Review Date 9/15/2000
Try?
Re-buy?
Yes it is. Oktoberfest beers are traditionally in the Vienna-Maerzen style, a hearty and malty beer that was traditionally aged in cool underground caves over the warm summer months back in the days before artificial refrigeration. Yeasts were not yet fully understood, and wild yeasts present in the air during the warm summer months would play havoc with brewing.
Some brewers in the United States brew solely ales. Ales are easier to make than lagers, for one because they don't need to be conditioned as long, and also because they can be warm-conditioned. lagers are cold-conditioned. Otter Creek is one brewery that sticks to ales. Yet they still can't let a beer opportunity the likes of Oktoberfest pass them by. What to do? Brew an Oktoberfest ale. Otter Creek is at least honest about this, indicating the beer is "our version of the perennial favorite Bavarian Autumn beer."
Otter Creek Oktoberfest is amber-orange in color with a decent head
formation and a tea-like hoppy nose. My sample was bottled on August 22,
2000, so it's about three weeks old. Great fresh beer. The palate is malty,
chewy and nutty-caramelly, but doesn't have the toasty-nutty notes one would
expect from an Oktoberfest beer. Tettnang and Hallertau hops give the beer a
slightly grassy, slightly bitter Germanic bite in the finish. Actually this
beer is more like an alt beer than an oktoberfest, but even at that alt has
a cold conditioning which Otter Creek Oktoberfest does not. The specs on
this beer tell that it is on the light side for a Vienna-Maerzen beer: 1.049
Original Gravity with 4.8% alcohol by volume and a surprisingly low 19 IBUs.
The finish seems to be a bit more bitter than that.
Great on a cool fall day with football and a hearty stew, roasted chicken,
or roast beef.
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
