer can only be brewed with water, malted barley, hops, and yeast.
00:05:33
Speaker
And there are only six breweries in Germany that can call their beers Oktoberfest. And I'm not going to go through all of them, except for Hacker Shore, Lowenbrau, and Spotten. Hothbrau as well. Yeah, they can do it. Only certain brewers, like Sam Adams, stylized their fall seasonals as Oktoberfest with the C and not with the K. And the two styles that are associated with Oktoberfest are Mars and Loggers and Fest beers. And we're lucky enough.
00:06:01
Speaker
being in Chicago that we have access to numerous
00:06:06
Speaker
Oktoberfest Mars and Loggers and Fest beers, available to us. You went out and got some. I got some. Let's get down to rent. To drink it. Yeah, because we poured this, and I'm really excited. Why don't you tell the people what we're drinking. Yeah, so we're starting off with the Spotten Oktoberfest. This beer is
Marzen Lagers vs Fest Beers
00:06:26
Speaker
one of my favorites. And I think I first really got introduced to this beer after I take a sip. I'm already two sips in. Oh, man. That's so good.
00:06:37
Speaker
Yeah, in, you know, growing up in Lincoln Square was a German neighborhood, and there's a bar down at the end of my parents' block that was Hootenbar. Excuse me. And that bar, like, they always had, like, Spotten, like, it's Hofbrau, Julia Sector, like, all these really German beers, Anger, stuff like that. But Spotten at Cobra Fest, that was one of the first ones that I had, and I'm like, this is different, and this is good. And?
00:07:04
Speaker
I can still say that today. Yeah. It's so good. And this is the Marson style of the Oktoberfest. And just to give you guys a rundown of what the Marson means, in case you don't know. The Marson lager, which is now more common than Fespiers, have become what most drinkers associate with Oktoberfest styles. They are generally darker in color and predominantly toasty multi-lagers. A spot in Oktoberfest that is important to the US falls into the styles why many breweries
00:07:34
Speaker
mold their fall season after. And by the way, all this information, I'm just plagiarizing if I don't say it. I got it from an article at gotbeer.com. I was looking for something that summarized it nicely while I was on break today at work. That's my research for the day. I mean, it's a good summary. It's great, yeah.
00:07:50
Speaker
Um, but yeah, it's, this is exactly what, uh, is the description, which is toasty multi logger. It's a little, um, trying to think of the way I want to describe the, the hoppiness because it isn't a green bottle. Um, so it's not skunky, but it's got a little, it's reminiscent of like that. Like Heineken thing that I get little light struck maybe. Yeah. Like if this was, and then also, you know, that, that, that,
00:08:20
Speaker
Excuse me that taste is coming from that being lightstruck and then I think science Happens And I've heard I've heard like oh the green bottles are better the clear bottles are better like
00:08:39
Speaker
And in the end, it's like, I don't know. I think if you put a bottle in front of light, you're going to have. Yeah, yes, especially greener or clear. You don't want your bottles in front of light, everybody. But I've had this before. I prefer now and we do have a fest beer that we're going to drink.
Review of Hofbrau Fest Beer
00:08:59
Speaker
Me personally, I prefer the Mars in October fest beers for the most part. I do like the fact that they are
00:09:09
Speaker
Sweet, toasty, roasty, like it should be like a darker beer almost. I mean, obviously this is a darker, but it's a lager, so it's easy to drink, which is also dangerous because these are normally, what's the alcohol in this as a show? This one's 5.9.
00:09:25
Speaker
Yeah. So most of the Oktoberfest and fest beers that I've had have been around mid fives to almost 7% ABV. So as an easy drinker, it's also easy to turn you into a sleazy stinker. Would you like that one? No. Carry on. Sorry.
00:09:50
Speaker
Yeah. And I mean, Spott makes other beers that I do enjoy, but yeah, this october fest is pretty solid. So give it a good thumbs up. Yeah. Didn't we come up with a rating scale? No. Yeah, we did. We said we did 212, 112, 12, 10. Yeah. And I said, we'd change it by then. We didn't forgot it.
00:10:11
Speaker
If I had to rate this right now, as far as other than the little skunkiness to it, I'd say this is like a solid, I'm trying to imagine this on tap, and I can. And I can imagine being super tasty, but going off the bottle here, I'm gonna go with a seven.
00:10:29
Speaker
And that's only because I think it's a little light struck and it's a little skunky. Yeah, I would. And that's only a byproduct of sun hitting in the bottle. Of nature. It's a byproduct of nature. But I'm with you on that. Yeah, it would be cool to revisit this if we could get it not in a green bottle and not light struck.
00:10:50
Speaker
Let's go to Germany. Let's go to Munich. Pause the tape. We're going to Germany. Second time, I think we've time traveled. I think episode zero we did it. But that would not. It literally in my head I was thinking, I was like, man, like maybe next year we just plan a trip to Munich around Oktoberfest. Perfect. I got some points. Let's just go. Let's do it. Let's come with us. We get a party. Should we move on to another one?
00:11:23
Speaker
I think you should grab the Hofbrau. What? Yeah. Nice. Because that is a fest beer. I guess I'm going to sit through this one and edit. I'm not talking a whole. Oh, yeah. That's rich golden color.
00:11:53
Speaker
I'll break down what a fest beer is. Again, according to gotbeer.com's article. It says, if you're lucky enough to experience the Oktoberfest in Munich, you likely will not find the Mars and Loggers that you are used to. It says, costuming.
00:12:08
Speaker
American soil. Whoops, maybe that doesn't look like much. Consuming on American soil. Instead, your leaner mug will be filled with a lighter, breadier, lager beer with a medium bitterness and a pilsner-like finish. This is what is known as the Fest Beer. It's typically much lighter than the Mars and Lager's and drinks much easier than it's abe... drinks much long... fuck.
00:12:30
Speaker
Drinks much easier than its ABV suggests. The typical range is between 5.8% and 6%, as we were just saying. There are several American breweries that are starting to brew this traditional consumed lager, including the Sierra Nevada Brewery with their Oktoberfest. Starting in the fall of 2015, the California-based brewery is going to be collaborating. Well, this is an old article. They have been collaborating. They've been collaborating with the German brewery every year, and I plan on buying this year's version. I forget who they teamed up with. So this is...
00:12:58
Speaker
Which one we're drinking here? The Haffrel Octoberfest beer. Nice. That was a cool accent, too. All right. I'm going to get into this right now. Ooh, it smells good. It smells like a lager. Yeah.
Hacker Shore Oktoberfest Review
00:13:09
Speaker
The last one smelled skunky. Oh, yeah.
00:13:15
Speaker
It's clean. Yeah, it's super clean. Then with the description in here saying breadier version of a lager, what they wrote here, I can get that. Yeah. And it finishes like a pilsner. Crisp, clean, slightly bitter, but that is refreshing. And I think, does it say the ABV on that one? I feel like that one's six. Six, one, three.
00:13:37
Speaker
That does not drink like a 6.3. No. Also dangerous. Yeah, super dangerous. That's why anytime you and I end up in Lincoln Square, or find out with Mike in Lincoln Square, and I'm drinking all the German beers. Well, and you think like- Get wrecked. Like, that's how it was like when I was in Munich. But here's the weirder thing, is like when I was in Munich, and we went to Hotball, we went to, you know, the fest.
00:13:59
Speaker
drink multiple liters there walked away like feeling moderately fine like i feel like if i would do that here i would be wasted i wonder why that is i don't know maybe it's lower altitude down there or something i don't know like but like good idea or if it has something to do with preservatives in beer or something but like when they send it but i don't know man
00:14:23
Speaker
I never felt better drinking beer than I did when I was in Munich. Like I felt like I could drink all day. Nice. And get a buzz. I want to go. But just not get that nasty hangover because the next morning I wake up. I'm like, let's go. Let's do it. You know.
00:14:38
Speaker
It reminds me of the first time I, not first time, but this is way off topic. There's a couple times I got together with a family member and we drank copious amounts of Jack Daniels. Straight up Jack Daniels. I was not really mixing it with anything I don't remember and I thought for sure I was going to wake up with the worst hangover and both times I did that.
00:15:02
Speaker
Woke up bright and early, a little groggy, but no hangover whatsoever. Yeah, it kind of blew my mind. So Jack Daniels was knocking me hangovers. That's not what we're talking about. We're not talking about that sweet Kentucky juice they have down there, Tennessee. I've got my own stories of Jack Daniels. I hate Jack Daniels. Sweet Tennessee juice. Sorry, everybody. But yeah, so going back to our beer here, the- Our Oktoberfest beer.
00:15:31
Speaker
Which by the way, I was, why don't we, all the parties and things that we do with friends and family, why hasn't anyone decided to hold an Oktoberfest yet at their house? We can make sausage, we can brew a Marson or a Fest beer, something to celebrate an Oktoberfest, but you know, at home.
00:15:55
Speaker
Something to consider next year. That's what I wanted to do. You should've. Then we had a kid, so now it's like... Tell him to hang out. Oh, fun. Put him in a... Sausage costume. Yeah, a sausage costume. Later hosin' maybe. He would look great in later hosin', I bet. No, what we need to do is, since now you're making sausage, I've made it and gotta have like a sausage party. A sausage? A sausage party. Yeah! Two dudes and they're sausages.
00:16:22
Speaker
I'm rating this one. I'm going with... I'm saying eight. I'm going to say eight as well. Yeah, look at that. That's really good. I really like it. I'm happy that I have... Smart My House. Yay! I've been on drinking this entire month of September. Awesome. And equally, I was happy about the next beer. You just finished that one, and I finished mine. I didn't. And then the next beer...
00:16:48
Speaker
is one, the brewery itself makes one of my favorite beers, and I believe I've talked about it a few times on here, or at least once, at Hacker Shore was really, I believe, the first craft beer I ever had. It was a different beer for me to have. This is not craft beer. In a sense, correct, but as far as like
00:17:12
Speaker
Talking about going out, going out of the major style. How's that? Going out, not major style, but major beers. We'll put it that way. Going outside the Miller Budweiser realm, one of my 20s, this is where I went. I went to Hacker Shore. But this one is the Hacker Shore Oktoberfest. And when I was at Costco recently, I saw a big case of it.
00:17:37
Speaker
I bought a big case of it. I didn't. I really really wanted to. It's been a while since I've had this one.
00:17:44
Speaker
There's also Hackershore Dark, if anybody can find that, send it my way. It is not available in Chicago. I swear, is Hackershore traditionally with a lemon or something like that? Yeah, people put a lemon in there. Whatever the standard Hackershore is. Yeah, and it's a great beer. Oh, we were talking about that with Gus. That's when I was talking about Hackerless.
00:18:10
Speaker
But yeah, so their style is the Marson. You can tell it's crystal clear. I can see the head of the beer through it. I can see little bubbles floating on the head. It's a nice golden caramel color. It looks like fall. It looks like fall on a glass, man.
00:18:28
Speaker
fall in a glass and I'm going straight in for my first sip. Yeah. And so the big difference between this one and like the spot in Oktoberfest, well, even like the Hofbra. So this is in, this is the darkest brown glass out of all of the three so far. Yeah. And then the spot was in the green glass and the Hofbra was an Oktoberfest beer. So it'd be interesting to see how this same style
00:18:55
Speaker
I took a sip of it. This is the Marson style, again. That is super smooth, super easy, and what I imagined the spottin' was gonna be without that skunkiness. Yep. Agreed. It's actually a little less, it's definitely less bitter than the fess beer from Hofbrau. This is a little smoother. A little bit, yeah. Well, again, that was a fess beer, and this is a Marson.
00:19:22
Speaker
of a caramely taste to it. I really like this one. This holds up to what I remember having this many moons ago. Reminds you of your childhood. It does remind me of my childhood. Man, I sound like I'm wasted on it. It does remind me of my childhoods. But no, this is... I mean, out of the three,
00:19:48
Speaker
I think this is kind of ranking, this might be my favorite so far. This is my favorite so far for sure. And I know you have, I know there's like three more and we said we're not going to go through all of them, but I do want to go through at least a couple of them to try and figure it out because they're all the craft, the craft brewery ones.
00:20:06
Speaker
I'm excited. Not all of them. Yeah, the other three are. The rest of them are all craft beer. And I'd like to do a comparison. Since we've tried these, where those stand. Because really, you and I have only had a beer and a half, my friend. Well, and I even know that one of them is not even a Marson. It's a lager. It's just straight up says lager. I don't know which one he's talking about, but we'll find out. It'll be interesting to see which one is just a lager. And since we are in this time of year,
00:20:37
Speaker
We're going to discuss beers to be brewing for October, which is next month. Brandon and I have already begun, well, before this episode, we've already been talking about what we want to brew for Halloween, because that's what we normally do. We normally brew a beer for Halloween. Last year, we did our cereal beers right before we started doing the podcast. We actually featured on Basic Brewing Radio, a fine podcast.
German Beer Culture Humorous Aside
00:21:03
Speaker
They had our two beers on there. Thank you, gentlemen. Yes, thank you. Thank you, James.
00:21:07
Speaker
We had our Count Stout on there and the Frankenwise Frankenberry, uh, Frankenshake, the Frankenwise beer. That was made with the Frankenberry cereal and the Count Stout was made with Count Chocula and a bunch of dark chocolate. So we will talk about that as well. As we progress. As I progress.
00:21:27
Speaker
Yeah, I'm very burpy on these beers. Is that a thing? Yeah, I feel like it is. Is that happening? Sorry. Well, even like it's funny, because I feel like I'm going to try and edit out as many of those as possible, but I feel like it.
00:21:37
Speaker
That was fake. But when I was in Germany, dude, all those people just burped and whatever. And it was like, oh, that's all good. I'm like, OK. Just comes with it. Well, go grab yourself a sausage and maybe fill up another mug of beer. So we're going to take a sausage. Dead guy. Dead guy. Sausage.
00:21:59
Speaker
We're gonna take a break, and I sourced some, uh, shit, oh, public domain, or copyright-free Oktoberfest music for you to drink, or listen to, fuck, for you to listen to while you drink during the break.
00:22:14
Speaker
Thank you.
00:22:32
Speaker
Oh.
00:22:55
Speaker
music playing
00:23:14
Speaker
ล ล
00:23:57
Speaker
Braco time! Yeah, I'm editing that out for sure.
Revolution's Oktoberfest Beer Review
00:24:01
Speaker
And our next beer after the break comes from here in Chicago. Revolutions Oktoberfest with a K. Ballsy move bros. Ballsy move. Takes a lot to know a lot. Do they know a lot?
00:24:17
Speaker
On the can, this is what Brandon pointed out, it says German-style lager. That's it. Has there any description of it on there? Nope. Damnit revolution. But German-style lager, so, I mean, with lager you always think like, you know, a lighter beer, clearer beer. But, the like Mars and stuff, those are traditionally lagers as well, so. But we poured it, and it is,
00:24:44
Speaker
Is this like any amber color? That's like rich golden orange color. Kind of looks like maple syrup. Did they dye this? I don't know. I will tell you this though. You just made the same face I did.
00:24:58
Speaker
Going in and smelling it, it smells like farts. Not sulfur. It doesn't smell great. And I love this beer. It's a really good beer. It might be the glass that we're drinking it out of. We have not rinsed it once from all the other beers. No. But I'm going in for my sip. That's not bad. That's solid.
00:25:21
Speaker
It's pretty good. It's a little more bitter than I want for the style. And I feel like that comes from good old American brewing. You know what I mean, man? Yeah. We love our hops. We love bitterness. We like to take every style and just force our bitterness right up inside it. Whoa.
00:25:41
Speaker
Yeah, but not bad, easy drinking. Yeah, I was good. What's the ABB on this? 5.8? Yeah, 5.8. No, 5.7. Woo. Yeah, Revolution Oktoberfest is one of my favorite local Oktoberfest beers. And I think I'm not going to be around for their Oktoberfest this year. So I think it is around my anniversary. We have it in Milwaukee Avenue right by the brew pub.
00:26:09
Speaker
But I digress. It's good. It's putting it up. When I don't have the other beers readily available, I don't have them to compare them to.
00:26:23
Speaker
This and Sam Adams' Oktoberfest are my go-to Oktoberfest-style beers. And I think Brandon also mentioned this is a Marson, not a Fest beer. It's the only beer that we have here today that's actually in a can, which is cool. If I'm gonna rank this against the other beers that we have tried so far,
00:26:47
Speaker
This beer is on the lower spectrum. Because of the bitterness that's in it. I gave it a four. I was going to give it a five. I gave it a four. Yeah, and it's not a bad beer. Like I said, it is my go-to Oktoberfest with Sam Adams Oktoberfest. Those two are my favorite.
00:27:08
Speaker
No, in my mind, I'm rating against the other beer. Correct. Yeah. If I'm going into the beers, this is low on the totem pole so far. It's not a bad beer, but when we started off with three beers that are true to the style and in Germany, it's hard to compare. So Germany wins on this one. See you later, America.
00:27:35
Speaker
You're going to chug that. I'm like, ahh. No. No, the more I, you know, I took another sip of it.
00:27:43
Speaker
Maybe because my palates used to bitter beers, I enjoy the bitter beers. One time I was gonna say bitter beer in a row. It does taste less bitter. My taste buds have acclimated to that. But it definitely has the sweetness. It definitely has that like toffee. It's not very toasty like we got from the other two Mars and Styles from Germany. But this one's good.
00:28:10
Speaker
Unfortunately, it does not stack up to the originators. No. Sorry, Revolution. I love you guys. No, and I would almost believe that they know that too. Sure. I mean, it's a good version, good style, I guess, but it's not, does not match. Yeah. So when we were talking about brewing beers for October, one of the things was, should we try an Oktoberfest beer?
00:28:38
Speaker
You know, and then it's like you have to look at a bunch of recipes from, you know, or what you can gather from people like posting of like Spotten or Half Brow or Hacker Shore or just their own creations, even like Revolution. Like we have to look at those recipes and say, all right, like what's the traditional malt that goes in there? You know, it's malt, barley.
00:29:00
Speaker
yeast and water or whatever. Hops too. Yeah. Hops. Yeah. Don't forget about hops. Yeah. So like barley, normally it's the same. Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. Well, that's what I meant. But anyway, so it's like, it's like, so like whatever looking at, you know, if we want to go Reinheiskaboot, like your version of it, we'd have to look at, you know, all of that and then make it. Oh, and then some Canadians there too.
00:29:26
Speaker
But kind of like pulling all of that in and making a decision of like what we want to brew so yeah, I tend to go and look at
00:29:36
Speaker
articles that show recipes. I tend to look at web pages that are from authors that I respect as far as home brewing goes and I also look at Beersmith to see what other people are doing and kind of pull together what I think
00:29:56
Speaker
would be a good mix of all these recipes, mainly one of the most common ingredients, especially the malts. It's not necessarily the hops I'm worried about. It is the malts because I want that
00:30:09
Speaker
It's a multi-beer, you know what I mean? There's a sweetness to the Octoberfest beer, so I want to nail that perfectly. Oh man, there's ghosts moving things upstairs. Yeah, so I think doing a Octoberfest style beer is, in our future, I think a good idea. And maybe that's what we'll plan on doing pretty soon. And once we do that, we'll go ahead and record some of that, maybe not the actual broody like we did
00:30:38
Speaker
Brandon cider it wouldn't be as interesting if we just recorded the four-hour process of a brew day That's not fun. Yeah, I sure as shit. I'm not gonna edit a four-hour episode No, but we can recap after the brew after the brew what are with these a lot of accents coming on you right now? Mm-hmm The pretzels damn it. I blame the pretzels. I'm a worldly man. It just happens speaking of
00:31:07
Speaker
I was going to say, speaking of beers that we're brewing, Brandon and I came up with the idea, and I say Brandon and I, it's because I was a part of the text chain between the two of us. Since last year we did the Monster Cereals, this year we were thinking maybe, other than now considering the Oktoberfest, we were going to focus on beers inspired by
00:31:37
Speaker
Halloween candy, because why not do a nice big stout that's reminiscent of your favorite Halloween candy. And he threw out a couple of good ideas. What were the ideas you threw out? It's one of them was like Snickers. Snickers, OK. Almond Joy. Almond Joy. And I got the Almond Joy. Well, when I said Almond Joy, then I thought of proprietors. Like, from back then, you know. I was like, oh, that would be a good one. I like, hey, man, I like the coconut in it.
00:32:05
Speaker
No, so do I. It was awesome. I love if you do the coconut right, it's awesome. Yeah. I agree 100%. If you try and use extract, you get suntan lotion. Not good. Reese's Peanut Butter Cup you threw in there as well. So chocolate and peanut butter is something we have tried before. We did as a porter. So if we did something like a bigger beer that focused on peanut butter and chocolate, you know, that'd be fun.
00:32:34
Speaker
What was the, there was something else that we've talked about. What's the thing with the lactose? Um, no, I thought we were still, I thought it was still about these, meeting lactose and we've got lactose. You made, yeah, we got plenty of lactose. You made the joke about Swedish fish and I said, just throw it in the mash. Oh yeah. That would not work. It would, uh, there's probably so many preservatives or other bullshit. No, ironically, there's so much shit that'll be in there that would kill the,
00:33:02
Speaker
Ironically, I was asking my wife, and I was like, oh, we were talking about doing this. She goes, what about Swedish Fish? And I was like, Swedish Fish? Well, I was thinking, I was like, that could end up terrible. I feel like it could be like a cherry beer. Which is fine. Yeah, which isn't bad. But then I also thought, how often do you like, I don't remember really getting Swedish Fish a lot when I was for the treaty. I remember there being
00:33:25
Speaker
Twizzlers? Twizzlers are good. I thought nerds, too. Nerds is tart. Yes. Mike's got the sour nailed down in the brew. Yeah, nobody cares about Mike anymore. Yeah, fuck Mike. I actually tried to get him onto the show tonight. There was a possibility he was going to come by. It was slim. I thought I had him. I thought I had him. But we'll get him on. We'll get you on, Mike. You son of a jerk. But yeah, I was trying to think of other candies that would be good.
00:33:56
Speaker
And I know there's been, I think, almost positive there have been some type of candy corn beers. Whether they use candy corn or, I know you're eating a pretzel and you've got an idea and you've got an answer. No, back unsaid that. And I was like, oh my god, no. And I hate candy corn, but is there a way
00:34:14
Speaker
maybe that we make a beer. I mean, that's just like straight up sugar. Yeah. That's just straight up sugar. So what if we try and do a batch of something, but we use candy corn to boost the alcohol? Well, and that's the thing, too. Well, we could. I'm going to do some research. But how much of that sugar would burn off? Well, burn off, but like it'll stay in. Well, not burn off, but like turn into alcohol. That's what I mean.
00:34:42
Speaker
What's the residual flavor we'll be left with? I don't know. Maybe we do a one gallon batch test batch. I'd be down with that. Maybe we end up with a really cool, interesting beer, or we end up with something that sucks. Maybe that's what we got to do is a couple of one gallon test batches of stuff. Make a base beer? Sure. It depends. Yeah. We'll figure out what kind of style we want to do, and then we'll go from there. Well, it's hard to say make a base beer because we'd have to have
00:35:11
Speaker
a bunch of shit set up for... Yeah, we have to figure out what we're gonna do. For the boil. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, well that's something to talk about. And then, you know, once we have that figured out, we'll start brewing that. And in October,
00:35:28
Speaker
we'll be able to bring out the most, some people would say the most hated style or it used to be the most hated style until these New England IPAs came out and all these other beer styles came out. But the old pumpkin ale, pumpkin beer, that'll be coming soon. And I'm sure as shit we are going to talk about pumpkin beers because you know what?
00:35:56
Speaker
I'm a person, and I like, that's it. I should've ended the sentence there. I'm a person, period. I'm a person who actually enjoys pumpkin beers, and it really depends on how well that beer is seasoned. I've had people tell me, you know, a good pumpkin beer, you should, you know, taste pumpkin. What the fuck?
00:36:18
Speaker
Would you want to taste pumpkin in a beer? A pumpkin beer to me is like pumpkin spice. It's the spices that you put in pumpkin pie. It is not tastes like fleshy, flavorful gourd. Why would you want any beer that tastes like that? And maybe I'm wrong because I haven't had one like that. But if anybody can direct me to a beer,
00:36:42
Speaker
that uses real pumpkin, no pumpkin spice, because you want it to taste like pumpkin, and that's what these people have told me, that it's a pumpkin beer where you use actual pumpkin in it, no pumpkin spice whatsoever, but it's a pumpkin beer just like that. No, and I think those folks have never just eaten straight pumpkin.
00:37:00
Speaker
not tasty at all. Do you know when you carve into a jack-o-lantern and you get that smell? Imagine that as the taste of your beer. In your mouth. Gross. For the entire meal. Not fun. So pumpkin beers will definitely be a topic of discussion. We've got a whole lot of stuff we got to cram in as we're getting into the end of the year. Man, so many things are happening. Crummy, crummy.
00:37:26
Speaker
October, I don't even know how many weeks we have in October. Do we have three weeks in October or two weeks for the episodes? Might have started slipping in some- 31 days. Yeah, okay. We might have started slipping in some episodes here and there. I've got some ideas. Well, okay then. All right. I got some pretzels. Really enjoying these pretzels. Dots pretzels. You can check them out at dots pretzels dot com. That's D-O-T-S-P-R-E-T-Z-E-L-S dot com. Dots pretzels. I'm totally gonna email me like,
00:37:57
Speaker
Hey, sponsorship. By the way, we totally name-dropped you on our podcast. I will eat these on every episode if I have to. I will talk about them every episode. They're really good. I'm really happy. Do you listen to the Ron Burgundy podcast? I do. When it's like, Sharmin' Toys. Like every episode. Look, I don't know what I'm talking about. Hi, Ron Burgundy here. Dot's Homestyle Pretzels, Pride of Dakota, North Dakota Originals.
00:38:25
Speaker
That's only a pound of pretzels. I could kill that right now. Yep. All right, you cracked open another Boruski, one that I don't know if I've ever had.
00:38:35
Speaker
I know I've never had. I don't think I have.
Goose Island's Oktoberfest Review
00:38:38
Speaker
This fancy new bottle is telling me I haven't, but it is the Goose Island Oktoberfest. One of our other hopeful future sponsors, Goose Island, we talk about you almost every episode. So it is a German style Marson, which is different from the revolution, which is a German style lager.
00:38:58
Speaker
So yeah, Revolution called their act over fest a German style lager. Goose Island is calling it a German style Marzen. Excellent. I will say the color is almost similar. Yep. Yeah. And it clocks in apparently at 5.7%. So these are all hitting what that article is saying. They're in that mark. Yeah. Ooh, that smells good. That smells bready. Yep.
00:39:29
Speaker
Ooh. That I like. I will say I already like this over the revolution. Yeah. I was not expecting that. No. What did we give revolution? I gave it a five. You gave it a four. I gave it a four. Wow. This is up there with the Germans. I gotta go in for their sip.
00:39:54
Speaker
Way more bready. I would try this at a party. Yeah, it's not bitter in the sense that it is offensive to the palate. I'm just going to assume that Eric had no hand in this. Yeah, you barrel-aged bastard, dude. Yeah, it's really good. It's nice and sweet, but it's way drinkable.
00:40:19
Speaker
Actually, there is a little lingering bitterness in the back that I like. But yeah, it's not bad. It's like a good balanced bitterness. Wow. Try say that 10 times fast. Well, it's a bitterness that you would expect in a beer, like a traditional, well, I don't say traditional, but like beers that we normally drink. Sure. You expect some kind of like back lingering bitterness and this hasn't. And
00:40:46
Speaker
So this one compared to the others though, is not a refreshing beer as much as it is a, it's kind of a filling beer and I'm not knocking it. I'm saying the other beers were, although this is the fifth beer that we're trying, but going through those beers, like some of them were more refreshing than the others. This one is like,
00:41:12
Speaker
There's a little more, it's a little heartier, you know? And I like that. There's more body to the actual beer. There you go, body. Actual beer terms, thanks. Yeah, I feel like if I was sitting around, fire on a cool evening, a cool fall evening, got the hoodie on.
00:41:28
Speaker
Well, no, my pants would still be on. I do wearing shorts, actually. There's a cool breeze. I went to the cooler. I reached for a beer. I would want to grab this. This is awesome. This is really good. I'm going to put this. I don't remember. Well, I know where I put everything else. I'm putting this at seven and a half.
00:41:49
Speaker
Seven and a half, eight. It's up there with the Hacker Shore. And again, it's only based on what we're doing tonight. It's my taste preference. Everyone can disagree with me. Most people will.
00:42:05
Speaker
But I really like it. I'm seven. Let's do a solid seven on that. I'm doing a solid seven on that one. Not seven and a half, not eight. Solid seven. I'm not thinking about a six. Six is good. Six and a half? Sure. I think a solid seven. Solid seven, I'm shooting really high because I really like this right now. It kind of surprised me. So the element of surprise is kind of boosting up my rating. Seven, I feel is fair.
00:42:30
Speaker
No, I'm not disagreeing with that. You're fair in your opinion. I'm thinking about six, just I'm trying, because I'm trying to remember the other ones, but I'm having a hard time not going higher than six. You know, like I should be like, seven, seven, like seven and a half, but seven is my seven is my opinion creeping in there and taking over.
00:42:53
Speaker
I like. We both just said that same time, yeah. And honestly, all of these, every single one of these beers, I would drink
00:43:06
Speaker
not all the time, but I would drink them all over again. I could have every single one of these beers again, ranking them against each other. So far, Hacker Shore seems to be the best. Yeah. And it excites me that these are Oktoberfest beers because I look forward to when they start coming in. Yeah, I do too. I'm sad.
00:43:28
Speaker
Because it means summer's ending. And here in Chicago, as you guys know, it is the end of happiness. Summer ends in, like, July. End of light. The end of my wife's happiness, who is dreading. All the flowers die. But yeah, I do love this time of year when it comes to beer. And of course, around this time, for all the years going on in this podcast, I had mentioned how many times I was trying to
00:43:55
Speaker
not drink beer during the week, that didn't happen. And I've started doing it again. So I'm not drinking beer during the week. How'd I do here? Except for this episode, obviously. So how are you feeling about doing the very last one? I will drink more of it than you if you'd like. No, we can do it. Then pause this motherfucker. And we're back. So last beer of, I'm still somber because we paused.
Sam Adams Oktoberfest Review
00:44:25
Speaker
The very last beer that we're going to drink is a staple in my home around this time of year and it is probably the first real Oktoberfest beer I've ever tried and not when I say a lot of people not when I say real but like a beer that's labeled itself Oktoberfest I'm sure most people have tried it it is Sam Adams Oktoberfest and as I said earlier
00:44:46
Speaker
It is Oktoberfest with a C because they are, they're not in Germany. Yeah, they're not doing it in Germany, so they're respectful and not using the K. They're using a C for it. What's the ABV on this one? 5.3. Does it say anything? Does it just say Oktoberfest? It says Oktoberfest, rich and balanced, traditional margin. Oh, so it's traditional margin. Margin. It's a margin.
00:45:11
Speaker
And looking at it, it's a lot darker than the other ones. Yeah, it's a lot darker than the last two. It looks like a more natural amber-orange-ish as the last two almost look. As you said, for revolutions, it looked dyed, which I doubt they did. They use malts for that to get the coloring. But this is more reminiscent of the Spotten Oktoberfest and the Hacker Shore Oktoberfest.
00:45:38
Speaker
It smells like beer. It actually does smell like a Marson. So I'm going to go in for my sip here. That is different than all the other ones. I'm not getting a lot of the bitterness in the back, I don't think. No, there's almost a fruitiness to it.
00:46:03
Speaker
And I don't want that to be misconstrued as like tart or sweet, even though those are characteristics of fruit, but there is some type of fruitiness and you do get fruitiness from loggers. Um, this, I gotta go for another sip before I get into that thought. This one's,
00:46:30
Speaker
Yeah, there we go. This one's more refreshing than the Goose Island Oktoberfest. Yeah, but it's got that maltiness that I felt like with some of the German beards that we tried. Yeah, the Spotten and the, I wish we had another Fest beer, because that's the only Fest beer that we had was the Hofbrau. But yeah, the Hockershore Oktoberfest and the Spotten Oktoberfest Marzen. This is along those lines.
00:46:59
Speaker
The bitterness is balanced. It's sweet, malty, not syrupy, not coingly sweet. But there is like a fruitiness to it that I just can't put my finger on, but I like it. And this is why it remains one of my favorite beers around this time of year, especially in the Oktoberfest category. And it's easily accessible. So yeah, I bought a 12 pack, I think for like 14 bucks at the jewels at the jewels today. I got to read this one.
00:47:29
Speaker
I gave you silence seven. I'm gonna put this up there With the hacker shore with the eight. That's an eight for me. Okay
00:47:41
Speaker
So the skunkiness, unfortunately, uh, hindered the spottin, but that was just based on the bottle it came in. So I can't, not really knocking it. I know what spottin Octoberfest tastes like. I wish we had some fresh Octoberfest from spottin, but we don't. We live in Chicago. It's hard to get, um, overall.
00:48:00
Speaker
Even with the Revolution Oktoberfest being so low, it's a very specific way of them paying tribute to this style, and it's a good one. Overall, all these beers are good.
00:48:15
Speaker
All six of them, and only one of them was canned. It was Revolution. But yeah, this is a great style. It's an easy drinking style. For people who are looking for those regular run-of-the-mill beers that you drink all the time, this is definitely a style you can go out there and try. And I'm telling you, you will most likely, if not 100%, enjoy it because
00:48:41
Speaker
They're loggers, and loggers is what America was built on. That's a good saying. Loggers built America. True. I mean, because it is. Yeah, this is a solid seven for me, so.
00:48:56
Speaker
No, good. Yeah, I'm with that. So there you go. There you have it.
Joy of Seasonal Beers
00:49:01
Speaker
Oktoberfest beers. It's a great time here to drink these beers. The leaves are changing. Still might be warm outside. You've got the crispness in the air, but these are the type of beers you want to be drinking. Like I said, sitting around a fire or maybe just hanging out with some friends in the kitchen while you're making some sassages. But yeah, it was a good episode.
00:49:23
Speaker
Mainly, I don't know what the quality episode is, but I like the episode because of the beers that we drink specifically. Yeah. Cool. Yeah, no, these are solid. And I feel like most of these...
00:49:36
Speaker
are accessible for most people in the States? Yeah, well because I don't know where the market is, especially for the German beers. Do they go to the small towns? Are they in the bigger markets? I don't know, but if you can find them, go for them. And if you can't, I know Sam Adams is readily accessible. You can definitely find Sam Adams, that's for sure.
00:49:59
Speaker
Goose Island at this time is probably, for most folks, readily accessible. But again, I don't know how far they distribute that beer or so. I'm starting to think that those beers are probably readily available as well, like 312 and Next Coast and some of the other ones are doing. I almost said 312 again. Boy, these Oktoberfest beers are starting to weigh on me.
00:50:23
Speaker
But yeah, if you get an opportunity to try it, if you see a German looking name on a bottle or a case of beer that says Oktoberfest on it, there's a good chance it's going to be pretty damn tasty. Especially if it's in a brown bottle. The green bottle just kind of goofed it for me.
00:50:45
Speaker
But overall, man, good selections. We done good. We done good. Yes, we did. And I was wrong.
Closing Remarks
00:50:52
Speaker
We do have one more episode here in September before we get into October. What that's going to be, we'll find out. You'll find out next time when you hear from us here on the 212 Round Table. This is Tony Golic, signing off. And Brandon winning jerk. Oh, sorry. I'll tell you. This is Tony Golic. And Brandon winning jerk. Signing off.
00:51:18
Speaker
The intro and outro of music was provided by Fluid Minds. You can find them on iTunes, Spotify, and anywhere music is streaming. You can also find their music at fluidmindsmusic.com. The rest of the music was provided by YouTube. I found some fitting music that was royalty free that I thought would be good. Thank you everyone for listening to our podcast. We look forward to bringing you more shows and more surprises. Cheers.