I just love fall, don’t you? One of the best things about fall, and I suppose about any season one could say, is beer. Lots of wonderful seasonal beers abound in fall, none more near and dear to my heart than Oktoberfest beers. Now, you have a choice these days between classic Marzenbiers and modern Helles Festbier, both very Germanic in origin, but my favorite of the two will always be Marzen. It’s the classic Oktoberfest style, or was between about the early 1870s to the mid 1990s anyway. It is still the style most associated with Oktoberfest in America today.

Enter Lost Rhino Rhinofest Marzen, a beer I’ve been wanting to try for some time. Thanks to a beer trade with the one and only beermeister Jefferson Evans, I got to try this beer and a number of others. Jeff and I spent an evening swapping beers local to one but not the other, sipping beer at Taco Mac and from growlers back at my home, and generally enjoying a lot of conversation. He’s a great guy and if you ever have the chance to meet him, you should.

Jeff and I met up the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and he had concerns about the age of the bottle of Rhinofest he brought. All was good though, and when I popped the beer on November 27^th it was quite fresh tasting indeed. There’s no bottling date, but it was probably packaged sometime in August or so, making it roughly four months old, well within a respectable window for this type of beer.

Lost Rhino says about this beer:

A beer designed for the funfair of traditional German culture (which wouldn’t be complete without beer). Our Märzen is an excellent companion to Autumn’s first chill with its full body, malty flavors and a clean, dry finish.

Ingredients from the website:

Malts: 100% German Malt , Vienna, Munich, and Chocolate

Hops:  Hallertau, Czech Saaz, Perle

Lost Rhino Rhinofest Marzen has an alcohol content of 5.5% by volume with 21 IBUs. Total Wine sells this beer for $6.99 for a 22-ounce bomber, a fair price these days. They do not sell it in Georgia, however.

Lost Rhino Rhinofest Marzen pours to a brilliant orange amber color with a medium sized head of creamy foam and a delicious toasty nose with hints of Munich malt. Taking a sip, the beer is bursting with delightful Marzen toasty-nutty notes that coat my tongue and leave it happy, happy, happy. The beer finishes with gentle herbal grassy notes in the finish and a balancing bitterness.

A very well done Marzen indeed.

And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled

(D)=Draft