It's all well and good to be a craft beer enthusiast, but it's good to keep in mind that brewing is an art that dates back far longer than current trends. In America, Prohibition took its toll on most of the breweries that predated it. Still, some managed to survive by selling ice cream and near beer, and re-opened their doors when beer became legal again in 1933.

One of these is the Dundee Brewing Company, or more correctly, it's parent company Genesee Brewing Company of Rochester, New York. Dundee is the craft beer arm of Genesee, which can trace it's history all the way back to 1878. For a time, it was known as the High Falls Brewing Company, but still retained the Genesee brands.

The Dundee beers are a somewhat more recent development, having only been around since the nineties. Still, they're solid brews sold at a very reasonable price. The latest to make it to my table is Dundee Oktoberfest, a German-styled Vienna Marzen lager.

Dundee has the following to say about their Oktoberfest on their website:

"A traditional Marzen-style lager. A unique combination of specialty malts, including Caramel 60, Vienna, Munich, and Chocolate, produces this amber colored brew with a rich, sweet malty finish that makes it a perfect transition from light summer beers to hearty winter brews."

In addition to the aforementioned malts, Dundee Oktoberfest is hopped with Galena and Czech Saaz varieties. It has an original gravity of 1.060 and an alcohol content of 5.5% by volume.

Dundee Oktoberfest pours to a rich copper color with a medium sized creamy head formation and a lightly toasty malt nose. I take a sip, and find a surprisingly good version of an Oktoberfest-Marzen. The beer has definite undertones of toasty, nutty malt prerequisite for the style. There's a bit of caramel too, and all these dominate right into the finish, where a gentle breeze of hop bitterness manages to balance off the sweetness.

I think Dundee Oktoberfest could use just a tad more body and maltiness, but make no mistake: this is a quaffable, flavorful Oktoberfest beer with plenty of flavor for fall imbibing. Delicious with a roasted chicken (perhaps during a Sunday football game) or wursts and sauerkraut. And at $5.99 a six-pack it's a true bargain in these days of ever-rising craft beer prices.



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